# Will This Plan Affect Performance Of 18" Planer?



## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

I recently purchased an 18" Woodmaster Planer off CL. The plan is for it to live at the wood storage barn where the sawmill is. I have no dust collection there but a scoop shovel and leaf blower work great for the mill clean up (on a concrete slab). My thought is to wheel the planer out onto the slab and let the chips fall wherever and then scoop them up like I do the sawdust from the mill.

The question is: will the lack of DC adversely affect the planer's performance?


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## boxcarmarty (Dec 9, 2011)

Andy, I wouldn't think there would be any effect as long as the chips are blowing out of the planer…..


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## Boxguy (Mar 11, 2012)

Andy, my Powermatic gets all clogged up and won't pull wood through when I go even a short while without the dust collector on. I can't say about yours. Try it and see. You may have to run it without some of the shields…don't know if that is a good idea.


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## patron (Apr 2, 2009)

before i had collection
i ran my 20" planer raw
without the collector shield
the chips can get under the out feed rollers
and 'emboss' into the wood lightly
but a minimal sanding took care of it

better than nada


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## fge (Sep 8, 2008)

The chips will affect the feed rollers ability to pull the wood through the planer.


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## woodchuckerNJ (Dec 4, 2013)

Boxguy that assumes you have the hood on.
In this case, I think Andy is just going to let them fly w/o a hood.
W/O they should eject more efficiently than a hooded unit.


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## patron (Apr 2, 2009)

back again andy
since you are mostly doing hardwoods
(i was planing pine and alder)
you shouldn't have much trouble
(knock on wood)


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

Jerry, Even if I open/remove the hood/shroud? I REALLY don't want to buy a second dust collector!


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## DocSavage45 (Aug 14, 2010)

Andy do you have a compressor? or a shop vac to blow out chips?


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## fge (Sep 8, 2008)

Not sure running without the hood is a good idea


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## fge (Sep 8, 2008)

I have heard some violent clanging inside my Woodmaster whenever a knot or chunk of wood let's loose. Would hate to get hit with that flying knot.

However, if you have compressed air, you could clear the planer with compressed air. That works but is not as food as DC.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

Yes, I have a big compressor but it is in the shop next to the dust collector! And the shop is about 1/4 mile from the mill and wood storage barn!

Jerry, I hear you on the safety issue.

Maybe I can find a DC motor/impeller and use it with no bags just blowing the chips onto the slab.


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## shawnmasterson (Jan 24, 2013)

If you remove the shroud it should blow right out like the old foley and bel-saw's. If it isn't clearing the chips it will cause a problem with the feeder. My 20" doesn't need a DC if I take off the shroud. I usually only use the DC on my planer in the winter. In the summer I let it blow all over the drive and shovel it up into the gator and dump it in the woods later. You really should look into something like this.)


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## rrww (Aug 12, 2012)

It shouldn't take too much of a blower to clear the planer something like this should be enough..
http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/tls/4442611819.html


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## bowtie (Dec 23, 2011)

Andy, I have an old 15" planer which has a wide rectangular slot for chip ejection. I fabricated a dust port but my 4" ducts wouldn't handle the chip output. I now just spread a tarp and let the chips fly, than I tie the tarp up. I have several neighbors who get the chips for their horses, goats ect. Keep visitors away from the discharge and blow out with a leaf blower occasionally. Wish we were neighbors, I just sawed some 17" pine!


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## bigblockyeti (Sep 9, 2013)

I used to use a Powermatic 160 that sat under an overhang at work, used primarily for planning treated wood and it had no dust collection, just the cutter head ejecting the chips out the back. Never had a problem with it, but it did make one heck of a mess.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

Thanks for all the great input. I now have a plan A (remove the hood and see how that goes) and a plan B (find a cheap DC on CL and just use the blower part).

Shawn, That diesel powered planer looked good! But sucking diesel fumes would get old quick.

rrww, That is exactly what I'll be trolling our local CL for.


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## shawnmasterson (Jan 24, 2013)

you know I wondered the same thing, but I bet it wouldn't be to bad out in the open


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## shipwright (Sep 27, 2010)

Andy, I worked for years in boat shops with big old industrial planers without any dust collectors. In my own yard I had a 20" Park (1800 lbs with the cast iron base) and it never saw DC either. It threw chips about two or three feet and you just shovelled them up when the pile got too big.

The only time I ever had any trouble from feed rollers or the "embossing" David referred to was when the wood was wet. I mean wet not just green.

If you were to put a DC on the thing it would have to have a very large capacity for your application or you would be emptying it every five minutes. If the knives are sharp they don't make much dust and the chips are far easier to deal with with a shovel than constantly emptying a bag or garbage can.


