Recently I replaced my old Bridgewood Lunchbox planer with a Dewalt 735 planer. After removing the old planer from the mobile cart, I got the Dewalt fastened in its' place and set about to make a test run.
The instruction manual clearly stated that the chip EJECTOR should be connected to a collection unit (those of you who have seen my shop know that my collection unit is a broom, dust pan and trash barrel with the optional window fan unit) or the optional deflector must be connected. Well the old planer had a deflector hood so I connected the deflector that came with the Dewalt.
Next I found a nice long piece of scrap pine, checked for nails, staples etc, powered up the Dewalt, adjusted the thickness for a 1/32 cut, fed in the board- SWEET MOTHER OF GOD- the manual didn't say the the chip ejection velocity was equal to a hot load 45 caliber bullet. Chips were flying in every imaginable direction, ricocheting of the walls, ceiling and the bandsaw- which happened to be directly in the line of fire. By the time I got to the power switch, the basement looked like Times Square on New Year's Eve. I realized right there why the guy at Woodcraft had suggested a funny looking black bag accessory for the planer. But at the time the $60 price tag seemed unwarranted. Ahh, hindsight is 20-20.
Well my ripoff solution was to use 4" flexible duct (on sale at Rockler- it came with clamps), a 4" round sheet metal heating duct collar from Lowes, a piece of muslin cloth and a string. Dug out my wife's sewing machine to make the "hem" to capture the string. Cut a hole for the collar. Clamped the hose to the Dewalt adapter and the collar. Tied the cloth piece around the top of a trash can. Viole! A chip collector and it works!
Feel free to steal this idea- I did.
Lew
The instruction manual clearly stated that the chip EJECTOR should be connected to a collection unit (those of you who have seen my shop know that my collection unit is a broom, dust pan and trash barrel with the optional window fan unit) or the optional deflector must be connected. Well the old planer had a deflector hood so I connected the deflector that came with the Dewalt.
Next I found a nice long piece of scrap pine, checked for nails, staples etc, powered up the Dewalt, adjusted the thickness for a 1/32 cut, fed in the board- SWEET MOTHER OF GOD- the manual didn't say the the chip ejection velocity was equal to a hot load 45 caliber bullet. Chips were flying in every imaginable direction, ricocheting of the walls, ceiling and the bandsaw- which happened to be directly in the line of fire. By the time I got to the power switch, the basement looked like Times Square on New Year's Eve. I realized right there why the guy at Woodcraft had suggested a funny looking black bag accessory for the planer. But at the time the $60 price tag seemed unwarranted. Ahh, hindsight is 20-20.
Well my ripoff solution was to use 4" flexible duct (on sale at Rockler- it came with clamps), a 4" round sheet metal heating duct collar from Lowes, a piece of muslin cloth and a string. Dug out my wife's sewing machine to make the "hem" to capture the string. Cut a hole for the collar. Clamped the hose to the Dewalt adapter and the collar. Tied the cloth piece around the top of a trash can. Viole! A chip collector and it works!
Feel free to steal this idea- I did.
Lew