Improving This Planer with YOUR Help!

My planer has problems and YOU helped me!

Recently I asked you all on Instagram about what problems you have with your planers and that helped me to solidify my decision to fix my planer problems. There’s three big issues I decided to address and knock out: 1: get it off the ground and 2: improve dust collection and 3: in feed and out feed. 

1. Planer Stand Box
2. Improve Planer Dust Collection
3. Planer Infeed and Outfeed
4. Paint it Black

1.Planer Stand Box

I cut down 6 pieces of plywood just to make a huge box – I made sure it would fit a pretty large trash can for the dust collection. Next, I used pocket holes to attach it all together to be strong – like Anthony.

This giant box needs to be strong enough for the planer to sit on as well as large enough to hold the dust collection can. The half inch plywood that the box is made from won’t be strong enough for the planer. So I added a stringer across the inside top to help support the weight of the planer. Adding the door was pretty simple construction with adding hinges into end grain on the plywood – which isn’t the best location for hinges, but it won’t be open and closed often. Last, to keep the door in place, I added a magnet feature to keep it from opening and closing on it’s own – especially when moving the planer around the shop. 

2. Improve Planer Dust Collection

Next, I worked to improve the planer dust collection. The purpose of having the door was to be able to access the trash can inside to have easy dust collection. The fitting on the planer for the dust collection is a little different so it took some problem solving to find the right way to fit. I 3D printed a coupler to adapt the current nozzle to a piece of PVC pipe. That allowed a flexible hose from the planer nozzle through to the side of the box. Using an elbow PVC with a coupling in the inside of the box, I was able to hold that hose in place. 

When I tried it out for the first time, the strength of the planer dust collection blew the door open. To fix that, I added a hole with an air filter to allow air flow but without dust entering the air. 

3. Planer Infeed and Outfeed

The last issue with the planer that I tackled was to figure out a solution for the in feed and the outfield. When you run a board through a planer, it needs to be perfectly parallel. I picked up a shelf piece of melamine from the store and used that as the base to mount in the planer. That melamine coupled with foldable roller on a stand will help with the parallel in feed and out feed issue.

One more issue that was brought up was how loud the planer is. I tried adding some foam under the planer and while it helped a little, it really didn’t make a huge difference. I still highly suggest wearing ear protection while using it. 

4. Paint it Black

To wrap up the planer, I added some aluminum angle to the edges of the air filter opening and painted the whole planer box to look really sleek. I also added another piece of flexible hose on the inside of the box to really make sure the saw dust and chips went directly into the can.

Thanks for your planer improvement suggestions from Instagram! What else would you want to see improved?