Shopsmith Forums

Any thoughts on using either sander for thicknessing flat stock?

You can use the disk sander like a joiner or planer on a narrow edge by skewing your fence a couple of degrees. Using the conical disk sander you can do the same thing for a wider face, up to around 4" I think. A drum sander can thickness much wider stock, but it requires many passes to reduce by a substantial thickness. The conical sanding disk is your best bet to sand for thickness on the Shopsmith. You can do a lot with a handheld power planer also. I see the Makita 3-1/4" is still available under $200.

As Ed suggests you can do some thickness work on the Sanding Disk or Conical Sanding Disk, but it is limited by the width it can handle. The Conical Sanding Disk would be the better choice of the two. The Belt Sander has a 6" wide belt so it can sand wider surfaces than the Disks but may prove difficult to achieve an even thickness over the entire board. Even the handheld power planer has its size limitations. If you are going to do very much woodworking that requires getting boards to thickness, I would recommend looking for an actual Planer either new or used. I found my Shopsmith Pro Planer almost 8 years ago for a very good deal. With sharpened Knives, some clean up and touch paint it works like new and looks that good too.

You could also look into making a drum sander for thicknessing.
Member Shipwright made one
Build blog https://www.lumberjocks.com/threads/qui ... st-2198047

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