I’ve finally got one of my most sought-after stationary power tools: a drum sander. This sander has already sped up many laborious tasks in the first week I’ve used it.

You can see an example of its work: a multi-piece striped bowed psaltery back. It is made of quilted maple and purpleheart.

Ordinarily, it would take me a very long time to clean up all of the glue lines and get everything sanded perfectly flat and level. Additionally, with the quilted maple, I was unable to use a planer or jointer on the piece, as the knives would simply tear out the grain. (But the sander is gentle with the maple’s figure and preserves the board’s integrity.)

Now, I can just set the bowed psaltery back on the conveyor belt, and let the sander do all of the work for me within seconds, and with a much greater degree of accuracy than is possible with hand sanding.