Official Luthiers Forum!

Todd, I don't use the hold down, I have not found it necessary. Wood enters with ease, exists with ease. These are really easy to use. Level the table!!!!

The width of your boards and ability to plane them will be tied to the width available on your Drill Press between the cutters and back pipe arm the table is attached to. If you have the depth here then you can join your sides and plane away, I don't so I do each side individually as stated and then join.

My drill press has a 10" throat so with the width of the fence it means I can plane out to about 9" wide in each direction. To get the best out of the planer you do need a very solid bench or floor drill. I do each board before joining to about 4mm and then take them down further after joining. finishing off with the drill press sanding disc then the hand held ROS.

The hold down comes into it's own with things like headplates.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Todd, another idea -I built a hood for the dust collector and attached the hold down to that so that it doesn't move back with the fence.

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Scott Thompson
Port Townsend,WA

"In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room"
-Billy Bragg

Thanks, guys. I'll try it on my next build.

Cool idea, Scott!

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

Hey Scott, I was just going to ask what you guys use for dust collection on the drill press.That looks like a good set up. Anyone else ?

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

I was not using anything until I saw this set up above. I would make a run, shop vac on and at hand, vac the work board and take another swipe. The plane really throws the sawdust and drill presses are a hard item to air plumb................until now - Thanks Scott

Mike
White Oak, Texas

If you use a collector behind the fence like mine, it helps to undercut the fence at the curved cutaway so that the heavier shavings are sucked under the fence. Otherwise, they will just pile up in that recess. The picture above shows a small cutout under the fence, but since then I have expanded it out the full length of the cutaway and up a bit taller and then reinforced that part of the fence on top.

It isn't a perfect solution, but most of the shaving are thrown back in the hood. If the shaving are too big and heavy to get sucked up, I know I'm cutting to deep.Scott Thompson38788.9328935185

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Scott Thompson
Port Townsend,WA

"In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room"
-Billy Bragg

Thanks for the clarification and info, I am going to build one this week.

Much appreciated

Mike
White Oak, Texas

I just got that new magnetic thingy from Lee Valley. Stick your hose in it and put it on anything metal and it stays and works well. Don't have a photo at the moment.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

I'm curious about the RPM the drill press is turning when your using the Safety Planer?

Mike

I'm also curious about the minimum requirements for a drill press. Colin
your setup looks awesome and very economical spacewise!

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

They recommend 4000rpm+. So a fairly large drill press is optimum.

Colin

_________________
I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

My drill press is set at around 3800 rpm's, they recommend 4000 rpm's. This is the highest mine will go and it seems to work fine. A little faster would probably be better I would imagine. I actually put this on a small Drill press I have that runs about 3400 tops to do some test runs on scrap and it did fine as well. If you are purchasing a new drill press get a big one with a wide gullet. The Safety Planer has alot to do with feel from my perspective. Different woods feel different going through the process. Always run some scrap through a time or two of the same material if possible. I found this to be helpful.

Mike

Old Man,

I remember seeing one of those myself somewhere. At the time I was considering one, however, with the Safety planer and the wood deck, I just could not find any metal to attach the fixture to.

Mike

Another dust collection solution is a floor stand.



http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/11678

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Scott Thompson
Port Townsend,WA

"In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room"
-Billy Bragg

Colin, I like the caster you use. If it swivels, it would work much better for me than mine because I only move the fence back from the left so the angle of feed is always changing.

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Scott Thompson
Port Townsend,WA

"In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room"
-Billy Bragg