Thread: Thicknesser or Drum Sander?

Originally Posted by thumb trimmer

I was initially going to purchase a thicknesser, however, I read somewhere a drum sander does a 'neater' job.
In an effort to save some cash, I've started collecting 'used' timber from council cleanups in the local area, and from other sources (some of the timber is very rough sawn). I need a machine to clean up this 'recylced' timber; in addition to giving me parrallel sides.
So the question is ... do I purchase a Thicknesser or a Drum Sander?
Also, before someone throughs the concept of a jointer into the mix, I've got some sticks which are 290(ish) wide that need some attention.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Yeah - rip them in half and then process them. Until you have a perfect 90º corner you are wasting your time trying to get the wood square.

Sanders are way too slow, unless you are talking about 3 phase industrial grade machines they can only really remove a poofteenth at a time. If you are talking recycling rough sawn you will not only have to remove the saw marks but get them straight as well so you will need a jointer and a thicknesser, or a combo machine.

A drum sander will take a lot of passes to remove what you can in one pass with a thicknesser especially rough sawn, but recycled timber will blunt the crap out of your blades or sandpaper, otherwise consider getting carbide blades which can handle a bit of grit.

And to throw it back into the mix, you can get jointer's that'll do wider than 290mm

Thicknesser, because sandpaper is to expensive to use for dimensioning and cleaning rough sawn stock unless there is no other option, it is also real messy and slow.

In my opinion drum sanders are a luxury for finishing and should not be used for rough sawn unless there is no other option (and I do love mine) and you would be best suited to buying a 12 inch combination machine from Carbatec or similar if you have neither a jointer or thicknesser and want to use 290mm rough sawn stock.

This marri for a client got done on my drum sander because it would not fit in my thicknesser, cost around $30 in paper as the marri gum clogs the paper and causes burns real quick.

Thanks for the comments so far.

As much as I'd love to walk into carbatec, H&F or the like and order one of just about everything; realistically (at this stage) I can only justify the one machine only.

Re: 'combo machines' ... apart from the benefit of having both the jointer and thicknesser, are there any real negatives to buying such a setup?

Originally Posted by thumb trimmer

Thanks for the comments so far.

As much as I'd love to walk into carbatec, H&F or the like and order one of just about everything; realistically (at this stage) I can only justify the one machine only.

Re: 'combo machines' ... apart from the benefit of having both the jointer and thicknesser, are there any real negatives to buying such a setup?

Sometimes Jointers (A) and thicknessers (B) are used in in ABAB manner rather than just A and then B and nothing else.

Then you pick your next piece of wood and do the same.

Switching between the two on a combo machine rapidly becomes a PITA. So you tend to do all pieces A and then all B - I don't like that either but I have no choice really because I do not have space for two machines.

SWMBO says I don't have room for one machine and when am I going to get the combo machine off the veranda!

Its amazing what you must have...and when you've got it......what you actually use.
I've had a silly 15" bench type thicknesser for a long time.
I read somewhere that you can't do burl slabs on a thicknesser but you can on a drum sander.
Therefore, I had to have a drum sander.
Spent a fair while building a drum sander with all its table raising mechanism. Lovely.
I found the drum sander really good for smoothing, without deviating from a set thickness.........not removing stock.
A poofteenth at a time on a drum sander.
Maybe a millimeter at a time on the thicknesser.
Consequently, this ubeaut drum sander doesn't get much use for stock preparation.
And it takes up space.
ps. I haven't needed to thickness a burl since I built the sander.

My moral to this story is.....
There are many ways to skin a cat.....and most of them can be sorted by sitting in the shed quietly and thinking about what you are going to actually do.

Just my slant on things.

I guess it depends on what you're expecting out of the machine.

As DJ said, a thicknesser removes wood quicker than a drum sander. And usually gives a reasonable finish. However, if the wood is such that it'd be a nightmare to hand-plane (figured spotted gum immediately jumps to mind for some strange reason - ask Waldo about it. ) then the odds are good that it'll be even worse after going through a thicknesser.

For those woods, a drum sander is "the" way to go - it may be slower but can literally save you from hours of sanding afterwards.

I'd love to have both - I have a thicknesser, but I suspect that if I'd bought a drum-sander instead I wouldn't use the thicknesser at all... and wouldn't miss it in the slightest.

Then again, I'm not into high-volume productivity.

(Oh... and Watson? Like any tool, if you throw enough money at a Drum Sander it's amazing at how efficiently you can get them working. A good drum sander will remove stock quite nicely... it just costs a LOT more than a thicky of the same size. )

Agree totally...that's why I added the moral...what are you really going to do in the inner sanctum?

Rather than a combo ide get a thicknesser and a jointer , couple of reasonably priced units are good value, drum sander a must it you wany veneers

Hey T. T.

I picked up a fair bit of iron bark my uncle milled years ago, and have been using this to biuld the benches in the workshop. The sizes were 4" by 2" and 4" by 4", i bought a woodfast 12" plainer / thicknesser from carbatec. It has a 240v moter and is great, i can run 3mm off a 10" board of jarrah in one pass, and leaves a tidy finish. a quick sand with the orbital and all good. It is quick as to change over, and generally if you are dressing timber you would square all the boards on the jointer, then thickness them. I would 100% go with a thicknesser/jointer. Sanders are not made to dress boards, particually narrow boards. Just my thoughts on the matter.
Have a good one

In Utopia, I'd have a drum sander at a blink of an eye, many a time I've leant against a bench and daydreamed and wondered where and how I could hide such a big beast. a slab of highly figured spotted gum also springs to mind (funny that) where it would have been useful.

But, at only $55 to get a 2.8m x .6m x .04m slab taken down to 30mm, due to nasty tearout on a thicknesser , it's cheaper to go down the road and get it done elsewhere. But to have one sitting in the shed ready to power up anytime my heart fancies it.

In the meantime my CTJ-381 is the ducks guts.

At our last club meeting, one of the Carba-tec drum sanders was reviewed. The conclusion was that it was best for veneer. And that thicknessing was a problem due to uneven sanding - one side would become thinner than the other.

Conclusion - not a good alternative to a thicknesser ( I suppose unless you have a machine of Norm's proportions, and with a price to match!).

Regards from Perth

Derek

Thicknesser , because you can build a jig to fit on the table and joint edges to at a pinch
after getting your board to a even thickness.
Latest Australian Woodsmith has the jig in it to joint on the thicknesser ,don't know how good it is until I try it.
But it would depend on the height capacity of the thicknesser when doing board edges.
My Triton 13" wide and 8" high (think that's right for the height)Maybe it's 6"

Kev

As Derek said they are two different machines a thicknesser is designed to remove timber and drum sander is designed to finish timber, drum sanders are designed to have PAR timer put through and will not create a truly flat suface on timber in the rough