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## fge (Sep 8, 2008)

Now that bigblockyeti mentions it, I also have the Powermatic 180 and it is not hooked to DC at all. Mainly because at this stage in it's life it is considered a toy. I use it at night whenever I am tinkering or playing with it. I plane boards with it with absolutely no DC connected at all and don't have any issues. But there are some design differences with my PM180 than my Woodmaster. We have 2 woodmasters and neither one will feed well without DC. I don't run either Woodmaster without the hood though so maybe that is the key difference.

Actually just a month ago, upon moving into our new shop and without DC, we had to run both woodmasters without DC until I could get duct work ran and it was just terrible. On my smaller Woodmaster we run moldings, I would be pushing on the infeed and my partner would be pulling on the outfeed just to get a stick ran through with no DC. Then just yesterday, since having DC hooked up, I ran about 20 sticks of molding effortlessly watching as my feed rollers pulled the sticks through nicely.

But I do know my PM 180 has no issues running without DC, but the cover/hood on my PM180 is much smaller and less cumbersome to remove and re install than what is on the Woodmaster.

I would question what type of wood will you be planing. Like in my experience, I have planed Mesquite and that stuff will just come apart at any time. Hickory being such a hard wood will also chip out from time to time throwing chunks of wood.

I personally would go the route of a cheap DC that was positioned right next to the planer. Or maybe even a cheap leaf blower. I use a cheap leaf blower in my shop to blow off the dust and do some shop clean up.


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## woodchuckerNJ (Dec 4, 2013)

Jerry, again you had the hood on. How are chips going to eject???
W/O a hood they will just fly out the back and top.

Andy nothing lost by trying it with the hood removed.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

The Belsaw, from which the Woodmaster evolved, was designed
to be used without dust collection. It shoots the chips out
over the outfeed table. It accomplishes this by having the 
whole back of the shroud open.

The Woodmaster shroud doesn't have as much clearance
for the chips to fly out.

Chips will get stuck on the rollers too if they're not getting 
sucked out. I'd say give it a try.

A cyclone lid on a trash can powered by a shop vac works
surprisingly well for planer chip collection.


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## shawnmasterson (Jan 24, 2013)

another thought would be to use a track-vac there would tons of volume, plenty of suction, and it would pack it in. I would think you could go all day with the way it would pack it in there. Something like this would probably take a month to fill. Just keep small children away from the intake. HAHA


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## Ocelot (Mar 6, 2011)

You might could hook up a leaf blower/vac which you could pick up cheaply, but I wouldn't want to have to fiddle with a 2-stroke every time I wanted to run the planer.

You can get a HF dust collector for $150 on sale with a 20 or 25% coupon - and just use the parts you want - no bag, just the blower/motor. There's a coupon in "Wood" magazine that'll do it for about that price too.

$200 now, then minus 25% is easy to find. We have a local HF here, so don't need shipping (but there is sales tax).
http://www.harborfreight.com/2-hp-industrial-5-micron-dust-collector-97869.html

-Paul


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## ssnvet (Jan 10, 2012)

I vote for a cheap blower discharging into a hopper.

you'll spend more time milling and planning and less time shoveling "it"

But then again, I suppose an old horse doctor is quite proficient with the barn shovel :^p


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## DocSavage45 (Aug 14, 2010)

I shop Harbor Frieght online. Intended to by the 2 hp dudt collector as there was a 25% coupon. Reading small print, they apparently won't recognize discounts on motorized equipment as they cancelled the order. It's still the least expensive to buy, I just didn't NEED it right now.

Good luck on this Andy.


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## Woodbum (Jan 3, 2010)

Is your leaf blower able to convert to a yard vac? If so, hook that sucker up and leave the bag off. Noisy, but you will be wearing hearing protection anyway. Just another OKIE work-around.


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## Ocelot (Mar 6, 2011)

DocSavage,

I have used 25% HF coupons in store for motorized equpment. I just took a look at a 20% coupon (in store only) and it did not exclude motorized equipment. So, you could at least get it for $160+tax in store.

-Paul


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

I will experiment when I get the planer here and get back to y'all.

Shawn, You are just full of expensive solutions!


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## firefighterontheside (Apr 26, 2013)

Andy, are you saying you were trying to go the cheap route?


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## freddy1962 (Feb 27, 2014)

You should be fine without a dust collector at your mill. I've helped at friend's sawmills. Neither has dust collection on their planers. They've been shoveling for years.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

Bill, "Poor folks have poor ways".


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## shawnmasterson (Jan 24, 2013)

I hope you know I'm just teasing.

There's nothing like the more power approach.

If your going to dream go big, or stay home


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