For those of you who use a drum sander you know that sometimes you'll get snipe just like on a planer. The quick trick to eliminating that is just like with a planer - use a sacrificial board in front of and behind the work piece.

Now, that's all fine and dandy if you have straight edges on your work piece but if it's oddly shaped or round, then what do you do? Well, what I do is save the cut-offs from the work piece. They're the same thickness and should fit pretty closely to run in front of and behind the target work piece.

A few weeks ago I cut a large Lazy Susan and didn't allow enough on my scrap pieces to use them on the drum sander. What I ended up with was a very beautiful Walnut Lazy Susan but at the correct angle, and if you knew what to look for, you could see some very faint snipe. I didn't take a photo but I could see it.

So when I made this even thicker Walnut cutting board I was determined to not fall into that trap again. My cut-offs were large enough to go in front of and behind the cutting board and what I ended up with is a perfectly flat 18" round surface. I cut the scrap pieces down to where they fit just inside the width of our 19/38 drum sander and made sure to feed them in before and after the cutting board on each pass of each grit from 120/150/220.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've also done this with angled pieces where the leading edge is angled relative to the grain direction and it truly makes a difference.

David

Edited April 22, 20196 yr by difalkner

Good idea ,David, I sure like the end grain pattern in that board. I use a sled a lot to prevent snipe on the drum sander. But I will remember your tip.

Herb

 

Great tip David.  And that cutting board is gorgeous!

Thanks for the tip David. I also have a SM19-38 and need to make a slight adjustment but had also noticed a slight snipe. This makes a good deal of sense. I hate the idea of sacrificial wood but if it prevents the snipe I'm all in. How much do you suggest leading and trailing? On my planner it seems it can be 3-4" maybe slightly more. Thanks again for the process. 

I keep 3 or 4 pieces of different thickness on the drum sander stand and most of the time grab the one closest to what I'm sanding.  They are all different shapes of cut off pieces but most are probably 5 to 6 inches.  And I often feed those boards cross grain because I want to span the width of the piece I'm sanding, or at least come close, and it doesn't matter if these sacrificial pieces have cross grain scratches.

 

David

Cool! Thanks!!!

You might try running the glued up board through the drum sander with it positioned as a diamond instead of the usual flat edge first...this will give you more flat area to take care of the snipe...but only if your drum sander is wide enough. You are making the area good and flat before you cut your circle...??

Yes sir, plenty flat before cutting the circle.  And I thought about doing what you said but this way works just fine and is just about at the capacity of a single pass through the sander.  It will take 19" in one pass and the sacrificial boards were a bit over 18", so I couldn't turn them much at all and still have the drum sand the entire sacrificial piece.

 

David

Great tip David, I sold my Performax a few months back, downsizing, but I do remember a tad snipe coming off the sander, and I was surprised the first time it had appeared. Finally I got wise and followed the same procedures for planing.

Great images too David!