I'm about to embark on my fourth flat top build. For my first three I used a 12" conical disk sander on my Shopsmith, which works fairly well. However, it generates clouds of dust in spite of my efforts to draw it into my dust collector.
I'm thinking about buying one of the Jet bench top thickness (drum) sanders. Before I dedicate funds and storage space to another machine, I'm curious about other methods. How many use planes and scrapers for thicknessing plates and rims? How do you hold the work? I have some nice sharp hand planes and a Stanley scraper plane, but is that really a practical method?
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