15 inch planer

[teakwood]

Plastic chip pipe- I hope it's got a ground wire? I switched to the clear duct with a wire spiral. Bought an Amazon warehouse return bargain of a long piece.
My Transpower branded/Taiwan mfg. 20" planer is identical design of the 15" showing here above. I paid extra for a 5hp motor on mine.

why grounded? it's plastic, i use this setups since over 15 years, never had a problem. My old planer above is a 20" with a spiralhead update, it's a shopfox, but they are all the same. it has a 5hp single phase

[teakwood]

Is that a ball valve for a blast gate?  First one I've seen, but I like it.

4" pvc tubing with ball valve. there is no such thing as dust systems, ducts or blast gates in Costa Rica, we use what's available.

[Southside]

Maybe your air is humid enough, or maybe you have been lucky, but chips going through PVC will cause static electric build up and yes you can get a very significant spark to jump from it - enough to burn a place down, thus the common solution is to ground the PVC.  

[Ianab]

Rainforest climate? Probably humid enough to limit static buildup. The size of the discharge is related to the amount of unearthed surface. A small system can built up a charge, but not enough to generate a big enough energy to ignite things. Can be enough to annoy the operator though, think the sort of shock you sometimes get while stepping out of a car. That's a good enough reason to use a ground wire even in a small shop. 

It becomes more critical on larger industrial installations, bigger the system, the more charge it can build up. But they usually use metal piping, so grounding is easier (and more necessary)

[teakwood]

in the 15 years never ever felt something like a even small discharge when touching the pipes. Pipe touches the stone wall alot of times, maybe this discharges the build up. there are metal bands holding the pipe against the wall also

[Don P]

Shhh, my ground wire across the 8' of 8" pcv pipe hooked to the fan on my mill has been off for, years. I also know I have been flat out, blue spark, nailed by the static from a little shop vac. I suspect everything around my mill and fan is damp and sitting/sinking into the ground. It doesn't make it safe practice, they should be bonded, but there is another sketchy ground path connecting it all together and dissipating the charge. It's kind of like the ground on a Dodge, iffy  :D

I'm pretty sure the cyclone over the building outside got hit by lightning on a shop I was working in. We were inside with a light show going on along the dust system. Nothing caught fire and nobody got a tickle, most of the time you get lucky I guess. And to be Mom, there should be an extinguisher on that wall. If there is a fire shoot into the intake. The conduit Walnut was talking about is protect those bare wires in something. My friends bang into things, regularly. This ends our public service announcement for the morning, carry on 

[kantuckid]

My puters weather report says today's humidity will be 94%. It cannot get much higher humidity than here!- yet static is a real danger as stated above already. Eastern KY is a jungle like humidity most days all summer but we still have static.  
 
I will admit to playing that ungrounded plastic pipe game myself and was lucky. They do blow up and hurt people.  Then I made the change.
I also used to use a shop vac on my router table but now have it going into my chip system. I found only one company that sold a reducer from 4" duct to 1.5" router table dust/chip connector but saves toting chips and noise too. 

[Southside]

The outfeed of my planer is extended 10' with a section of skate rollers, there is a gap between the planer outfeed table and the rollers, those rollers are supported by plastic saw horses.  I had to ground the skate rollers as everyone was getting a static shock when it was dry out off the lumber rolling down the roller, it comes off a HDPE surface onto the rollers so my guess is the charge was being developed by the planer head itself.  

[Nebraska]

I saw an add for a Foley - Belsaw planer molder. It was actually  on the way to the cabin and I needed to make a quick run so I stopped. It had sat out in an unheated shed for a couple years,  had no in /out feed tables, needed  a new switch  and lots of elbow grease to polish it back up. It didn't have any of the molder accessories or the sander. It had potential  but I have enough projects, i passedon it. He did have a Jet dust collector. I bought that for $150.00 seemed like an ok price. 

[Al_Smith]

All I've got is a 12.5" Dewalt my wife bought me .It does okay but you can't crowd it too much plus it cups the end of the board .I can deal with it no more than I use it .It's not a lunch box but it certainly is not a professional machine . To counter act the cupping I just cut the rough stock a little longer .Then use the drops for kindling wood .It's not a total waste .

[Nebraska]

 

 

Found one.   A Delta  DC- 380 15" it seemed to have very little wear. Talked my semi retired carpenter buddy into borrowing his skid steer to helping move it out of the fellows shop it was in. Ex owner is retired and he and his wife are moving and down sizing. He bought for his H-O scale model railroading project work.  It gets to live in Rick's heated and air-conditioned shop for a while until I get a better place for it permanently.  Should do what I need. I gave 500.00$ for it I think I'll come out ok on the deal.

[Don P]

That's the planer I have. I've been getting parts from Grizzly. Jack it all the way open and check/change the gearbox oil. On the side your friend is on there are 2 sheet metal covers inside the opening and then the large center allen on the outside cover. Pry the black cover off its dowel pins and inspect the drive chains and sprockets for tension and wear. Good little machine, if you burn it up it works really well with a 5 horse on it.

[Nebraska]

Thanks for the heads up Don  8)

[Bruno of NH]

Mine is a copy of that out of the same factory in Taiwan.