MiniMax FS35 jointer chip collection

[William C Rogers]

I recently bought a used Mini-Max FS35. The guy I bought it from installed a chip collection for the jointer using some metal duct. He said it worked better than the Mini-Max chip collection for the jointer. I remembering trying (one time) the Mini-Max collection and this did seem better. I am sure this can be tweaked and was wondering if others may have come up with a better system.

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[mreza Salav]

I have the FS-350 model and I'd say the weakest point on the machine is dust collection as it is with most J/P combo's (I think), particularly in jointer mode. It looks like the modified chip collection installed in yours seats a bit further back from the original but has a wider opening. I am guessing it has a 6" duct that is reduced to 4"? If you have the option, I'd use the 6" or at least 5" instead of the 4" (the original hood is 120mm which is close to 5").

[William C Rogers]

Mreza

Your observations are correct. I will be building a new house, workshop and moving sometime this year. I have the house basically designed, but have not even started on the workshop. I plan to do 6 inch for the dust collection system and put the twin dust collector in a separate room vented outside in the summer and filtered inside in the winter in the new shop. Still keep my single in the shop for some things. I need to do a lot better with my dust collection. I do remember forgetting to turn on the dust collector one time and it stopped up about 3-4 inches into the 4 inch pipe in about 2 passes of a 6 ft board. So the chips are going that way naturally. I would also like to make it the full width of the table. Right now it is about 2 inches each side short.

[David Kumm]

You do want a larger hose than 4". The long stringy shavings put out will plug up a 4" unless you are really pulling a lot of cfm through it. It will do well with the larger two bagger. Dave

[ian maybury]

+1 on lots of air flow being important...

ian

[Don Welch]

So for those running a bagger system, what type of dust collector do you have attached to your J/P [or separates of this size]?

[William C Rogers]

I have this hooked up to a two bagger. I think it is 1900 cfm. Running into a trash can Thein separator. Fills that quickly, but better than emptying the bags. Seems to work fine as is, but still want to improve the collection.

[Rich Riddle]

Thank you for posting this thread. It will be quite useful for me.

[Jim Becker]

For those of you not familiar with these combo machines...this is an important topic because you cannot run these tools without dust collection attached and running. They will clog up in about, oh...10-15 seconds and that's not a happy situation. There is no provision for "gravity" chip ejection. And because these wider machines can product copious amounts of chips and dust very quickly, you need 800-1000 CFM to clear them when working material. I can fill a 55 gallon bin in mere minutes when I'm face jointing and thicknessing en-masse.

[Alan Lightstone]

For those of you not familiar with these combo machines...this is an important topic because you cannot run these tools without dust collection attached and running. They will clog up in about, oh...10-15 seconds and that's not a happy situation. There is no provision for "gravity" chip ejection. And because these wider machines can product copious amounts of chips and dust very quickly, you need 800-1000 CFM to clear them when working material. I can fill a 55 gallon bin in mere minutes when I'm face jointing and thicknessing en-masse.

So true.

I find that >1000 CFM from my 5HP Oneida DC is insufficient for my Laguna Combo machine in jointer mode. I've also enlarged the air intact to 6" with 6" ducting, but the planer bed still fills up with wood chips instantly (as well as filling up a 55gal drum very quickly).

I'm going to just build a box to sit on the planer bed with a hose to the DC plugged into the end of it. That way the shavings that fall down on the planer bed will get sucked into the DC. A silly kludge, but the native chip collection just doesn't sufficiently work on my machine.

[David Kumm]

Alan, what is restricting the DC? With a 6" opening the 5 hp should be pulling 1200+ through a 6" port. Dave

[ian maybury]

Agreed.

It's possible even with a nominally OK chute, duct size and dust system combo to end up with the open air intake air area to be too small - so by virtue of pulling through too small a 'port' the sir flow ends up way down. Obvious stuff like a small hose connection, but also things like the chute flopping down to close up the gaps between its edges and the underside of the tables - and the gaps around the cutter alone not being big enough.

Or the opposite - too much air getting in somewhere, and starving somewhere else that needs more.

Or a chute with uncovered areas so that chips get thrown clear - and pressed into your work by the feed rollers...

There can be quite a lot to be gained by working through the chute set up to optimise it...


ian

[Richard Townsend]

hi all. i too recently bought an old (1987) FS35 which has no chip collection chute on the jointer. i saw the pictures of williams HVAC set-up (january 6th) and wonder if it works ok. i'll need to do something, cuz this beast makes chips at a furious rate. also, does anyone have the original knife setting tool that came with it? wondering if its worth searching for. i'm also interested in a mortising attachment. i have a unisaw mobile base i'm gonna try to modify to fit, so that should make things easier in my little shop. i'm interested in any feedback from guys with experience on this kind of unit. -rich

[Richard Coers]

I wonder why he mounted it so far from the cutter head? The way it is now, the chips have to land on the thickness planer table and then get pulled into the duct. I'd work up a mounting that moved it 6" closer to the head as a min. Maybe another custom adaptor on the front that also went as wide as the cutter head. Soft maple and especially poplar will clog that 4" almost instantly.

