Underpowered drum sanders?
#17
Thanks all; I'm trying some zirconia 120 and have learned to take very light passes. Still seems to be alot of sanding or scraping to get those lines out!
Now where is that chisel
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#18
When space became a premium in my shop I had to let my drum sander go. A very expensive machine with more hope than reality provided. As space expanded I never did replace it nor do I plan to. I just don’t think they perform as I had expected. Things would be going well with the lightest of contact yet while sanding long stock I believe the drum would heat and expand enough to foul up the whole job. So much wasted time and money.
Any free advice given is worth double price paid.
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#19
120 is the grit I use most, and I never go above 150. Drum sanders just aren't going to be a finishing machine...I think of mine as a precision planer, allowing me to get very light cuts that my planer can't do. Yes, it's work to remove the scratches.
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
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#20
Me, i am quite pleased with the way the drum sander functions.  It is much  help removing snipe, and flattening.  All of the family (just about) have end grain cutting boards made by me.  They really really like them.  There is no way i would have made more than one without the drum sander.

Seems like the drum sander is used on every single project.  Finish sanding is done with ros, and it seems like the ros does all  the work.

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#21
(05-27-2019, 09:48 PM)Smashedfinger Wrote: Thanks all; I'm trying some zirconia 120 and have learned to take very light passes. Still seems to be alot of sanding or scraping to get those lines out!

I've been using zirconia/alumina sanding media on mine and it seems to leave deeper scratches than the alumina media I had on before.  I'm going back to plain alumina when  I use up what I have.  Also, I used to use 120 grit, too, but found it was too easy to burn the wood, and ruin the media, if I tried to sand just a little too aggressively.  I now use 100 or 80 all the time.  Less risk of burning and the scratches are surprisingly no harder to remove.  One more thing.  When I'm done with the drum sander and move to the ROS, I start out with at least one grit coarser than what was on the drum sander.  I never thought I'd use 60 grit on my ROS, but it gets rid of the scratches from the drum sander very quickly while keeping the surface flat.  After the linear scratches are gone, progressing up to 150 grit goes very smoothly.  

John
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#22
I have been told that wood coming off the planer is roughly equivalent to 100 grit.. I do not know if that is accurate or not, but after hearing that, I no longer use 80 grit on mine.. too course, the finish did seem worse than off the planer.. Although I guess if you have a lot to take off, 80 grit is ok.

I have a double drum, I put 120 and 150 grit on it now.
Take very light passes.. Deep scratches or burning probably means too deep of a cut.. I do maybe an 1/8 or 1/16 of a turn of the knob and periodically run the wood through without changing the height.. if you run the wood through twice on the same height and can hear the paper sanding it pretty hard, you are obviously being too aggressive with making it thinner.. run it through a few times until the drum is no longer strained.. I have a Supermax 37, 220 Volt with a monster motor and I still have to be cautious about depth of pass.
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