Official Luthiers Forum!

Just bought a used drum sander. What grit belt is best?

I use 80 on my Performax 10-20

Glenn

I use 80 grit for hardwoods, 100 grit for spruce tops. Then I use a scraper, then finally sand.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Colin & Glenn, thanks for the info.
I bought a Delta 13-250 drum sander (18 inch capacity) from a door and window wood worker who needed a bigger machine. For less than I was about to pay for a new Jet 10-20. Amazon sells 100 grit belts for a good price. They don't stock 80 grit, so I think I'll go with the 100 grit to see how it goes.

I had been using 120, but it loads up pretty qucikly on me when sanding a lot of rosewood. I've gone to 80 and that has worked better.

I think you will find that 100 is too fine to use other than as a finish grit or a very low oil or low density type wood. On a hardwood the grit will load up and leave burn marks. You can use grits as coarse as 36 if you need to remove a lot of stock otherwise 60 is a good choice to get you near the final thickness then smooth the surface with your 100 grit. You can salvage your burned belts with oven cleaner. I hope you have a good dust collector or else you will be coughing up dust balls for a while. Have fun!

I bought several grits when I got my Jet 10-20 but have ended up using 80 grit. As others have said, the finer grits load up too easy.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

You need different grits.
120 is OK for the few last passes, but an orbital sander can do the same job quickly.
I use 36 for quick thicknessing. For instance I received African blackwood sides that were .200" thick, I can't imagine how much time and belts it would have taken to bring them to .075" with 100 grit.
80 grit is the most used, I also use 60 grit blue zirconia to remove stock relatively quickly, it lasts forever and runs a bit cooler, but tends to leave deeper scratches. I rarely use 120, only to thickness veneer to .010" when I need more accuracy.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

What Laurent said. 100 on its own is too fine in my experience.

Chuck

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I use 60, 80, and 120 (tops).

I use 80 for hardwood sides& backs and 120 for the softer spruce tops. I found 36 to be too harsh, leaveing deep scratches that were hard to get out without alot of work on the back& sides.

After reading more opinions on grit size. I've changed my mind. I just ordered some rolls of 60 and 80 grit. That should get me into the ball park.

Thanks for responding!

If the wood is quite thick like over 1/8th I start with 60 then switch to 80 when I get closer, the 80 loads up if you are doing a lot of stock removal. I then smooth out a bit with my RO sander.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

The coarse grits like 36 are best for general sanding. You can cautiously follow up with 120,but anything finer is going to pack up the belt right away.

On my Delta,I use about 1/8 turn for each new cut. And, often,the board can be run 2 or 3 times at the same setting and still cut. I like the Delta better than the moving head types,such as Performax. I can always put my finger against their heads,and my thumb on the conveyor belt,and flex the head. On the Delta, the head is securely welded,and it cannot flex. The table is rigid,too. There has been trouble with the belt that turns the elevating screws getting out of sync. I urge you to not crank the table up and down rapidly,or excessively. So far I've had no trouble with mine,but others have had trouble.

Ahhhh...dual drum sander...disadvantage: aligning the drums...advantage: two grits in one pass.. 80,, then 100. Thickness and then reasonably smooth to continue assembly. My Grizzly is crude but effective!

Do you take the sandpaper roll of the drum sander to use the oven cleaner or can I just spray it on the drum and then brush it off? I assume I brush it off maybe I need to do something else.

I think I use 80 grit to get the sides, backs and tops down close to what I want as anything beyond that seems to clog up more on my 16 x32.
Chuck

I have always used the oven cleaner off the machine. I usually wait till I have 5 or 6 belts to clean then soak them in a five gallon bucket then rinse them off and let dry. Helps to have a pressure washer to get all the burned material off. Jeff

60 or 80 depend wood to get it down and close. 120 to get it within a few thoug and finish 150 or 180 depend what I grab.

With all of the grit changing recommended, do you 10-20 folks have secret easy ways to change belts?

I leave 80 grit on my 10-20 and sand to 220 with my ROS. I got in the habit of using the ROS or jitterbug sander to sand all my parts to 220 when I built furniture and, anyway, I'm too lazy to bother changing belts all the time.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Nope. I found it quite easy after about 6/8 changes. I don't use the tool supplied, only my fingers. Just open clip, one end in on the left lined up to the edge (end abrasive bent to 90 degrees), wind with small space between wraps, bend abrasive at 90 degrees where it meets the right hand slot edge, insert to clip, release clip.
Run briefly then check all OK (evenish gap all the way, no overlaps and fairly taut).
I'm just lucky my fingers fit reasonably.

_________________
The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.