Richard I think you are correct. This may be one that you just don't sand very fine with the drum sander and that is fine. Certainly this is a learning experience for me but I am not un-happy with the performance of what it was able to do.

I was trying to run the conveyor at the fastest speed and I was trying to just let the drum barely touch the board. If this had not been an order and something I could have played around with, I would have done more experimenting. I just didn't want to start over on these.

I have some other stuff coming up that I can give it a better test on, but for now, I will not try to take the Purple heart to a finer grit.

Thanks for the input.

Richard McComas said:

There may be some woods that just don't sand well by machine, at least the sanders that hobbyist can afford. When I was having trouble sanding the Blood Wood with my Bridgewood Wide Belt I went over to the woodweb and asked about wide belt sanding Blood Wood. In a nutshell they said you need to speed up the feed rate and take small cuts. The idea was the get the wood threw the sander with as little heat build up as possible. Not much I could do because my sander is single speed.

It was a great at getting the boards flat and level with the 80 grit. That was one of the main things I was wanting it to do on the cutting boards. When I ran it through with the 120, I was just going to try to remove the lines you were talking about. That was when it really started to burn to Purple Heart. Even taking small adjustments and running the conveyor at the fastest speed.

I knew I was still going to use the ROS on them up to 220 grit. But hey I will just change my plans and knock the lines out with the belt sander, it seemed to be quicker and then run the ROS on them at 220 and they are slick.

Hey I am liking it just trying to learn all of the ends and outs.

I appreciate you guys who have used them helping me out.

The American Woodworker said:

John, I had a hard time with the finer grits too. Richards advice sounds good, give that a try, I know I will when I use it again. I have come to accept my 16-32 as a great leveler. Your cutting boards are a perfect job for the drum sander. But no matter what you do and no matter how fine you can run it through, your always going to need to hit it with the ROS after wards, or any other type of palm sander. The drum will leave lines on the work no matter what grit you use. I know you weren't asking about lines, but I'd thought I'd just throw that in too.

John Moody said:

Sorry for reserecting an old post but I'm contemplating the purchase of the Jet 16-32 drum sander and I'm curious John did you ever develop a technique for sanding dense wood without burning using the drum sander? Have they improved the cooling capabilities of the drum? The main reason I ask is that I'm going to start building end grain cutting boards and segmented turning projects. Any imput from those with experience would be most appreciated as this is a large investment and I dont want to spend money without researching the pros and cons of the tool first. Thanks!

I can't tell you that you will not still burn them, but what I have learned is to make small adjustment. Don't crank it down like it is a planer. I make multiple passes before I adjust the drum down. Usually this will remove any burn that I might get, but adjusting the feed rate and amount removed will stop a lot of it. Just like running cherry through the table saw or running a router around the edges, you have to adjust speed and the amount you take off.

 

The higher grits seem to me to be worse at burning and you have to be more careful with them. I do my end grain cutting boards with 80 grit to get them flat. I usually switch to a hand belt sander with 120 to remove the sanding marks from the drum sander. Doesn't take but a few minutes and it is slick. Then I go up the grits with the ROS.

 

For panels I will sand them to 120 grit on the drum sander just watching feed rate and amount of material removed. Don't be too aggressive.

 

 

John Michael Dillen said:

Sorry for reserecting an old post but I'm contemplating the purchase of the Jet 16-32 drum sander and I'm curious John did you ever develop a technique for sanding dense wood without burning using the drum sander? Have they improved the cooling capabilities of the drum? The main reason I ask is that I'm going to start building end grain cutting boards and segmented turning projects. Any imput from those with experience would be most appreciated as this is a large investment and I dont want to spend money without researching the pros and cons of the tool first. Thanks!

John, the drum sanders and small wide belts like my 16'' open end machine are not going to do all you sanding for you. They are a great addition to any shop in my opinion and well worth having. They are great for flatting/leveling and even thickening of highly figured woods to a certain extent. They are not going to do 100 percent of you sanding. when you're finished with machine sanding you'll still need an ROS and some hand sanding with the grain.

 

Now if you want to talk a 50,000 German made sander, that a different story.

John Michael Dillen said:

Sorry for reserecting an old post but I'm contemplating the purchase of the Jet 16-32 drum sander and I'm curious John did you ever develop a technique for sanding dense wood without burning using the drum sander? Have they improved the cooling capabilities of the drum? The main reason I ask is that I'm going to start building end grain cutting boards and segmented turning projects. Any imput from those with experience would be most appreciated as this is a large investment and I dont want to spend money without researching the pros and cons of the tool first. Thanks!

Enjoy John good find

Thanks Jim, I am very happy with it and it was a real good find.

 

Lewis, thanks for that link. I will give them a try. Always looking for a good recommendation for saving a little money.

Sorry for being late to the party...Also, you need good dust collection for a drum sander. If you don't dust will build up on the drum and can cause burning. Light easy passes is the trick, usually my conveyor is run on the slowest speed.

 

Don't forget, you can wash your drum sander paper to remove pitch and burns.  I like to use that orange cleaner from the box store. I spray my drum sander paper with the cleaner in a sink, let it soak and use a hard plastic bristle brush (for washing dishes) to scrub the paper and run under warm water...then hang to let dry. Your paper will turn out good as new. You may have to pick at just a few spots with a finger nail...but no big deal.

 

Once you get the sander figured out...you will love it. Probably a good Idea is to go through the sander and re adjust to make sure the bed and drum are in good alignment and a new conveyor belt (basically a belt sander paper) wouldn't be bad either.

 

Oh one last thing...see that little motor that powers the conveyor...BE VARY CAREFUL. moving the sander around the shop that doesn't come in contact with a wall or another machine...those little buggers are very expensive to buy after-market....don't ask me how I know that...I spent hours trying to straightening the motors shaft once. 

 

Nice score!!!!!

Mike thanks for the tip on washing the paper. That is something I will have to try. I am really loving the drum sander and it didn't take me long to learn to take small bites and travel slow.

 

I do have it connected to my dust collection system. When I got it the drum was full of dust. I cleaned all of that out before I ever cranked it up.

 

Also thanks for the tip about the conveyor motor. Right now I have it almost in the middle of the floor so I have room on both ends to run panels.

 

It has been a great work horse for me. It has made sanding cutting boards a lot faster and doing panels works really great.