Tools and Tool Buying

[From the Forty]

I am a log furniture maker. I primarily use white cedar for material. I am trying to find ways to cut production time and I am considering a drum sander. I know that these machines have a reputation for not working well with softwoods but I am looking for someone that has some practical experience with them. I am trying to weigh the benefits (less sanding) versus the negatives (cost of machines, sandpaper, etc) It seem like I keep do more panel glue-ups. Any input, experiences, and advice would be greatly appreciated. Laying out $1,500 in this economy scares me but tiime is money and things are very competetive out there.

Geoff 

[smallpatch1]

Well you heard right. I have a two drum  drum sander and I won't run

pine wood  through it ever again.

  What I will do is run pine through my planer. It is much easier to clean

blades than change sand paper.

   So if I were you I would joint edge, glue up, plane everything flat, then sanding

 smooth with a DA ( random orbit ), or finish sander

 and forget you ever heard of a drum sander. But now hardwood is a different story.

      Jess

[John Courtland]

10-4, I agree with Jess, I did a pine kitchen a few years ago with my 16-32 and literally burned through alot of belts, they gunked up fast, burned the wood and was just a poor time of it. Soft woods tend to have little sap pockets too, that will turn a good belt to trash in faster then you can hit the off button.  But as stated, hard woods not an issue.

Plane the soft stuff.

[RickL]

There's no problem at all running western red cedar through a Performax 22-44.  Don't know about pine.

[Gldnbrew]

Pine is a no - no, unless you like changing sandpaper a lot. I have a friend who make Adirondack Chairs and kits out Eastern white cedar and he uses his Delta drum sander all day long with no problems. 

Hope this helps,

Paul