Drum sander vs wide belt sander

[Andrew Neubauer]

Hello folks. New to the site and thanks for welcoming me in. I build wood doors and am wanting to cut down on my random orbital sanding time. I work with mahogany and cedars and am looking for advise on what machine would be better for what I want to do. I want to run each stile and rail through a machine prior to assemble. Love to hear some opinions. Thanks in advance. Andrew Neubauer -Neubauer Carriage Doors

[Jim Becker]

The primary reason for using a drum or wide-belt is for leveling everything to be identical, whether it's a component or an assembled door post assembly. Neither really eliminates much of the need for a ROS because these sanders still leave a visible scratch pattern, although they are effective in helping to remove machining marks. That said, they will be very good for you to get your material consistent and ready for assembly. A wide belt may have better application long term, especially if it's wide enough to run assembled components through to truly level them prior to finish sanding.

[John Sincerbeaux]

I have owned both. For your application. Go with the best Widebelt you can afford.

[Rick Alexander]

I've got a dual drum that I do what you are talking about doing (post assembly however). Works great but a belt sander would be better. Of course my dual sander cost me $600 (used) and a wide belt is going to run you significantly north of that. I'm only a part time cabinet maker however.

[Robert Engel]

My thinking is the wider the sander the more rails and stiles you can send through at once, plus it will be a more heavy duty machine if you're running heavy material that's a factor. But you have to weight the cost vs. time saving compared to a drum sander.

So I would be looking at a smaller wide belt vs. a larger drum sander. I would also factor dust collection efficiency since you're working with cedar.

[Elliot Faust]

I just bought a Supermax 19-38 specifically for the purpose of running cabinet doors through. So far, I'm impressed and it's cut my sanding time down somewhat. The end results are much better with it than without. The real time savings come when you have to do a large number of doors. I run through at 120, then 150. Then sand over everything with 120, then 150 with the ROS. The overall time on the ROS is cut in half which is where the time savings comes from. It's also easier on the body.

[Martin Wasner]

I want to run each stile and rail through a machine prior to assemble.

Why? I can't think of a harder way to do it.

Love to hear some opinions.

Widebelt.

Drum sanders are painfully slow. The abrasives are short lived and a hassle to change.

Anything wider than 37", don't go less than 20hp per head. I had a 37" single head when I started out, extremely underpowered.

Dual head is okay.
Triple head is good.
Four head is the way to go.

Get a machine with the longer belts. 75" is okay, but the 105" last way longer and don't cost much more.

Belt speed is important for scratch. I can't remember for sure, but I think you want to be around 5500 fpm on a combo head.

You never said what your budget and power availability is.

[David Kumm]

WB is the way to go. I've had both as a hobby guy and they both work but if time means anything, get a WB wide enough and heavy enough to sand the whole door after assembled. I agree that more heads is best but if you have power limits, I'd rather have a single head 43" than a double head drum sander. The least power for two heads is a single 30 hp motor like SCM uses on some of their machines. If you have the amps, a separate motor for each head is better. If you can't handle more than 10 hp, a narrow WB will do the separate pieces but not save much time. A good planer and careful shaping make ROS pretty easy. It only gets hard when you aren't careful when setting up the rails and stiles and one ends up proud or when you clamp a door and let the sides cant a little and then try to sand the door level. Even a WB will need touch up ROS to finish it up but careful prep really helps.

I bought a double head WB and then found that a shop down the road will run my big doors through their three head for a low enough price that I seldom fire up mine. Could be an option. Dave

[Jeff Duncan]

Your in business presumably to make money.....so the answer is wide belt..... next question

As far as running stock through prior to assembly.... can't imagine why? The idea is to glue up doors and then sand them. Unless your talking about running the stiles on edge? In which case you may want to think about upgrading your shaper as well

good luck,
JeffD

[Andrew Neubauer]

Thanks everyone for their comments. Very helpful

[johnny means]

I like to sand my stock to thickness before ripping a d cutting to length. This avoids snipe and extra work.

[Dave Cav]

I had a Woodmaster drum sander and hated it. Slow, slow, slow, and a pain to change grits. And slow. I sold it and got a Safety Speed Cut 36" widebelt. It's on the light end of widebelt sanders, but it's very affordable (that being a relative term) compared to the bigger models and works fine for my one man shop. The biggest job I have done with it was a group of 18 interior doors. It's a little light for full size doors but it worked fine with a little planning.