Art Mulder
01-15-2008, 2:49 PM
Yesterday, I planed a bunch of pine:
(Reclaimed waterbed frame actually. Picked from the trash last summer. Free wood is good.)
79295
A little while later, I occured to me that I should probably check on my DC, since planing is well known for generating buckets and buckets of shavings. I've got myself a 2HP Toolex single stange DC which works great. (Of course, Toolex is gone now. Second major tool I've bought only to have the company go away just a couple years later. Anyone else remember Trademaster? -- these were both Canadian importers folks, so my US friends can ignore this bit)
79294
It's a good thing I checked, as the dust bag was full to the top. I'm not kidding.
79296
It was a bit tricky getting it out of that corner without spilling, but fortunately there was a fair bit of excess bag wrapped around the DC "collar" under the clamp.
Even more fortunate was the fact that this was my first foray into using "contractor grade" trash bags for my DC.
79297
They were a bit pricey for the box (forget the price, but certainly more than a few bucks.) but now that I've emptied the DC once, I really really endorse using these.
Since I first bought my DC I have never used just the stock bags. The top bag was replaced with an oversized heavier duty 1 micron bag. For the bottom I went out and bought some big leaf bags. Those bags are not that strong, so I would just put them inside the stock fabric bag and clamp them both into place, and voila! Cheap and big. It worked okay for a year, but I noticed that I always had to be pretty careful when emptying the bag. One nice feature of leaf bags is that they are clear, so you could see through the 'window' in the fabric bag exactly how full it was. But they were also pretty thin, so I never dared fill the bag more than 1/2-2/3 full, and even then I had it tear a bit on me sometimes.
No more. These 3mil contractor bags are expensive, but sure are nice and tough also. It's tough enough that I don't need to wrap the fabric bag around it to prevent bursting under the air pressure. Also, mounting the bag is far easier (the fabric bag is heavy and tends to slip). Also, it's tough enough that it can take a larger load of shavings. I pulled out that full bag of shavings (now I admit, pine shavings are lighter) and the bag didn't complain at all.
Anyone else with a single-bagger DC might want to check these out for themselves.
(Reclaimed waterbed frame actually. Picked from the trash last summer. Free wood is good.)
79295
A little while later, I occured to me that I should probably check on my DC, since planing is well known for generating buckets and buckets of shavings. I've got myself a 2HP Toolex single stange DC which works great. (Of course, Toolex is gone now. Second major tool I've bought only to have the company go away just a couple years later. Anyone else remember Trademaster? -- these were both Canadian importers folks, so my US friends can ignore this bit)
79294
It's a good thing I checked, as the dust bag was full to the top. I'm not kidding.
79296
It was a bit tricky getting it out of that corner without spilling, but fortunately there was a fair bit of excess bag wrapped around the DC "collar" under the clamp.
Even more fortunate was the fact that this was my first foray into using "contractor grade" trash bags for my DC.
79297
They were a bit pricey for the box (forget the price, but certainly more than a few bucks.) but now that I've emptied the DC once, I really really endorse using these.
Since I first bought my DC I have never used just the stock bags. The top bag was replaced with an oversized heavier duty 1 micron bag. For the bottom I went out and bought some big leaf bags. Those bags are not that strong, so I would just put them inside the stock fabric bag and clamp them both into place, and voila! Cheap and big. It worked okay for a year, but I noticed that I always had to be pretty careful when emptying the bag. One nice feature of leaf bags is that they are clear, so you could see through the 'window' in the fabric bag exactly how full it was. But they were also pretty thin, so I never dared fill the bag more than 1/2-2/3 full, and even then I had it tear a bit on me sometimes.
No more. These 3mil contractor bags are expensive, but sure are nice and tough also. It's tough enough that I don't need to wrap the fabric bag around it to prevent bursting under the air pressure. Also, mounting the bag is far easier (the fabric bag is heavy and tends to slip). Also, it's tough enough that it can take a larger load of shavings. I pulled out that full bag of shavings (now I admit, pine shavings are lighter) and the bag didn't complain at all.
Anyone else with a single-bagger DC might want to check these out for themselves.