December 30, 201213 yr I am in the market for a new tool and these are what I am looking towards. Any input from you pros as to what I should do. I want to eventually start doing boxes and other assorted stuff.
December 30, 201213 yr The two machines have different uses. A planer is used to remove a lot of material and reduce thickness. A sander is just that, a sander. They are NOT interchangeable. If you need to change the thickness of a piece of lumber you go the planer. If you want to smooth the surface that is where sanding comes in.My job is to give my kids things to discuss with their therapist
December 30, 201213 yr Philip, I have the Performax 16/32 Drum Sander that is now a Jet, as Jet purchased the machine a few years back. But they are identical, in color, in design, it is the exact same machine but with a different name. It's a good machine, it sands surfaces as it should, the crank or depth adjustment is fine so you can take off millimeters at a time. It's called a 16/32 because you can surface a 32" wide board by feeding it through, then rotating it 180 degrees. the drum is 16" long, but the open side allows you to do a 32" board in two passes. that is a big feature with this machine. You will still have to palm sand your work, as the drum action does leave streaks, it does a great job at fine surfacing and making a flat surface even flatter, but you will palm sand after wards to get rid of the streaks. It does not hog off material as a planer does. As a matter of fact in my opinion it bogs down too easily. I feel the HP is underrated, there is a sweet spot you cannot pass where it just will not perform as it should, and when it goes beyond the sweet spot, the motor stops and the breaker on the motor kicks in and trips the power, not the home power, it just stops the motor. That being said, once you learn the machine, it does as it is intended. And I have had mine for about 8 years and have loved it. It really comes through in a pinch with small parts or thin strips. If you are uneasy about ripping thin strip on the table saw, you can rip them to a level of comfort and then put them on the drum sander and sand till you get them where you want them. Surface planers, I have the Dewalt Two Speed Planer that I absolutely love. It's a great machine in the bench top category. I have no complaints, it has excellent and accurate depth of cut stops. You set it to plane to 1/2" thickness, and you break out your calipers and measure that board, your within thousandths of an inch. It is powerful, compact, and the snipe is virtually non existent with its four post carriage assembly that holds the upper half of the machine parallel with the table surface to eliminate snipe. It has a three knife cutter head that is really nice, and it produces very smooth cuts. I have had my machine for about 5 years and it was just last year I changed out the cutter head to a spiral head that is just crazy quiet and smooth. The reason I changed it out is because I damaged the factory head by over tightening the screws when I replace the blades a time back, when it came time to replace the blades again, I was out of luck, they were not coming out because of what I had done. So I had to replace the head anyway, and while I was at it, I went with the spiral cutter. But we cannot lay that one on Dewalt, that was my fault. So there ya have it Philip, that is my experiences with my machines. I hope that helps. By the way the Dewalt at the link I provided is a great deal as it comes with the tables and extra blades, typically these machines sell for that price without the tables and extras blades. Now with all that being said, you cannot do both jobs with either of the machines. The sander is only a sander, it does not hog off material or surface plane. And the Planer is not a sander, but it can come near to a perfect surface with sharp knives, and out of the box, the Dewalt will give you a glassy smooth surface. If I were in your position, where you're wondering if you should get either or, I would start off with the surface planer not the sander. I went years without my drum sander before I broke down and got one for a specific job I was doing that required assembly line style sanding. I'll be honest, I rarely use my drum sander, it sits in the corner collecting dust, I'll break it out about half a dozen times a year but when I do need it, it is sweet. I use my planer hundreds of times if not thousands of times every year, it is the go to machine for much of your work and if your making small boxes, I see a ton of surfacing and thicknessing in your future. My advice, get the planer. Full Disclosure: the links I have provided will direct you to our sponsor Woodcraft, any purchases made through Woodcraft via our links on our site net The Patriot Woodworker Community a 10 percent commission of which is used to keep our site live and kicking, and to help our causes Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project. John MorrisThe Patriot WoodworkerProud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project
December 30, 201213 yr Ditto what John said.I have had the Jet 16/32 sander for about 4-5 years and it works great. I have had the Ridgid 2 blade 13" planer for 10 years now and it it still is going strong. Both get used regularly. If you have to limit yourself to 1 machine I personally would go with the planer first as every project that uses non-ply lumber gets run through the planer to even it out.Allen WorshamCorona, CAallenworsham@earthlink.net'Graze in every man's field, but always give your own milk' J. Vernon McGee
December 30, 201213 yr I don't own a planner but I do own a drum sander and I do use it from time to time to reduce thickness. The planner is more efficient at reducing the thickness but a drum sander can reduce the thickness of a board but takes a bit longer. With coarse paper you can remove quite a bit of material. I buy wood that is thicker than the required thickness for a project and cut out the pieces needed, then I re-saw the wood to just over the required thickness and then run through the drum sander to obtain the final thickness. In my shop, space is at a premium so I opted for the sander and have never regretted not having a planner.There are some sanders that perform better than the others. I have a Jet 16/32 and it performs very well. The bed is fixed and the thickness is adjusted by raising the drum where others have a fixed drum and the bed is adjusted through a chain & sprockets arrangement. I know a few people that have the DELTA DS and they have mixed results and a couple have sold them and gone with the JET. Once the bed is adjusted on my JET I haven't had any issues with inconsistent thicknesses and I check mine often. A few things to remember if you go with the Drum Sander is remove glue squeeze out before running through the sander for panels or cutting boards. Clean your belts after use. Don't try to take off too much stock at one time. Listen to the machine and it will tell you when your being too aggressive. For thicknessing use coarse paper and you'll be surprised at how quickly it can remove stock.  Good luck in your search.www.thepatriotwoodworker.com Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops
December 30, 201213 yr Author Thanks for all of the input. My local store has 16/32 jet on sale. Is there a code I can use in store to get credit for the site?
