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I leveled a rosette to my soundboard today and the dye bled into the soundboard. I leveled it on my drum sander with 120 grit. I seem to get stains where ever glue lines are. I also had some stains along the soundboard glue line when I ran it through the drum sander a few weeks back. Today, these disappeared.

Is this typical for a drum sander?

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Guitars...One's too many...Twenty is not enough.

Doug,

I have found that if I use the drum sander that I also have problems with glue areas, but I've managed to decrease the intensity of the problem by sanding lighter. I used to sand, then tweak a bit more on the depth, and sand again. I find that getting the pass really light and then repeating at the same setting seems to help. It takes a lot longer to sand it down that way, but it really seems to help. You can't rush good things. Lighter pressure, skim sanding should help.

This technique also helps to keep your sandpaper from clogging. With tles pressure, you're not jamming the wood up into the grain of the sandpaper. Let the outer surface of the paper do the work. It's hard to find that balance, but if you can it will help immensely.
Don Williams38797.4315740741

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I do what Don said. Also, I usually clean everything up with my ROS after the box is assembled anyway.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

Yeah... What Don said. I think that the friction caused by trying to remove too much at a time causes the glue to soften & smear all over the place.
As Dave said, a ROS with fresh 220 paper will clean up the mess, but I suggest getting it done before you cut out the soundhole.
It's easy to sand a low spot next to the rosette if you do it afterwards. I try to keep as much of the sander as i can "registered" on the rosette while cleaning & levelling the area.

I level sand or scrape first to get it close to flush and ONLY after run it throught the drum sander! Removing too much at once may cause the glue to heat up and smear the top.

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Ok Don, thanks. How about speed? Right now I am at 1/2 speed. Should I increase or decrease the speed?

Thanks,

Doug

_________________
Guitars...One's too many...Twenty is not enough.

I only have one speed....so I can't advise you there.
Sorry.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I only use the drum sander for thicknessing tops. After that, any inlay
materials are leveled by hand (sanding block and scraper). I really work at
getting the inlay cavities and the inlays themselves to be very close in
thickness so there is very little cleanup. Shell materials and dark woods
can really get embedded in the relatively soft grain of top wood by
sanding, so scraping is really better. Using 150 grit paper on the drum
sander will just drive those shell and dark wood particles into the top.
Craig

Of course Craig has the right idea, but I'm way too impatient...but it would probably be a good idea to follow his example.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Yep, I'll try some scraping next time. Anyone want to buy a Performax 22-44?? Just kidding, I love that thing.

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Guitars...One's too many...Twenty is not enough.

I love powdered donuts.