Hey everyone! I'm a beginner woodworker and I've been trying to rip and plane some thin strips for laminating. I'm having issues with my planer not clearing shavings effectively. Many of the strips end up with indentations from the drive reels, and I keep facing inconsistencies. The inflow sometimes jams up too, even though I constantly use air to help out. I was wondering if it's a terrible idea to remove the plastic sides of the planer to let the shavings escape better. Just to give you some context, the finished material is about 5mm thick, and I'm mainly working with cedar using a budget Mastercraft unit. Any advice would be appreciated!
2 Answers
It sounds like you might not have a proper dust collector. If that's the case, investing in one could really improve your experience! While you might still need to clear out chips occasionally, a dust collector would pull out a significant amount of shavings as you work. It's definitely worth considering!
Removing any covers from your planer is definitely not a good idea! It's really unsafe to see the blades exposed while it’s running. Plus, running it without a cover can mess with the overall performance and possibly damage your tools. It's best to find other ways to manage the shavings while keeping everything intact.
Thanks for the suggestion! I'm currently using a large shop vac with a dust deputy collector. Do you think that setup would work better with my planer?