I just built my home and I am going to make my kitchen cabinets. I have been thinking about buying a drum sander. I dont know much about them other than they are rather pricey.Can anyone advise me on some of their features as well as the downside, if any. Thanks.
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Unless you're going to be using it down the road alot, or you just have extra cash laying around, it probably isn't cost effective. What you might look into is having the components (faceframes, etc.) sanded for you. Some cabinet shops and wood specialty suppliers have the sanders and provide the service and it's pretty reasonable.
Remember that if you buy one, you'll need an adequate negative air dust collection system, adequate power to run the machine, enough room to operate it efficiently and you'll need an assortment of paper grits because you often need to make 3 or 4 passes on components to achieve desired finish.
If you situation is such that you could do custom sanding for others, it could be a good investment. I've always wanted one myself but they were out of reach, especially for a 36" which is what you're probably looking at.
If you're in Oregon, or thereabouts, e-mail me and I can hook you up with a used one owned by a friend of mine that she'll sell very reasonably. It's in excellent condition.