Drum sander

[davin]

I am considering buying a drum sander (either an itech, or a laguna) to try and cut down the hours I spend using a random orbital.
Would mainly be for for removing planer thicknesser marks, (80Grit?) before using the random orbital with say a 180 grit.
Would I be disappointed the first time I used it, or will it do what I need it to do?
Thanks in advance

 

[Eshmiel]

Buy a hand plane instead - much less expensive, performs many other tasks, removes wood far faster than a sander and doesn't create a vast amount of fine dust.

But if you must - yes, a drum sander will remove planer marks, although it will likely leave sanding marks instead. It's easy to burn workpieces with too big a "bite" of the drum or if the transport belt slips on dust under the workpiece, which stays stationary under the rotating drum. Even very fine sandpapers can leave track marks if the sander itself throws a dust-clot or grit-lump off itself and on to the workpiece as it goes through.

On the other hand, set it up right (an onerous task in itself) and be very careful in the operation of the machine - then they can give a decent result. However, in practice they're more of a very fine thicknesser (small fractions of a millimetre can be taken in each pass to reach a very precise thickness) than a smoother. You'll probably still have to hand sand or RO sand to get a truly unmarked surface.

There are some large and expensive machines with two drums that can do a bit better. One drum rough sands to the required thickness and the second fine sands for the smooth. As I recall, they cost thousands.

No, get the hand plane.