December 30, 201213 yr Philip, no there is not and that is perfectly fine sir! You have to go with the best deal, it's your hard earned money. The individual franchises are separate from Woodcraft Online so there is no possible way. I always encourage folks to support your local business, especially your local small business and the Woodcraft store front owners are small business, and they appreciate your patronage so much. And the money stays in your region, that is American.Please let us know how you did and take some pics of your shop and the machine, we'd love to see ya all set up!Good luck Philip and congrats!!!Philip Moose Morris said:Thanks for all of the input. My local store has 16/32 jet on sale. Is there a code I can use in store to get credit for the site?John MorrisThe Patriot WoodworkerProud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project
December 30, 201213 yr If you are doing massive amounts of wood go for the drum sander. If you are doing a few boxes and other stuff go for the planer and a palm sander.Milling your own lumber is where the drum sander comes in where you have a ton of board feet to smooth out (as in cabinet face frames, doors and such, whole kitchen cabinet sets and such) and even then you still need a planer and a palm sander.
December 30, 201213 yr I would ditto what John said also I have both and to remove a lot of material I go to my planet. I usually run one side across my jointer, then the planer to get the board straight and flat. I have a carbide head in my planer and it cameos smother than the drum sander gets it. John MoodySite AdministratorJohn Moody Woodworkshttp://www.johnmoodywoodworks.com
December 30, 201213 yr In my opinion you will sooner or later want both a planer and sander. I believe if you can't buy both at the same time get the planer first. Somewhere in Kenya.... a village is missing its idiot! Alaskans for Gobble Warming
December 31, 201213 yr Author I could not afford both and I went and picked up the drum sander this afternoon. I will eventually get a planer I am sure. Maybe next Christmas season when I sell all the stuff I made with the drum sander. Now I need some good plans for making cool stuff using a drum sander.Thank for all the info.Phil
December 31, 201213 yr Well alright Philip! Congratulations! Lets see your shop now! Can't wait to see what you start building Philip. Thank you for allowing us to chime in and help you along in this very important decision.Philip Moose Morris said:I could not afford both and I went and picked up the drum sander this afternoon. I will eventually get a planer I am sure. Maybe next Christmas season when I sell all the stuff I made with the drum sander. Now I need some good plans for making cool stuff using a drum sander.Thank for all the info.PhilJohn MorrisThe Patriot WoodworkerProud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops and Wounded Warriors Project
December 31, 201213 yr Congratulations Philip. Post us a few pictures of your new addition to the shop. We would all like to meet him/her.John MoodySite AdministratorJohn Moody Woodworkshttp://www.johnmoodywoodworks.com
January 4, 201313 yr Drum sanders are lovely machines.There are innumerable plans and examples of the interwebs of Shop Built drum sanders ranging from the kind where the drum sticks out from an enclosure and you hand shove the work across, to full scale web-belt fed models.  I have been nursing a plan to build one that is a little wider than 48" But I dunno where I'd park it.However, I think you can get along just fine without one. Planers are more useful and you will use it more often, unless of course you are into buying your wood already finished to dimension.  I work mostly un-dimensioned wood that I harvest myself or purchase in large cants from local mills. Without a planer I'd be forced to become an expert at hand planes.Â
January 5, 201313 yr You'll be happy with your drum sander. You can re-saw your stock to a little over desired thickness and run your stock through the drum sander for final dimension and depending on how thick your stock is over the final thickness you'll have some thin stock for other projects. Otherwise you're just wasting usable stock to the dust collector. www.thepatriotwoodworker.com Proud Supporter of Homes For Our Troops
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