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Difference Between Drum Sander And Thickness Planer


Cam

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A thicknesser is mainly used for machining wood from rough sawn stock easily and can take several millimeters off in one pass depending on what size and quality machine you have.

A drum sander is more for finishing work and gives that final perfectly sanded surface. Again the better drum sanders have 2 or more heads with a range of sanding grits so it removes material fairly quickly if needed but not as much as a thicknesser is capable of. A drum sander also has the advantage of nicely finishing difficult woods such as Sapelle Mahogany that almost alway suffers from tearout no matter which way it is fed thru a thicknesser.

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Performax 16-32

That is one of the drum sanders/thickness sanders I've heard used by several members in this forum and another. And really all the feedback has been really good for that machine, its the one I see most recommended generally.

Planers

Here is a link to some planers to see the difference. Basically what was said already covers the difference. Both tools have their uses as stated. I'd really like a drum sander, I think I'd be better served with a sander vs. planer, though truth be told if I had the cash I'd want both, plus a jointer. After walking the show Wood Works on the DIY network, I've seen what a shop should look like, LOL. By the way those were just random links I found googling. J

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With the planer you can take off a lot of wood especially useful if your using rough lumber. With the thickness sander it comes out sanded and removes very little it would be useful for figured tops, sanding backplates to the thickness of guitar bodies, etc. You can get a decent planer for $230 but the thickness sanders are a lot more expensive and most people like me would barely ever use them although it would be handy to have one.

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One thing to think about is that although a planer can be used without a jointer the two really go together. A planer will plane an exact profile of the bottom surface of the wood. Proper use of a planer call for one flat face (jointer). A drum sander can level your work piece, but at a much, much slower rate. As mentioned before the three would be ideal. If I had to pick one I would go with a drum sander. Here is the order in which I bought some of my shop machines;

1. Table Saw

2. Band Saw

3/4 Jointer and Planer

5. Drill Press

6. Drum Sander

Gil

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Well I was planning on building the drum sander and a few other tools needed like a fret press, sanding station (http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Special_tools_for:_Neck,_fingerboard/Luthiers_Friend_Sanding_Station.html),and a few other small things.

So if i use all spare wood and offcuts to build those tools I may buy a cheap planer although my dad's friends a cabinet maker and he may have a thickness planer, come to think of it we may have one in the shed lol, probably not but the shed is full of stuff, we used to have a massive shed before we moved filled with every tool you could think of, perfect for a luthier but when we moved dad sold a bit of the tools oh well haha...

Anyway I have a the bandsaw (need to replace rubber wheel thingys), table saw, router, dremel, drill press, Do I need anything else besides the planer and drum sander?

What I think you guys are saying is that the drum sander is better?

Drum Sander:

Pros- Can do all types of wood, makes wood smoother than what a thicknesser will do(?), easy to build

Cons- Takes longer to take off wood

Thickness Planer:

Pros- Takes wood off faster

Cons- Can't be used on figured woods, woods not a smooth as can be after going through sander(?) << i suppose i could just sand it with a handheld sander?

EDIT: I just saw this on ebay http://cgi.ebay.com.au/How-To-Build-a-10-T...idZp1638Q2em122

Its plans for a 10" thickness planer. Is 10" big enough? If not i supose i could just make the frame thing bigger?

Edited by Cam
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?

that doesnt make sense.

how many people can get a joiner wide enough for a body?

if you run an unsquare piece of wood thru the planer, all you have to do is flip it over and it will square itself up. no need to square it first.

That's incorrect. If you want a flat surface via planer, you will need to join a face first. And most times bodies are edge joined by at least two pieces.....heck a lot of big name geets are three or more. Just as strong.

Cam, even with a drum sander you will need to exert quite a bit of elbow grease in the way of hand sanding depending on the grit of paper used on your drum.

Planers are invaluable to general woodworking shops. If you only plan on making guitars with your tools then I probably would opt for the drum sander over a planer. Just need to be a little more patient. If you plan on other woodworking ventures aside from luthiery such as cabinetmaking or furniture you should consider a planer first and when able get your drum sander. But, that's just one woodworking schlep's opinion.

