PM 2700 dust collection

[Randy Henry]

For anyone with the PM 2700, do you get much dust in the cabinet base? When I raise panels, I run them with the good side down and after running 5 panels, I have to stop and shop-vac out the cabinet and blow out the raising mechanism so I can raise and lower the spindle, as it gets clogged up. I have plenty of suction from my cyclone and I am confident its not to lack of airflow. I called PM and they are sending me a chute fitting that is like the one below the fence chute. I plan on drilling a 4" hole in the bottom of the side of the cabinet, with the bottom of the hole even with the inside floor and mounting the new chute there for a third hose hookup. Before I drill a hole in this machine and go through all of this work, I thought I would see if anyone else has had this problem and has any better ideas.

Thanks.

[Erik Christensen]

I have a 5 hp clearvue with 6" pipe up to a clearvue 6" to dual 4" transition and about 3' of 4" flex hose that connects to the dual ports of the PM2700. Never had more than trace dust in the cabinet and virtually nothing by the spindle.

I have yet to do any panel raising but have cut some big rebates and done some pattern shaping with a few generous cuts and never had any kind of dust buildup.

my 2 cents is your DC is not pulling enough for this tool

[Jordan Lane]

I agree, virtually no dust in my cabinet or around the spindle and i have done quite a few raised panels ...i have a cyclone dust collector as well...sounds like the bottom dust port is not drawing any air at all

[Jeff Monson]

Randy, how many spacers are you running under the cutter? I had to raise a couple of panels with the router bit collet adaptor and a router bit style panel raiser, thus the spindle was cranked up very high, I had terrible dust collection below the bit. When I raise panels with my 1 1/4" spindle I use the cutter on top (cut good side up) with 2 large spacers below and I get great dust collection and nothing in the cabinet.

My observation is the higher the spindle height, the more restriction there is for dust collection below the bit. I have never ran more than 2 spacers below the cutter, but would be interested to see what others use.

[Randy Henry]

Jeff, I think I am going to try your spacer method. I haven't been using any spacers under the cutter, but when I read your post, it occured to me that the plate under the table is cutting off the lower dust chute. If I were to put 2 thick spacers under the cutter, it would lower the plate and leave more of an opening in the chute, and hopefully give me more airflow.

[Philip Johnson]

I have I think a 3 hp 4 bag dust collector and usually only hook up the top hose, I get very little dust in the bottom in fact I have not ever cleaned it out.

Phil