J. Phil Thien's Projects

Enigmadan - Yeah, there's a bare copper wire that runs up the inside of the garbage can, then screws to the metal wire in the short bit of dust hose. Then on the other end of the hose I connected a short piece of wire from the hose-wire and slipped it under the screw you can see in the pic.

I tested that screw for continuity with ground by touching hooking it up to that and the ground on the plug.

So far it seems to be working great.

Kelly -

I was milling up a lot of wood. Not sure how many board feet to gallon, but next time I'll measure it.  Suppose it depends on how much I have to take off... hrmm...  and.. it's not at all a _compact_ 20.  It's fluffy.  I'd think 10g would be fine, just have to empty it more often, but it's easy to empty.

I got a deal on the planer that included the tables so have never used them without.

Kelly - The epoxied 16d was done before I ran it. Someone in a thread here mentioned vibration and I was able to move the baffle by pressing on it so I figured might as well do it before putting it all together.

I have noticed that the planer does put out some very very fine dust.  So have modified the outlet so I can attach my DC to it. Which as a nice bonus means I can swap the inlet hose with the jointer when I'm doing a lot of jointing.

I've filled that can 4 times in 4 days already :)

Hey all - I picked up a lot of good information from this forum and wanted to post some pics/notes about the setup I built in case it helps someone else and because no matter how hard she tries to fake it, my wife doesn't think it's as cool as I do and I have to tell someone :)

tldr: Using the blower on the Dewalt 735 without a vacuum works great. no chips escape.

A couple weeks ago I planed a bunch of lumber and had to empty my 35gal dust collector drum three times in one morning. I'd seen videos of the thien and decided to make one. I wanted one that would also act as a stand for the planer.  I also wanted the overall height to be just above my table saw so I could use it as a longer out feed table. That didn't end up happening, but mostly because I made the baffle taller than my plans since I had the material and by that point didn't care as much.  This is also why I went with a 20 gal trash can instead of a larger 32 gal.  All in all though I like the height it ended up at. Comfortable to use.

The baffle is about 21" diameter and 8" tall. Inlet is 4" on top, but then elbows and has about 5" of horizontal before entering the baffle. Outlet is 4" and there's a 2" gap between the bottom and the baffle itself.  I didn't cut rings on the bandsaw like a lot of videos show, but ended up cutting dados with a 1/8" router bit in two sheets of plywood.  The vertical supports around the baffle are twofold - help hold the weight of the planer so nothing is resting on the lexan and because I had scrap lexan I had not one, but two seams so this made it easier to bend them around and have them stay in place while I screwed/caulked them in.  I cut a recess into the bottom of the baffle and epoxied in a framing nail. This seems to have eliminated any flexibility in that bottom baffle and doesn't impact things [much?].

After first run and a fairly decent shock from the hose coming out the planer I grounded that hose to the planer one it's end, then attached the other end to some bare copper that runs down the side, under the bottom edge of the baffle and then screwed to under edge of baffle.  The garbage can also has a length of bare copper epoxied vertically along the inside (set into one of the recesses of the can itself) and comes up and over the garbage top. When attached the two wires are in contact.  It seems to make a huge difference and I can't detect any static build up anymore.

The underside of the planer is higher than it looks. There's about a 3" space between the bottom of the planer and the outlet vent. Air seems to escape just fine.

The garbage can sits just inside a ring of plywood (scraps from cutting the baffle slot) and on some 1/2" weather stripping. Two cam levers press against the bottom of the can handles and hold it snugly to the baffle. Once secured there is about 3/4" clearance between the can and the ground. Pretty critical to securely attach the can. On an early test run the blower is strong enough it just pushes it away. Heh.

Anyway. Thanks for reading and I hope this helps someone!

Quick vid of it working: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p99LIZz9PE

A few pics might show metal tape instead of the ground wire. While it worked, it didn't stick very well so I replaced it.

bbain - That is great to hear about your experience. And yeah.. it works soooo well.

I think a little. You know I really ought to go do some measurements.

Still interested in the overall theory of having a bigger outlet than inlet, but really just curious.

Dang thing works amazingly well right now!

The outlet is 1/2" proud of the top of the baffle. And it extends down into the baffle leaving about a 2" gap till the bottom portion.

There may or may not be enough room for air to escape. Something I'm testing and will raise it up a bit if necessary (the planer has "legs" so it looks more trapped than it is).  I've noticed the pressure even when the planer isn't on it though.

Inlet goes into the top, and immediately into a right angle so air/chips shoot in horizontally as they should.

Can you clarify what "allowing bypass" means?  Does that mean that if the outlet hole is too big air/chips can make it into the center of the baffle and get pushed up and out before having a chance to fall down through the slot?

Alternatively.. if it works fine as it is now, is there any reason to worry about a little pressure? Like.. will that strain the blower?  It doesn't seem excessive (not like if I capped it completely).

Hi all -

I have the Dewalt planer that has it's own blower. I've built my system and it works great. No chips escape. 4" inlet and outlet. 20" diameter baffle.  I notice when I flip it on that there is [obviously] some positive pressure on the garbage can.

Got me wondering what would happen if I enlarged the outlet to 6" diameter? Would that be better or worse? Easy to try, but kind of hard to revert if I'm wrong.

I realize this isn't the usual setup (blower vs vacuum) but hoping someone might have some thoughts...

Thanks!