Leon wrote:
On 2/14/2016 5:23 AM, dadiOH wrote:
John McCoy wrote:
"dadiOH" wrote in
:

Before you can join an edge, you must have a flat face. I can -
and do - get that with my drum sander.

OK, I'm a little confused here - how is that different from
running a board thru a planer? Seems like it would make it
smooth but not flat.

I don't have a planer, never used one but I suspect it is the same...

Run board through, concave side down to make convex side flat. Turn
over, run through to make concave side flat (and parallel).

Leon mentioned that drum sanders are slower and I imagine so. Still,I
have a couple of hundred feet of mahogany I have been
surfacing as needed and I can take off 1/16 per pass with #40 paper.
Fast enough for me and no tear out





What model drum sander do you have? I have a Performax 22-44 with a
relatively fine grit compared to 40 but wow 1/16" in a pass is pretty
aggressive by my standards. :~) And thinking I should get some 40
grit paper. I use my 15" planer when I need to do a lot but more
often than not the drum sander is adequate for small batches.

Performax 16-32. The 1/16" is depending...how wide, how hard, how even (in
thickness, wind, etc.). Oak, probably not; poplar, sure.

At the moment, I am skinnying down some mahogany so I can see the grain so I
can make a support knee for wife's makeup table (the last thing for the
vanities). One piece is 10 1/2 wide, the others 6 1/2+-. I had 80 grit on
the machine, didn't want to change it so I'm just taking 1/32 per pass.
With 40 grit I am pretty sure I could do 1/16" even though one of the narrow
boards had some wind in it.

The four grits I use are 40, 80, 120 and 180. With 120, I only do 1/48 per
pass, with 180, 1/64. I have no problem skipping grits...40 to 120, eg, or
80 to 180. I get full rolls from Econ-Abrasives.
https://www.econabrasives.com/produc...e=3%22X50Yards