New planer - questions

[br549]

I broke down and bought one from Shopsmith a while back, after being unable to find a used one for much less than the cost of new.

The kit included what Shopsmith also sells separately (for older versions of the dust chute): a metal deflector to improve efficiency.

Your homemade version is perhaps just similar to the early plexiglas version without the metal deflector. Odds are the metal deflector will not fit yours.

As far as how well it works, mine does an amazing job. Even though I work on the driveway, it is still nice to not have to sweep or deal with all of the windblown shavings and dust.

[adrianpglover]

I did end up getting the SS version. While mine looked similar, it didn't do nearly as good of a job as the SS version. I did have to modify the metal piece of it some as it was coming in contact with the outfeed roller, depending upon how much sideways pull the dust collector hose had on it. I also have to keep an eye on my chip separator (as I only have a 5 gallon dust deputy) because I've quickly found out that the planer will stop feeding stock if I let it backup all the way to the planer.