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Location: Land of Enchantment
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Location: Santa Rosa Beach, FL
Dave, it sounds like you've got a 22-580 planer. And, I'm assuming you already have the accessory dust chute. That chute has a 4" connection for your dust collector. Can you use a reducer and hook it up to your shop vac? I would guess that a shop vac has more than enough power to pull the chips out of your planer. Seems like it would be much less messy that shooting chips at a trash bag.
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When I had a PM lunchbox planer, A small 5 gallon shop vac handled the chips just fine. Filled up rather quick, without a separator!
Never used a 735 The fan assisted chip system sounds like a great idea.
My PM jointer has a chute at 1 end that, with an extra flap, fills a container fine.
If you are buying a lunchbox planer to save space, and will have it on it's own stand (moving on and off a table to use gets old) You might want to measure the base size of the stand or mobile stand, you would need for it, and compare to the stand for a stationary planer.
My 13" Rockwell RC-33 measures 19 x 20" on it's base, which would be good for a roll stand. Overall size is 20" x 24"
I would think, for a rolling base for a lunchbox planer, I would want at least 18 x 20 for stability.
Point being. A lot of 12", 13" stationary planers don't really take up much more floor space, than a lunchbox on a mobile base.
I switched from a PM lunchbox to a Boice Crane 12" planer, and after that, would never buy a lunchbox again. Then recently bought a Rockwell RC-33 13" planer and it does as fine a job as the BC, and far better than the old lunchbox.
Then there is the price factor. I just sold my Boice Crane for $300. A decent price for a plug and play BC planer.
I paid $150 for the RC-33, and It just needed to be cleaned up. I think $150 was a great price. $400 would be a decent price.
I think if you could pick up an older stationary planer for up to $400, you would be much better off than with a lunchbox. Even a shinny new one with shinny plastic covers.
Now if you shop is really small, and you need to stick the planer under a bench, or on shelf for storage, a lunchbox is the ticket.
I long for the days when Coke was a soft drink, and Black and Decker was a quality tool.
Happiness is a snipe free planer
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The old ridgid lunchbox which was the new steel city lunchbox works quite well for what it is. The fan will blow all the chips out if your hose falls off... Never clogs etc. I have used that delta and it clogged allot. We modified my friends like was already mentioned. The lack of a fan and the lack of enough makeup air causes it to clog.
Shop vacs tend to work well on lunchbox units. I have run a shop vac on the ridgid a few times when it was away from the dc and it worked just as well as the 4" hose.
Sears and others were selling a line of machines that had integrated fans and came with a bag to put on top of a trash can. Not a clue how well they worked.