A cheaper alternative for dust collection...

**SWR** · 13th March 2005, 07:12 PM

Hello all,

There was a thread recently about fitting a dust chute/collector from timbecon to the budget end of the thicnesser/planers (~$399).

For memory it was about $50.00.

Fine for those who want to solash the cash, but being someone who most times can do it cheaper some other way I put the old grey matter to work as to how I could do this cheaper and more simple.

For myself in my shed, I use 4" stormwater pipe for all of my dust collection.

I use a central line that goes right the way around my workshop with a Shing-Phong-Ping (no-name) 1Hp dust collector and use a piece of 4" pipe joined to a length of 4" flexible line.

So I have fabricated a "port" to fit over the chip collector on my GMC thicknesser. It is simply a piece of 4" pipe with a slot cut in it to size.

It works an absolute treat and collects about 98% of all dust and chips.

Cost to build...about $10.00

The design will be adaptable to just about all of the thicknessers and the mounting couldn't be simpler. The GMC, as many of the cheapies do, have a chip director mounted by two wing nuts. All I have done is cable tie around the port and then loop around the wing nuts.

For me who uses 4" pipe, all I did was cut an end that has the flange to join to other pipes which gave me the connection to my system.

The pictures are much easier to understand...

Cheers to all,

Scott in peakhurst.

**Barry_White** · 13th March 2005, 08:23 PM

Scott

That is quite an inovative way of collecting the bulk of chips from the thicknesser and will be the next mod on my list. That is far better than cutting a 4" dia hole in the top and having the chips clog up in the corners. Congratulations!

**la Huerta** · 27th July 2005, 04:48 PM

SWR...your a bloody genius, very clever , solves the problem hands down!!!

**Ausworkshop** · 11th September 2005, 07:56 PM

I've put mine on a Stand with Wheels.
The wheels are available from Hafele and I have used them on a few of my machines that i don't use that much, this way I can just wheel them out as needed. The price of the stands are cheap enough to just leave permanantly screwed to the machine. The wheels lock to prevent wheels spining around & also prevent the castors turning so once all four are locked it provides quite a safe sturdy mounting surface for my machines. I have a Radial Arm Saw set up the same way.

Just make sure you lock the wheels before use or it may be a little unsafe.

These Hafele ones from Germany work great, I haven't tried any cheaper ones but I will stick with these because they lock so good and the rubber wheels grip the floor. Means setting up my thicknesser for use is now a breeze which means I'm more likley to use the thing.

Only problem I have had is with the infeed & outfeed tables, I adjust it perfect for short lenghts of timber then the whole thing needs re adjusting for long lengths. This is because the rollers are not at the same height as the in/out feed tables so it is impossible for mine to ever be level the whole way through. Anyone else had this problem?
The wood either drops to the table on the way out or is knocked up by the roller on the way out. Either way you end up with a sink mark on at least one end of the timber.

Eventually I want to set the whole thing down into a bench with micro level adjust which will solve this problem.

All in all a grunty little machine for its price. I just planned some rough cut Jarrah 70mm x 70mm in 3 meter lengths and it worked great apart from the 'tuning' problem mentioned above. I fed the big heavy things through by myself by walking from one side of the machine to the other and it is quite sturdy even when jacked up on wheels.

Thread: A cheaper alternative for dust collection...

Thread Tools

Search Thread

A cheaper alternative for dust collection...

I have a GMC thicknesser too. Mines a 4 wheeler!

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions