Love the finished product.. You have truly grown in your channel, and kudos to that. 114,000 subscribers. Happy to say we have been with you since the beginning. Keep growing and experimenting, and following your creative ideas. Having done woodworking all my life with all the tools (hand and power) available, I found the drum sanders a bit of a luxury that was seldom used. It came in very hand when I made flag cases (free to veterans and law officers) where I would make a couple dozen at a time. It made quick work of the sanding for individual pieces. But for everything else it was too much trouble having to change the grits for only a few pieces. Also, people need to realize that this is not a planer. You can’t take of too much or you will burn the paper or wood. I found hand sanding was usually quicker with less damage. Just my opinion. Now, back to some tunes and more sanding…
People have commented about safety, and picking a dust collector, so a few other things to maybe think about. To make sure your boards have parallel faces, measure the boards with calipers. The bed can be calibrated pretty close using them. With the open ended sanders, it is possible to flex the head off of level by taking too much of a cut at a time. This will show up with wider boards. Taking too much off at a time may cause a dust build up, and stall the drum, even with a good dust collector. Lighten your depth of cut. Some woods are more prone to burning, and creating a burned deposit on the belt. A lighter cut, and sometimes speeding up the feed rate can help. Clean the belt frequently, Rockler carries an abrasive cleaning stick, a wire brush, and a pick can help clear out any hard to remove burn build up. Some belts will continue to create build up at the same locations after cleaning, and may need to be used for other things, or disposed of. To save money on belts, you can cut your own belts from long rolls. Klingspor is one brand. I wore out a Performax sander, and now have a Powermatic sander. I only bought a planer two years ago, so it is possible to surface boards using only a drum sander, but slower. To flatten and straighten a warped slab, build a sled with a stop at the end, and the board will push against the stop. Put your slab on the sled, and shim the board so it doesn’t rock. Run the sled and slab through until you have one flat surface. Roll the slab over and run it through directly on the carriage. Have fun.
