Design advice for planer chip collection
Hi all,
I bought a DeWalt DW375 and promptly built a chip collection can with a thien baffle and air filter like John Heisz’ design on YouTube. I say based on because I used materials I could find locally at the hardware store like 4” PVC elbow and also an aluminum 4” duct meant for clothes dryers. When planing tough stock I noticed that a ton of we’re getting left in the planer bed and that a redesign is in order.
My thought was to extend the inlet pipe down and through the thien baffle so as to pipe chips right into the bottom of the can and keep it from clogging up. I’ve heard about having the inlet pipe at an angle to get a “cyclonic” effect in the top between the thien baffle and lid but I don’t think I have the tools and skill to pull that off. My question is if anyone has advice on if piping the chips below the thien baffle would adverse affect the chip collection and not solve my problem with chips not clearing out of the planer? I was also planning on getting a clear non-static 4” hose, I figured the static keeps chips from wanting to leave the tube. I know there’s an element of “you don’t know until you try” with these things but thought I’d see if anyone had maybe tried it, I’ve included a sketch of what I have in mind if that helps. Thank you for your time!
Replies
If this is a Dewalt 735 planer, you might be trying to make a collection bin that is more complex than it needs to be. The 735 has an ejection fan which pushes the chips out the exhaust port in the back. Because of that fan, it should just push them all out without a problem. I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish with your design, but just using a small length of flexible or rigid 4" dust collection hose from the planer exhaust port into the cover of a barrel should be sufficient to collect virtually all the chips. It's possible the design you are duplicating is actually impeding the air flow from the ejection fan. No bends in the hose or only a slight bend would also likely give best results. Simple may be better in this case; many times that's true.
Although I have a big dust collector, decades ago I owned a Hitachi 12” planer. It was a great machine, maybe the same power as a Dewalt, but it had no chip blower. I used a big plastic trash can, cut pieces out of top for a screen, and rather than have a pipe with angles, I made a little platform for the can and piped straight into the side of the can, near the top. Worked great, without a chip blower.
Start with a minimalistic setup - just the DC and the hose. If that does the job then you can start to add bits. Remember that the Thien baffle will rob a LOT of CFM from your collector.
I think Rob_SS has hit on the problem... I see no allowance for added suck in the drawings, only a passive filter. Without a dust collector or even a shop vac pulling air through the bucket/bafle assembly all you are doing is adding back pressure. The setup as drawn is serving as a partial plug to the planer's chip ejection fan.