What drum sander grit

[bck]

 I bought a drum sander yesterday. Its an American  8) made 24" Ross with variable speed.
I will be sanding mainly crotch panels. I am not looking to sand to a finished stage, just to get crotches looking good so I can sell a nice product. I have never used one before, what grit paper would you suggest.

[Sprucegum]

I have a drum sander that I use as a planer/smoother, because I have more time than money  ;)
So I start with a 50 grit or even a 36 if the piece is really rough. Then when I get close to the thickness I want I jump to 150 grit. Sometimes I will follow that with a 220 but most times I do the finish with an orbital hand sander.

[metalspinner]

I usually stop at 150 also. Followed by the ROS.  But getting there just depends on the roughness of your piece.  If you just eyeballed the crotch and cut it with a chainsaw, you will have lots of irregularity to remove.  Probably too much for the sander.  But if the crotch went through a planer first and is flat and even, you can probably start with 80 grit.