Hey everyone,
Last night I noticed the dust vacuum connected to the planer and router table doesn’t appear to be working 100%. Not sure what the issue is, but I believe that it is the suction power or something.
Someone else at the space helped me take the hose off so we could remove the huge pileup that was caught inside. This seemed to help a bit, but I’m not sure if the same thing is just going to occur.
Sorry for the late post, forgot to post when I got home.
I assume this happens when people don’t turn on the dust collector and the hose gets loaded up/clogged.
@carsuaga thanks for following up (that was me at the space with you). The same thing did occur when I was there last night.
Took a closer look today and there’s no seal/valve in the hose going from the dust collector to the router, so we’ve probably also got a loss of vacuum power because of that. The “slider valves” for the sander / planer also don’t even seal fully, as far as I can tell…
maybe we could get slightly more durable aluminum ones? https://www.rockler.com/4-metal-blast-gates
Blast gates for dust systems typically don’t seal very well by themselves - they usually have indicated upstream and downstream sides so the vacuum pulls the gate tight to the housing when it’s running.
That said, it’s also possible ours aren’t very good 
Oh okay, awesome @gmossessian, it was good to meet you. I was hyper focused on getting my first cutting board and box done that day, apologies that I forgot to ask for your name lol.
Regarding the dust bag for the dust collectors, just want to make sure that the way I’ve been installing it is correct? I’ve just been kinda guessing:
Thanks for the help!
I just did a bit of research, and saw a few potential problems with the dust vac:
Something like sandpaper or a large piece of wood could be blocking the pipes somewhere.
The motor itself could be damaged (not sucking properly)
Perhaps before we buy anything, we can just try checking all of the pipes out at least? I know we only took off the first one that connects to the planer.
The blast gates aren’t a perfect seal, but they don’t need to be. A dust collector goes for a huge volume of airflow and a small amount of leakage from unused gates isn’t going to compromise the flow.
I took a look. The hand router table now has a 4" hose hooked up to it with no blast gate. So, we can’t focus the flow on one machine. But most important, the Delta dust collector shaker felt bag looks pretty fully clogged. The clear plastic bag and shaker felt are rigid with back pressure. Clean the filter bag
This really does need to be plumbed into the main dust collector system. The one the table saw and miter station are on is modded and has way more capacity than its nameplate, it absolutely can support more tools. It would make a lot of sense to install a bulk trap in that area and plumb it as cleanish small-particulate air back to the system. Also, a floor sweep port here would be a huge time saver.
There’s a new filter bag on top of the stewards cabinet.
Eric
@EricP ok I’ll take a look at replacing it tonight, but as I’m not sure what I’m doing I’ll err on the side of doing nothing if I’m not totally confident.
I believe the blast gate on the planer is broken.
didn’t get around to it tonight, trying to finish a project before surgery on friday.
doing glue ups tomorrow, might have time then though not certain.
@jamesfreeman the actual slider falls out of all of them. nor does it close all the way on any of them. @dannym it’s not even that they don’t form a perfect seal, it’s that they only close 2/3 of the way.
If a floor sweep port is what I think it is, that sounds awesome. Just push broom everything into it…
Sometimes the tracks get clogged with grot. If they don’t disassemble, try taking them out and blowing out all the nooks and crannies with the air compressor.