Altamaha, could you post a picture of your drum sander and tell us what uses you put the drum sander to?
I used a big sander made for sanding doors and cabinet faces, it is at a cabinet shop. Has a 4 foot wide belt and several drums to power the belt. You really do not need to sand a slab, but it is a nice way to remove the sawmill marks so you can see the grain. Once the slabs are cut to gunstock size, a planer may be used for the same reason.
If you hesitate when feeding the door or in my case a slab, the forward end of the belt will burn the wood.
