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Yesterday I actually tried to make some progress on my Challenge Build - finishing is not looking good. I was trying to use a robo sander sanding drum with a fence on my drill press table. The first couple of passes were ok, but then I launched a few pieces of wood and a few pieces were grabbing and getting uneven divots.

Rather than trying to improve that process, I got in a hurry and tried my safe t planer. i will not use my safe t planer again until I build a suitable fence with hold downs. No real damage to any wood, but got a small bite on my finger.

So, Are there tricks that I need to know about using the drum sander drill press combo for thickness sanding? I was just using my hands to hold the wood against the fence - maybe add feather boards? Should I tape the sides and binding material to a larger carrier board?

I thought about a carrier board through my planer but have read that is bad idea

I also have one of the LMI Sanding discs: I reached for it before the safe t planer, but had no adhesive sanding discs available. This may be my best option

Any tips or advice from anyone else using there drill press for this operation?

Thanks, Greg

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Greg Hatcher
North Carolina

Filippo, That may be the case. Looking at the Stewmac tips for the Safe T Planer, I may also have been running my drill press too slow.

In two passes on the drum sander, one pass on the safe t planer, and some clean up scraping, I took one side from 4.5MM to 3.99MM

Greg

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Greg Hatcher
North Carolina

Hi, Greg. You definitely need a securely clamped fence for this work. Take very light passes at a time and feed AGAINST the rotation of the sanding drum. It requires patience and often many light passes. With the Safety Planer, you also need to use light passes, a high rotation speed, and sharp cutters. Also, be sure your table and planer are properly aligned. There are good instructions for making a feeler gauge in the box with the tool, and you use this to align the table. For thicknessing with the planer, I would personally use a carrier board and double stick tape. Once again, feed against the rotation to the extend possible (in the center of wide stock, this is trickier). Robbie O'Brian has a good tutorial in his Luthier Tips du Jour series. If you haven't seen it, check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfaLmBGKjJY He uses a supplemental table, fence and shim to get around the problem of wide stock.

Many other fine tutorials are found in that series.

Patrick

Patrick, Thanks for the response. The video was a good refresher on the safe t planer. I think I will give the drum sander another try first.

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Greg Hatcher
North Carolina

Alignment is very important on the SafTPlaner. My drill press table is dead nuts square to the bit. Then I take a piece of paper and slip it under a corner to get the proper alignment, ensuring that only the front edge can ever grab. And it needs to run FAST.

Funny that they call it a SafT Planer. It can be nightmarishly scary when things go wrong. I use it all the time, though. Very handy tool.

I love the safety planer...it was a tool that I saw for years but never ordered one...it is deceptively simple but great for woods like rosewood that clog up your sander with resin. Its easy to get to within 0.2 or 0.3mm of your target thickness and then plane/scrape/sand from there. Its a great tool....