Single head 36 inch with platen is good. Be careful when you go wider the structure of the machine changes quickly. If it’s wider than 36” we don’t want to mess with it. It’s just too big for our size business I refer those types to another shop.
You will be cleaning up cross grain a bunch. Take the time to go to a higher grit belt or you will be going over it forever with a DA. It’s best for sizing face frame stock and for leveling doors, very nice. Once again I don’t want anything larger than 36” for those tasks. We did several time studies and could not justify the additional cost of a multi head machine. We would have needed to run the machine I believe a minimum of (3) hours a day roughly which we just don’t do. Many days it does not get turned on, but with a higher dollar say (3) head machine it’s very hard to justify the cost unless your run old girl.
Get a machine that has good dust collection and one that you can access the belts quickly, safely and easily. Also the drum needs to be accessible so you can pull it off when it gets damaged and it will get marks in it that have to be removed.
Good luck.
DJB