Thread: Thicknesser vs Oscillating Drum Sander

Hi One Day Soon,

Well that's an easy one to respond to,

If you don't put your timber over a planer first then you don't need either a thicknesser or an oscillating sander.

A sander is not a substitute for a thicknesser in any stock preparation scenario. A full blooded industrial scale wide belt sander removes stock at up to 0.5 mm per pass and preferably less than that with coarse papers such as 80 and 100 grit. With fine papers up to 150 grit I wouldn't try for more than 0.2 mm per pass.

Stock prepared from the rough state with sanders using coarse grits as is sometimes done with slabs to show their merits to potential buyers is left full of grit and sh.t and is just great for dulling all your other tools down the track.

Hope this helps but there is no easy track around doing things properly.

Old Pete

I have a 22-44. Great for veneers, slabs, but not a replacement for a jointer/thicknesser. As Old Pete says it's never to be used when you think you might follow up with hand tools. The grit impregnated into the wood will chip anything.

Cheers
Michael

What they said.

Got a 10hp double drum sander at work that CAN take 2-3mm with 80/100 grits but doing this has a tendency to cause it to overheat and the paper explodes which means a change of underwear and 3 hours of cursing to re-wrap the drums.

Some things haven't changed in 100 years because that's just the way it works

Thanks everyone. Very clear. Time to go shopping for a thicknesser.