Pleasant surprise with Ridgid planner

[Jerome Hanby]

Hooked it up yesterday and plugged the shop vac into it for the first time. The combo actually did a good job of clearing the dust and shavings. Had a very small amount (less than a palm full after reducing a 6+ foot long 6 inch wide 4/4 poplar board to 1/2) collect on the in-feed table, nothing on the ground (until I brushed the table off <g>). Would think it would do even better if I changed the dust collection chute around to us the 4" fitting and hooked it to one of my delta dust collectors.

[Dan Hahr]

Unless your shop vac is tiny, I'd stick with it. The 4" collectors just don't move air fast enough. What I like about my Dewalt 735 is that with the shop vac attached (Ridgid 6.5 16 gal) a palm full of chips means that something is clogged. It's usually the barrel.
Dan

[johnny means]

Unless your shop vac is tiny, I'd stick with it. The 4" collectors just don't move air fast enough. What I like about my Dewalt 735 is that with the shop vac attached (Ridgid 6.5 16 gal) a palm full of chips means that something is clogged. It's usually the barrel.
Dan

I bet any dust collector would do a better job than any shop vac. Shop vacs just don't move as much air as a dust collector. Large amounts of shavings will move more easily through a larger hose on a larger volume of air. I operated my 20" j/p with a 1 hp dust collector for months before buying my current dc. That little Delta never once failed to clear the chip from my planer, even when taking an eighth inch off of a 20" wide board. I guarantee no shop vac could swallow that.

[Charlie Gummer]

Unless your shop vac is tiny, I'd stick with it. The 4" collectors just don't move air fast enough. What I like about my Dewalt 735 is that with the shop vac attached (Ridgid 6.5 16 gal) a palm full of chips means that something is clogged. It's usually the barrel.
Dan

Doesn't exactly seem an apples to apples comparison with the 'Chip Extracting Fan' on the 735....I have one (a 735) and it works great to spew chips out on it's own but to my knowledge that is not a feature of other lunchbox planers.

[Chris Kennedy]

I have a 734, and when I hooked it up to my albeit small DC (1 hp, Penn State Industries), the shavings choked the impeller. It was at that moment that I remembered when I ordered it, the guy asking if I was planning to hook it to a planer. Now I use a Dust Deputy to catch the chips, and I have only had good experiences using either my shop vac or my DC.

Chris

[Jerome Hanby]

When I get my "honey-do" list down to less than a lethal level, one of my next shop projects is to get the pair of delta dust collectors that I got for $40 and $60 respectively setup for use. Part of the setup will be a pre-separator can with a Thien baffle that will sit on their cart just below the motor/impeller housing. Hopefully that will keep all the "heavy" stuff away from the impeller. Also need to find a good deal on some smaller micron bags to replace the existing ones...

[Tom Hargrove]

I have the Ridgid planer, and used it with both medium (Ridgid) and large (Craftsman) shop vacs before I purchased a small Delta dust collecter on close out. It is similar to the current model 50-720. I added a Wynn cartridge filter and a Thien style pre-separator just below the intake like Jerome plans to do. This set up wins hands down over either of the vacuums and the basic collector set up.

[Mark Ashmeade]

I have a Harbor Freight DC, with a trashcan Thien separator, which normally works just fine on my RIDGID R4330. Hardly ever anything in the DC bag. However, I recently planed some 10' long, 12" wide laminated 2x4 slabs, and the separator clogged easily. It does have its limitations. Ultimately, I need more oomph from the DC. Which means a new one really, and if I'm going to do that, it may as well be a cyclone, and to get the best out of it, I need to change the 4" piping to 6". Which means it ain't happening yet :)

[Dan Hahr]

I bet any dust collector would do a better job than any shop vac. Shop vacs just don't move as much air as a dust collector. Large amounts of shavings will move more easily through a larger hose on a larger volume of air. I operated my 20" j/p with a 1 hp dust collector for months before buying my current dc. That little Delta never once failed to clear the chip from my planer, even when taking an eighth inch off of a 20" wide board. I guarantee no shop vac could swallow that.

Well, the Ridgid is not a 20" planer. I have a 15" and would not use a shop vac with it either, regardless of the fact that the dust chute is 5".

I've used my Powermatic 1.5 hp 4" collector with both the Dewalt and an older Delta lunchbox. In fact, I still leave it hooked up to the dust collector just for the fact that it has much more capacity (as in space for chips). However, the shop vac has always done a better job of clearing chips. I think it is because there is lots less room for air intake, as compared to a much larger machine.
Dan