[Erik Loza]

I wonder why he mounted it so far from the cutter head? The way it is now, the chips have to land on the thickness planer table and then get pulled into the duct. I'd work up a mounting that moved it 6" closer to the head as a min. Maybe another custom adaptor on the front that also went as wide as the cutter head. Soft maple and especially poplar will clog that 4" almost instantly.

You know, I had the exact same thought. The OEM mounting position is on that first cast iron rib, right next to the quieting fingers. I applaud the ingenuity, though. Great idea and execution.


hi all. i too recently bought an old (1987) FS35 which has no chip collection chute on the jointer. i saw the pictures of williams HVAC set-up (january 6th) and wonder if it works ok. i'll need to do something, cuz this beast makes chips at a furious rate. also, does anyone have the original knife setting tool that came with it? wondering if its worth searching for. i'm also interested in a mortising attachment. i have a unisaw mobile base i'm gonna try to modify to fit, so that should make things easier in my little shop. i'm interested in any feedback from guys with experience on this kind of unit. -rich

Rich, you can get the knife setting tool and jig from our parts department. Phone number is 866-975-9663. No idea what it costs, though. Also, you could probably make any OEM dust snorkel from an FS35 Smart or whatever, work on your machine. Worst case would be drilling a tapping a few holes in the infeed table to screw it in place. Just my thoughts.

Best,

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[mreza Salav]

I wonder why he mounted it so far from the cutter head? The way it is now, the chips have to land on the thickness planer table and then get pulled into the duct. I'd work up a mounting that moved it 6" closer to the head as a min. Maybe another custom adaptor on the front that also went as wide as the cutter head. Soft maple and especially poplar will clog that 4" almost instantly.

Once you get closer to the cutter head you have less room for the dc and you'll have to make the opening thinner. The OEM (on my FS350) is closer to the cutter-head but the openning is something like 2" or so only so I'm guessing that with a wider opening (like the one in the OP) you might get the benefit of more air flow.

[Alan Lightstone]

So true.

I find that >1000 CFM from my 5HP Oneida DC is insufficient for my Laguna Combo machine in jointer mode. I've also enlarged the air intact to 6" with 6" ducting, but the planer bed still fills up with wood chips instantly (as well as filling up a 55gal drum very quickly).

I'm going to just build a box to sit on the planer bed with a hose to the DC plugged into the end of it. That way the shavings that fall down on the planer bed will get sucked into the DC. A silly kludge, but the native chip collection just doesn't sufficiently work on my machine.

I never reported back after making the collecting bin for my Laguna J/P that sits on the planer bed when I'm jointing. I'll have to take pictures later and post them.

The suction through the second port on the bin isn't sufficient in real time to suck the chips into the 5HP cyclone, but after I turn off the jointer I just tip the bin towards its hose and the cyclone sucks them up.

[Chris Padilla]

If I can remember and if you want, I can take a few pics of my MM FS41-Elite 16" j/p and you can see how it was done on that one. I believe it is 120 mm (~4 3/4") and I have a small metal taper on my 6" flex so that it fits snugly. I have not had any problems in either j or p mode in picking up all the wood debris.

[Alan Lightstone]

I never reported back after making the collecting bin for my Laguna J/P that sits on the planer bed when I'm jointing. I'll have to take pictures later and post them.

The suction through the second port on the bin isn't sufficient in real time to suck the chips into the 5HP cyclone, but after I turn off the jointer I just tip the bin towards its hose and the cyclone sucks them up.
I don't know if these are applicable to the OP's combo machine, but here's what I did. Not perfect, but it catches most of the shavings that fall onto the bed. Unfortunately, the don't get sucked up in real time, I have to take out the bin and tip it backwards, then the cyclone quickly sucks them up.
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[Richard Townsend]

eric, are you sure? i checked with mini max parts and was told this knife setting tool was no longer available.

[Erik Loza]

eric, are you sure? i checked with mini max parts and was told this knife setting tool was no longer available.

Time for a Byrd Shelix, then.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Don Welch]

We have a MM 41 Elite w/ a Dustek Dusty 2 bag DC attached via 6 in flex hose and one of these 6 to 5 inch reducers http://www.airhand.com/products/spun-reducers it's about 1900 CFM. Does a great job keeping up.

[Brian W Smith]

Don,thanks for posting that reducer.I was reluctant to respond before.......In general,most reducers are waaaay too short in their transition.Some may find this a bit pendantic,but it isn't really.The more abrupt the transition(typical HVAC reducer)the more *turbulance there is.The one you posted is what we(at our shop)would call a short to medium.Am sure there's tables and charts somewhere for this....dunno?I came from auto/motorcycle header design......which in some ways is a more "better" approach to DC than HVAC.

*turbulance....can be a good thing.For one,it causes the particulates to fall out of airstream.So,if you are building a "dropbox" collector,this is one of the reasons it works.