Dust port for older thickness planer

I got an older thickness planer from a guy on Craigslist for a really good price. It didnt come with any kind of dust collection as it is and older Harbor Freight model. Before you say anything about Harbor Freight, i didnt know it was HF until i was on my way to get it. He had it listed as a Delta, since that turned out to not be the case, he came off the price that i had already talked him down to on the Delta. So i decided to give it a go. He also told me if i didnt like it he would give my money back.

ANYWAY… like i said, it didnt have any dust collection. For a planer that is no bueno. Chips flew EVERYWHERE!!. so i got to work thinking how i could collect the chips. the store bought funnel type ports wouldnt fit mine so that was out. So i had to make it.

I had some 1/4” ply laying around, i didnt want to use too thick of stock because of the way i had decided to connect it to the unit. i decided to make a box that kindof sandwiched the chip opening between the top and bottom pieces of the box, which would also hold the box in place. The box is intirely put together with glue, being that its only 1/4” ply there was no room for screws or even brads. i do have some support triangles inside the box for rigidity. it overlaps the unit by 1” on top and bottom, there is no sag at all when i connect the dust hose.

I cut the hole with a trim router (curtesy of my awesome BIL – Jeff Wenz) and a jig i threw together just for this project. heres a tip when cutting a circle with this type of jig…when setting your pivot point, measure for the radius from the opposite side of the bit. i didnt do that, i wanted a 4” opening, i got 4-1/8”. oh well, it still works perfectly.

If you guys have any suggestions on how i could improve on this design or totally revamp it please feel free to let your voice be heard :).

-- "Still Learning"