It;s been a seriously long time since I made this hood. Seven years if I trust the dates on my post. It always had some problems from the eddys created in the four corners. This was especially a problem when I was planing maple which comes off in very long shavings. Wit a large job in maple about to be run through the planer, I took a day this week to remedy the problem.
My original plan was to simply add four fillets it the hood, but as I thought about it, I realized I could just as easily up the size of the outlet to 6". The dust pipe in the new shop is 6" within 3' of the planer, so it seemed like a pretty easy change.
I started by cutting a strip of steel to make the ring for the outlet. I show this blurry picture because it is going to be pertinent later.
The strip is run through my slip roll.
Until it becomes a full circle.
It gets removed by slipping off of the end.
Then clamped
and tack welded
and ugly fully welded. I am just remembering how to do this. It has been a while since I TIG welded!
the old outlet is cut off by grinding the tack welds. Note the lines that I will be cutting on the main body of the hood.
I use my jigsaw with a metal cutting blade and it makes quick work of the hood,
All butchered
Tacking the ring in place
tacked
Next, I decide to simply remove the side pieces and bend a single piece to cover the sides. I should have figured this out sooner as I could have saved some cutting. In the end, I saved a bunch of welding, so it definitely was the right call. here I am mocking it up with cardboard.
What happens next is sad. As in the first photo, I was working on my stomp shear cutting the side panels out. I made my first cut and carefully put my ruler on the saw next to it so I did not accidentally cut it. I noted to myself that it would be easy to accidentally have it slip into the shear. On the second cut....
Next, I bend the pieces with my press brake. In my earlier hood building experience, i had to borrow a friends brake, this is a nice addition to the shop- it is 4' wide and 12 tons, air powered.
The piece is nicely formed.
and tacked into place
Lots of welding. I go for broke and weld all the seams shut. My welding does improve.
All done and ground.
bondoed up
sanded and ready for paint. (I probably should have done a second coat of bondo, but I was getting pretty tired of the project by now
a little paint. It makes me remember how much I hate painting with spray bombs. To make matters worse, the tip kept clogging.
All done and in place
I ordered some hose from mcmaster to get it ducted in place. After a day and a half of waiting for it (normally I get my mcmaster shipments at 9:00 am, I called to track the package. It was delivered the day before at 9:00 am! I looked everywhere and couldn't find it. I ended up walking up my driveway and finding it on my neighbor's porch!
So the test boards went through with excellent results. Maple chips going up the duct with nothing hanging around in the hood. A very successful project and I am ready to plane away. I changed the knives while i had it apart- I am pretty sure this is the first time I have done that in seven years as well. That made a nice difference too!
Only question left, does anyone have a replacement Lufkin rule for me?
Pete
