The dust collector has a built-in level sensor for the dust bin, but we had never set it up in the past because all it did was light a small LED on the main panel. It was hard to see even if you looked for it. But now we’ve connected that with a relay to power a much bigger red light. It took a bit to get the sensor adjusted correctly, but it seems to be set about right now.
That means, if that light comes on steady, then the dust collector bin needs to be emptied. Stop work immediately and do so. The light does flicker at times; that is usually because the bag inside is flapping in the way of the sensor. So when you empty the bin and replace the bag, try to flatten the bag against the walls of the bin, particularly against the back.
There was little excuse for letting the dust collector bin get overfull before; there is none at all now.
We will work to eliminate that flicker; when we do, we will likely upgrade the light to something even more obvious. We may even add an audible alarm.
Could we add a task to the workday for someone to plumb a light bulb over to the jointer/planer as well?
I would volunteer but I’ll be building the outfeed table on that day.
Thanks for adding this. Works great and when the light comes on, the bag is at a perfectly manageable level in terms of schepping it out to the dumpster.
The bag can get in the way. Plus, old bags seem to trigger it more. If there are lots of holes around the rim of the bag, it’s time to replace. Stewards can get a new bag.
Right now, the output is literally a duplex plug. If you want a light elsewhere, you can just run an extension cord.
The light will trigger if the back of the bag isn’t flush against that wall. Sometimes even the sides can trigger it. That’s why it’s important we teach people to make it flush to the walls, but other things can disturb it. We may need some mechanism to address that, but it had been behaving well since I did the last adjustment.
The flickering and false alarms are why it doesn’t (yet!) have a flashing light and siren.
