Thread: Getting into box making, drum sander or thicknesser?

Originally Posted by DiRob

The thicknesses can be utilised to dress thin material by placing a piece of 19mm mdf on top of the planer table just clamp to table and away you go.

Not referring to thin material only short pieces that would get caught up inside the planer. Nightmare!!

I have made a number of boxes and used a spiral head thicknesser and jointer to dress the timber. It worked great most of the but there were occasions where I'd get tear out or I wanted to remove a few mm off a short piece and my thicky couldn't handle it. I'd use hand planes or scrapers to finish the surface but when you're making a couple of boxes at a time, it can be time consuming. As much as I enjoy using hand planes I always wanted a drum sander for this purpose.

I ended up getting a 16 32 performax last year and it's brilliant. I had some projects in mind so I could justify the purchase. I searched for a second hand model for a little while but they rarely pop up for sale. I ended up buying a new one at the wood show and got 10% off.

If you were exclusively just making boxes I would lean towards a drum sander. But if you were making other stuff like cabinets, tables etc I would get the thicknesser.

even short pieces are ok if you feed other material touching the end as it passes through the thicknesser

If you do end up with a drum sander, TheSandpaperMan sells VERY goo rolls of SIA cloth backed rolls. The rolls are absolutely incredible.

I use his 80 grit and it has no trouble at all in grinding down considerable thickness with a pass. I also find it does a very good job with the 80 on a light sand, leaving only fine lines easily and quickly removed with a ROS. I've very rarely swapped out for the 120 grit.

That's interesting WoodPixel,

I've always bought his 120 grit, for my home made drum sander. Perhaps next order I might opt for the 80,....hmmm

Paul

I also meant to write (cat stole my lunch fish while I was distracted!!) that they last a very long time. You can do what seems like an extreme amount of work before replacing them.

SIA is a great brand, we used to used their blue cloth backed J flex for most of our linishing work when I polished brassware.

Yep, quality, good prices & prompt delivery from Sandpaper Man.

Originally Posted by george mavridis

SIA is a great brand, we used to used their blue cloth backed J flex for most of our linishing work when I polished brassware.

+1 for SIA, we use 1919 and 1919+ on the wide-belt sander at work and are very happy with it

I have a high end thicknesser/jointer and use it all the time on rough timber. I have a bandsaw which I use to bring timber to the thickness I require. The most use machine is a thickness sander which I built myself........Very easy........This is the most used machine in my workshop as I mostly build boxes. Give it time, you will get the tools you require.