Official Luthiers Forum!

Since the topic of planers came up I thought I would kick out a few questions. I have a Woodmaster 718 planer. It has been good as a planer and I always liked the fact that their is a sanding drum that can be used rather than the planer head. I have used the planer a bunch and had good results but still am a little unsatisfied with the sander (besides the fact that it is a pain in the butt to change out). I am curious if anyone else is using the Woodmaster Planer with the sander drum and how it is working for thickness sanding top/backs/sides. Or if people are using the Woodmaster Drum sanders do they use the same type of Woodmaster velcro backed sandpaper attachment system. If so is there any tricks to thickness sanding (ie how much to take off, how to keep the paper clean, how to avoid glue line build up on the paper, etc.)

Thanks!

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Brad
Avon, OH

If you are using another type of thickness sander (besides woodmaster) and have tricks how to keep the paper clean from glue lines or things like that I would like hear what tips you can offer.

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Brad
Avon, OH

I can't comment on the Woodmaster, but I have a Performax sander and
could offer a couple suggestions about keeping paper clean. It seems
that the drum sanders that don't oscilate (like mine) are fine for
thicknessing material, but really aren't very good at leaving a smooth
surface.
I use 60 grit to clean up after re-sawing, 60 grit seem to never load up.
I use 80 grit to get B & S and tops close to final thickness, then I use a
scraper or random orbital sander to clean-up the 80 grit scratches.
Anything finer than 80 loads up very quick especialy on anything with
glue lines or on wood with a lot of resin.
Also have you tried the big erasures they sell for cleaning sandpaper
belts?
long

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"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus of Ephesus

Bob...I purchased the unit for the planer function. I liked the 18" wide capacity and variable speed feed both which work well for planning wide boards. As for the drum sander, I used the drum sander a few times and the paper seemed to load up. So far I have sanded mahogany, ceder, and a few pieces of maple. The biggest issues is glue lines. I have not tried the big erasures. Maybe someone else has feedback if they work.

How does the Performax paper fasten to the drum?

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Brad
Avon, OH

Brad, The Performax uses 3" paper or cloth rolls that wrap around the
drum and are held on with spring-loaded clips on each end of the drum.
I think the wood heating up might be part of the problem with glue lines.
Faster table speed and taking less of a cut on each pass may help keep
the temp. down.

long

_________________
"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus of Ephesus

Brad,
I have a 26" Woodmaster drum sander. It is exclusively a drum sander
and not a planer combo.

I have my sander connected to a 3hp Grizzly cyclone. When using 80 grit,
I can take a good 1/32" to 1/16" off most woods without the paper
loading. I can also pretty much thickness with 150 grit if I am too lazy to
switch out the sandpaper and still not have any problems. With my setup,
I can easily thickness the top/back/sides in under a couple minutes. Of
course, I go much slower (especially on the soundboard) to achieve the
right thickness.

The Woodmaster is a great machine that does what it promises but you
absolutely need to have good dust collection.

--
SimonSimonF39048.9922453704

[QUOTE=Bob Long] I can't comment on the Woodmaster, but I have a Performax sander and
could offer a couple suggestions about keeping paper clean. It seems
that the drum sanders that don't oscilate (like mine) are fine for
thicknessing material, but really aren't very good at leaving a smooth
surface.
I use 60 grit to clean up after re-sawing, 60 grit seem to never load up.
I use 80 grit to get B & S and tops close to final thickness, then I use a
scraper or random orbital sander to clean-up the 80 grit scratches.
Anything finer than 80 loads up very quick especialy on anything with
glue lines or on wood with a lot of resin.
Also have you tried the big erasures they sell for cleaning sandpaper
belts?
long[/QUOTE]

Bob--I'm not familiar with drum sanders that oscillate. I believe some of the wide weld sanders oscillate but haven't heard of that feature in a drum sander other than the spindle sanders. Can you elaborate?
Thanks
Nelson

In order to minimize the glue buildup on the sand paper when sanding along the grain, send the top/back through at a slight angle so the glue doesn't keep being presented to the same section of sand paper. This helps a lot.
Also when thicknessing a top or back things seem to go better across the grain for some reason than along the grain.   

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Nelson, My mistake. When I said "drum sanders that don't oscilate" I
should have said "thickness sanders that don't oscilate" I don't think
there are are any drum sanders that oscilate, Thickness sanders that
uses belts are able to oscilate.   Sorry

longBob Long39049.2975115741

_________________
"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus of Ephesus

I also have a Woodmaster drum sander, 38"? dedicated sander, no planer function. I too use 150 grit paper for all of my sanding tasks, I run it at the highest feed speed, and the thing works great for me. I use a sled when sanding and this allows me to go down as thin as I need to go, very little paper build-up, if it does occur I have one of those giant erasers to remove gunk in 15 seconds and off I go.

Greg

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Gwaltney Guitars

Greg...tell me about the sled you use? Do you use 2 sided tape to keep a thin wood attached to sled? Do the Woodmaster drum sanders use the same velcro backed paper?

Thanks for everyone's feedback.

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Brad
Avon, OH

Hi Brad,

I have never used anything to hold the pieces down, I just set them on the sled which is nothing more than a piece of 3/4" plywood for tops and backs and a flat piece of 2x12 for sides. I just make sure to keep pressure on the sled as in enters the sander and keep a slight pull on the sled as it comes out the other side....99% of the time this is not needed, although I have had the sled stop a few times and it does ugly things to your workpiece. It really helps to put some of that sliding compound(SLIPIT) on the bottom of your sled every once in a while. Yes, my drum has the velcro on it for receiving the sandpaper, seems to work fine.

Greg

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Gwaltney Guitars

I have a Woodmaster 18" planer...great machine for the price, and I love the variable speed thing.

We had a 24" Woodmaster drum sander, and for what it was it too was great; we just outgrew it and went to a 43" Halsty wide belt sander.    

You do have to change the Velcro on a regular basis on the Woodmaster drum, and yes, running material like rosewood at a slight angle helps reduce problems.

Also, you can power pressure wash the belts and get nearly twice the life out of them.