Wagner safety planer and Gilbert disk dust control?

[Matthew Lau]

Hey mimfers,

A few months ago, I finally used my safety planer.
I needed to thickness rosewood, and didn't feel up to hand planing it.

It worked great, but was really messy.

Any tips/ideas on dust control?

[Barry Daniels]

It produces more chips than dust. So what you need instead of a dust collector is a shield to prevent chips from being thrown in all directions. A shower curtain hung from the ceiling, encircling the drill press would be one approach.

[Matthew Lau]

Thanks for the tip.

Would that also work for the Gilbert sanding disk?

[Waddy Thomson]

I use the Gilbert Sanding disk for much of my thicknessing of sides, backs, purflings, nuts, saddles and almost anything else that needs thicknessing. What I do is to clamp a vacuum hose, which goes through a Dust Deputy, to the left back edge of the drill press table about 1" from the disk. It picks up about 90 - 95% of the dust. The rest settles on the table behind the disk and to the right. After every few passes, I raise the disk, and use a soft horsehair bench brush to move the dust into the vacuum. I don't run the press at it's fastest speed either, which helps keep the dust from becoming airborne.

[Matthew Lau]

Thanks for the tips

Since the last post, I'd butchered some gorgeous Alaskan Yellow Cedar with my Wagner Safety Planer. Aaargh!
I'll probably be building a drum sander in the near future...thinking of doing Pat Hawley's design, and mounting it on a rolling stand to stay under my future workbench.

Thankfully the wood is still salvageable....with hand planes.