Oh boy......

[Russell Svenningsen]

I should preface the story I am about to relate with the fact that I am a professor of music at the university here in Marshall, and it's nearly the end of the term. Finals are approaching, concerts are happening, recitals, etc. things are getting a bit higgledy-piggledy...

So last night I was working in my shop. I thought I'd make a couple of winding sticks with some walnut and maple I had on the lumber rack. I had the stereo playing louder than usual as I had just gotten a new recording of some Mahler orchestral songs, and I proceeded to cut the walnut to size and fired up my jointer to face-joint it, etc. As I was working, I began to see little chips fly out of the table of the jointer, a sure sign that my DC hook-up was clogged......again. I have been having problems on and off with the dust hood on my Delta 22-580 planer, but this was the first I'd had trouble with my jointer. I removed the hose and cleared the offending clog. I continued jointing the walnut.

It clogged...........again. I turned off the jointer.

Now I am quite frustrated(read: By "frustrated", I mean I am now talking to myself, cursing the DC, the jointer, the weather, anything I can). I walk to the stereo, turn it off. No good having it play if I can't concentrate. It's then that I notice it.

What is "it", you ask?

No humming of the DC motor. I hadn't turned it on.

To the best of my knowledge, not turning on the DC in the first place is a sure-fire way to get a clog in your machine, am I right?

Good heavens, I felt stupid.

Let me know I am not alone. What is the silliest thing you've done in the shop that did not result in an injury?

Best,
Russell

[Bill Lewis]

You are not alone.

When I have the hearing protection on, while running either the jointer or the planer, I can not tell if the DC is running (Oneida 2HP com). Granted, I've only had the DC up an running for a couple of months now.

BTW it clogs up even faster when you forget to open the blast gates. Well actually that's not true, it clogs up at about the same speed. Don't ask me how I know.;)

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Bill, it will also clog if you keep on opening up blast gates and never close any of them. DAMHIKT either :)

[Bill Lewis]

Well Jeff, yes and no. Technically I'm good with two 4" gates open in the shop. It's been ok with two 5" gates open so far. I think I could get by with two 5's and a 4 but hopefully I won't be THAT forgetful.
I bought the Oneida becasue I KNEW I would end up doing just this very thing.:D

[Jerry Bittner]

Well unlike you, I made sure the DC was turned on, and I made sure the blast gate was open, and I made sure the hose was connected to my new DeWalt 735 planer (with chip ejection -- important part of the story) and proceeded to plane some red oak.
After planing many board feet, I checked the garbage can -used with cylone seperartor -- and found it was full and the bag in the dust collector full as well.

Emptied both and while attempting to use the jointer found no suction at the blast gate. Long story short, when the DC and the garbage can filled, the chip ejector on the planer is so strong, it simply proceeded to back up the sawdust in my main collection line. Did a darn good job of packing about 20 feet back resulting in many frustrating hours of removing the blockage.

I nowwhen planing, check frequently on the garbage can and the DC capacity.

By the way, another lesson learned, is not to cement all your joints when using plastic pipe for dust collection. You never know when you may have to take it apart.

[Jim Becker]

The worse thing that has happened to me is overfilling the cyclone bin...which results in blow-by and a packed filter system. It's always that "just one more pass" mentality that results in this problem! (And yes, it's happened more than once)

[Keith Christopher]

No DC issues here, but a couple of weeks ago. I was searching madly for my safety glasses and well. ummm... I was wearing them. yeah that hurt.

[Ray Thompson]

In doing some cut to length on the mitre saw I pulled out the tape and measured the first board then proceeded to put the tape down in front of me and cut it in two pieces when I cut the board. Sooooo, I drug out a new backup tape and proceeded to do exactly the same thing on the second. I now have two tapes that are missing the first 18 inches, best part is they are within 1/8" of each other.

Ray

[Jason Roehl]

Yeah, I hate it when my DC clogs up, too. It's a royal PITR to have to scrape 1-2" of packed shavings off the garage/shop floor that have been building/coagulating for over a year. They're comfy to walk on, though. :D

[Ellen Benkin]

I've done the same thing many times. I carefully set up the machine, connect it to my mobile dust collector, turn the DC on, use the machine, turn everything off while I check my work, turn on the machine and procede to complete the project. It usually doesn't occur to me that something is wrong unless I see lots of dust flying around.

[Corey Hallagan]

I just wish I had a DC to begin with...... if I did, I can see me doing the same thing!

Corey

[Jim Hager]

dustcop on the aget dust collection system that we have at the school where I teach. A dustkop is a large filter of tubes that allow the ambient air to be recycled back into the building after passing through the cyclone. In the bottom of this filter is a dust bin where fines will fall into after the filters are shaken, it is about 14-15" high and about 36" wide and 48 inches deep. We don't clean it often and when we do we will get a big barrell full of fine sawdust etc. One of my students had opened this dustbox and cleaned out part of the mess. While he was gone to the dumpster with the dust another student turned on the dust collection system. The 7 hp motor fired right up and blew the remaining dust in the bin all over the shop with a tremendous amount of force. Needless to say we worked the rest of the day on shop cleanup and a good lesson on how to turn off the disconnect when you are cleaning the dust bin.

[Bill Lewis]

To Jim H., It sounds like you need to institute a "lock-out/tag-out" procedure. It'd be good for your students to learn about it. Pretty much an industry/goverment standard safety procedure.

To Jim B. the first time I used my DC I filled to capacity the 55 gallon drum. In fact, I overfilled it. There was at least 5-10 more gallons of dust up in the cone. :D

[Jim Becker]

To Jim B. the first time I used my DC I filled to capacity the 55 gallon drum. In fact, I overfilled it. There was at least 5-10 more gallons of dust up in the cone.

That was the origin of this accomodation:

http://sawsndust.com/images/webdisplay/bin-window-500.jpg

[Bill Lewis]

Yep Jim, I was just telling someone the other day that I probably needed to put a window in to the top of the can. I only have about 1" of explosed clear flex hose, so you can't see much through that. It was a pretty tight install for height.

My only concern is that it would become dust covered, or scratched up to the point that it would be unusable. Yours looks pretty clean.

[Jim Becker]

Bill, that's 1/4" Lexan and scratching is not going to be a significant factor, IMHO. In fact, that one is five years old as pictured. The only accomodation I need to make to "read the meter" is to have light available...my "night vision" isn't good enough to see down into the dark bin.

[Arnie Grammon]

No DC issues here, but a couple of weeks ago. I was searching madly for my safety glasses and well. ummm... I was wearing them. yeah that hurt.

BTDTRTBSTM


(Been there, done that, read the book, saw the movie!)

Arnie