Gil

Edited by Berserker
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?

if you run an unsquare piece of wood thru the planer, all you have to do is flip it over and it will square itself up. no need to square it first.

That's incorrect. If you want a flat surface via planer, you will need to join a face first. And most times bodies are edge joined by at least two pieces.....heck a lot of big name geets are three or more. Just as strong.

Sorry dude, but I'm with K on this one. I've done it many times, and it works great.

From a rough piece of lumber:

1) Plane face A until all of the rough surface is gone. I usually do it in 1/64" incriments. It will NOT be perfectly level because B is not level yet.

2) Plane face B the same way. B will now be ALMOST paralell with A.

3) Re-do A with a pass or two to make it level.

4) Re-do B.

Now you're totally level.

But that only takes care of the wide surfaces. We're dealing with 4" - 14" wide pieces that are usually 2"+ thick. That's why you need a jointer. Before I had one, I was trying desperately to true up the "thin" sides with a table saw, but it just didn't work.

Bottom line, if you're gluing pieces together to make the final width, you need a jointer.

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It is possible to get a surface squared with a drum sander or planer, but there is a trick to doing it(you guys with sanders and planers know this). First trick is the ability to shim and hold the entire board or as much as possible(in the case of very long boards) in one position while you send it through to level the first surface. If you have a twisted board it will tilt as it passes through, if that is slight you can often put a little pressure on the board and manually hold it in place(although that is for VERY slight twists). If the board is cupped or warped, you need to be able to reference the four corners. If the infeed and outfeed are not long enough and true to the cutter or sander you will get a rising and falling cut as it runs across the infeed and outfeed. On a planer or sander it is possible to make a table or jig to level and carry the board(one plus is that we usually use small board for guitars, so these things can be made without too much trouble, long boards require much larger set ups). I would add that the smaller the machine the harder it generally is to make these work, and the feed system is important.

With regards to blades vs sanding. Regular plane blades(same hold true with jointers) are tuff to use on highly figured woods, and must be sharpened and set extreamly well. There is an alternative with the cutter heads that cut smoother, will do better with figured woods, but cost more money. There is a limit to how thin you can safely go with a planer, and that will make it tuff to do very thin work. Accuracy of a planers is very good, but does not allow as close a level of control as with a sander(lets think binding and or acoustic plates). A planer will be able to produce a good surface, but you will have to slow down and make very fine passes. A drum sander can take a surface down with 220 grit(which will be smoother than hand sanding with 220, much the same as with other mechanical sanders). To be honest, I rarely use fine grit paper, because 80 will produce a surface that is very close and easy to finish sand, 120 is extreamly smooth. When hogging off ruff surfaces a planer is faster, but you can use 36 grit on a drum and remove material pretty fast. If you have a lot of material to remove on oily woods the planer will show its advantage, as sandpaper tends to clog if you get too agressive. Forget about leveling fine details or inlay with a planer(WAY too risky). Remeber that if this is dedicated to instrument work, I think most will agree the sander is the more useful tool. If you do other woodworking the planer will offer advantages and efficiency that the sander will not(with the small volume of ruff material we need to surface for instruments I don't see the need for more speed, If I was making cabnets that would be a different situation.

For me, I actually like using my bandsaw to square boards(with the use of a locking slider table). If you have a good quality well tuned bandsaw you can get your boards(again I am speaking to instrument billets) very very close and a minimal amount of surfacing is required, plus you get a lot of nice veneer. I use a jointer for neck stock and side blanks. I may pick up a 12"+ planer, and I would use it over the bansaw in probably most simply ruff situations(although the bandsaw would still get a lot of the large form work). I have run a Performax 16/32 for years, and it is an invaluable tool to me. I have a small planer that mostely collects dust, although it has its place. I would say that you should not look at an open ended drum sander like the 16/32 as only something to smooth a body blank or drop top. It's uses with jigging offer a lot of options, with outstanding control(measure in a couple thousandths) and reliability. I did build a sander before buying the Performax, and will say that the conveyor makes a world of difference. The control and accuracy of the Performax is very hard to match and more importantly maintain. If you build 6-12 guitars per. year. I see the speed of a drumsander for initial hogging away material a small, although more time consuming task. The additional use and control will far surpass that issue.

