G0454Z foam/sponge material?

[Elijah Fontenot]

I just got my G0454Z and I was wondering if I'm supposed to leave the sponge/foam material under the chip breaker and under the hood?

Did you leave it or pull it? My question is asked b/c my HF DC hooked directly to it (Necked down from 5" to 4" off the planer) doesn't do that good of chip collection. I get a decent amount of chips that come back out of the front of the planer. I thought it might be b/c of the foam, or the need for more CFM. But before I remove it, I thought I'd ask.

[Jim Andrew]

I bought a new G0453, and removed the foam. It appears to be there to seal off the air from the gap around the feed roller. Guess they think you will get more chips just from around the cutterhead. But on mine, the gap is so small that it appears to restrict the air too much to allow good dust collection. My dust collector gets all the dust even if I forget to close the gate to my jointer, so have 2 gates open.

[Cary Falk]

I removed it on my G0453Z. It was causing chips to fall on the board and get pressed in with the rolleer.