I have an old blade planer that I am getting ready to replace. Need one with a built in vacuum attachment so I decided to get a new one. That got me to wondering if it would be feasible or worthwhile to try to convert the planer to a drum sander by removing the blades and wrapping the drum with sandpaper?
Thanks in advance for any advice, opinions, or thoughts on this.
Since you asked for opinions, my opinion is this is a bad idea.
As others mentioned drum sanders make a LOT of dust.
The biggest problems which come to mind for the planer conversion are :
a) The planer head may rotate too fast, as someone else mentioned. I have a Performax 16/32. The drum is direct drive from the 1725 rpm motor, but it also has variable feed rate which I feel is critical.
b) Drum sanders create a lot of heat. If the head rotates too much and the feed rate is too fast, the paper will soon gum up, creating streaks which will burn the wood.
c) Since the planer head was not designed to hold the paper, you may find it difficult to just use tape to hold the paper onto the head. There will be a lot of friction between the wood and the planer head
If you want a small drum sander, I think you are better off purchasing one like this Grizzly 10in unit.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/10-Drum-Sander/G0716