Price is a big consideration. Small planers can be had for much less than a small drum sander. That planer at that level will not have the control or reliability of the next step up in planers, which will be comperable to the cost of a drum sander, yet still not have the features of the drum sander. You will have to sink several times that much into a wide enough jointer to be able to get the leveling job done efficiently. It all comes down to budget really, if a drum sander would take a little saving and then become an option, I would consider it over a planer. If that is not in the cards and or you have a need for other plaining(cabnets, furnature, etc...) consider your planer options(again the next step up may serve you much better if it is an option). Think about these tools as 10-20+ year companions in your shop.

Rich

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?

if you run an unsquare piece of wood thru the planer, all you have to do is flip it over and it will square itself up. no need to square it first.

That's incorrect. If you want a flat surface via planer, you will need to join a face first. And most times bodies are edge joined by at least two pieces.....heck a lot of big name geets are three or more. Just as strong.

Sorry dude, but I'm with K on this one. I've done it many times, and it works great.

From a rough piece of lumber:

1) Plane face A until all of the rough surface is gone. I usually do it in 1/64" incriments. It will NOT be perfectly level because B is not level yet.

2) Plane face B the same way. B will now be ALMOST paralell with A.

3) Re-do A with a pass or two to make it level.

4) Re-do B.

Now you're totally level.

But that only takes care of the wide surfaces. We're dealing with 4" - 14" wide pieces that are usually 2"+ thick. That's why you need a jointer. Before I had one, I was trying desperately to true up the "thin" sides with a table saw, but it just didn't work.

Bottom line, if you're gluing pieces together to make the final width, you need a jointer.

Dude, His dudeness, duderino...I like that.

Anyway, unless you do special preparations such as Fryovanni mentions with his shimming and straight edge technique you're fooling yourself if you think that your are getting it flat by merely flipping the stock. But, hey there are more than one way to skin a cat. We'll just agree to disagree. I'll keep doing it my way.

Gil

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But, hey there are more than one way to skin a cat. We'll just agree to disagree.

Fair enough. :D

FWIW: After I get the blank all glued up and the body cut out (but not routed with the template), I run it through the planer again. My edge joints almost always end up just a shade off kilter. They got a LOT better since I got a jointer, though.

Again, whatever works for the one doing it.

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?

that doesnt make sense.

how many people can get a joiner wide enough for a body?

if you run an unsquare piece of wood thru the planer, all you have to do is flip it over and it will square itself up. no need to square it first.

Not really, if you run an unsquare piece of wood through a planer it will make the freshly planed face unsquare that's why you need to face joint it so you have one straight face that will make the other face square when you run it through the planer. This an be avoided using woods like mahogany that are very unlikely to be unsquare and buying wood that is already square. I mean if your doing a one piece body you need like a 14 inch jointer I'm lucky and have access to a 16 inch one.

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I've gotta agree with joining the wood before planing. When I was building organs I would've gotten fired immediatly if I didn't bother running the wood through the jointer. Our process there was joining, planing, drum sanding, palm sanding, final hand sanding. Then between each coat of sanding sealer we'd hand sand again. Did a lot of freaking sanding.

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In my limited experience, a warped board sent through a planer will come out the other end a uniform thickness, but still warped. Since I don't have a jointer and I need a lot more practice with hand planes, my solution was to hold one edge flat against my tablesaw table, and glue a strip of hardwood onto the other edge so that it fed through the planer properly. I don't know if it's a good solution or if there's any reason I shouldn't have done it, but it worked for me, so I figured I'd throw it out there.

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