exactly why i posted a response in the first place. many people are under the assumption that a drum sander, even a little one, will make the drudgery of sanding either less labor intensive and quicker or more accutate or both.Originally Posted by Shiraz Balolia
while drum sanders do offer accuracy as a matter of design most offer very little in the way of speed. if you`re currently sanding cabinet doors with a handheld belt sander and cleaning up with a random orbit sander it`s very likely that you`ll see your sanding time increase when using a drum sander with a 5hp mptor or less. yeah no kidding, it`s slower to sand out doors with a drum sander than by hand.. the doors comming out of the drum sander will be flatter but once you get the hang of sanding with handheld equipment you can do a darn good job.. now if a person is looking for a flat sanding job and doesn`t mind repeated passes through various grits then a drum sander will do an acceptable job just keep in mind that the smaller the motor the slower the stock removal rate. for a person say building guitars as a hobby the ability to thickness without tearout on some prized wood is very important especially considering that the 6 square feet of wood may be all he needs for several weeks.
but if joe hobbiest thinks for a moment that his furniture building or cabinetmaking speed will be enhanced with the purchase of a smaller drum sander he`s in for a rude awakening........
i`ve spent untold thousands trying to increase speed and accuracy economically, in the end most of the money i spent trying to save a few bucks was a waste.
no shiraz, life isn`t void without big machinery, but given the choice of small fustrating machines or putting in the hard work to be able to afford larger effective machines i`d opt for toiling longer to obtain a machine that will actually reduce my labor instead of increaseing it regardless of what the advertisments say...02 tod