Shopsmith Forums

What do you folks see as the advantages of using the conical sander vs. the drum sander?

Paul

My conical sander just arrived today and I haven't used it yet but in my brief experience with the drum sander it's easy to get a gouge if your not feeding the wood smoothly. I'm hoping the large size (something to do with the area/radius of contact and path of contact) of the conical sander will help minimize this.

And you don't have to switch to drill press mode and endure that freaky split second YIKES! moment when you wonder if you tightened the headstock locks enough as you swing up through 45 degrees.

Hi,

The conical disk, besides its uses for wood 'jointing,' etc., is of course a great sharpening device with the jig that Shopsmith sells for the planer & jointer knives. This being said, I know my brother sharpened a long blade (paper slicer type) for one of his customers, using just a drum-sander on his Mark V.

I like to have both a conical-disk and a sanding drum on hand. Also the 6" Drum. This brings to mind the various Sand-Flee gadgets that this forum has displayed:
https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=2653

(buy them all!)