I just wanted to make a quick shout out to Pete Casica for all he does for the backyard shaper, the surf industry, and his support of Foam E-Z! I/we appreciate your support Pete.
Brad
I agree. Pete does an amazing job rebuilding Skil planers. I hear he is doing some grit drums for the Skil. I wish he would make up some attatchments that slid in the dust port so you could hook up a vac hose. Fiberglass Hawaii is supposed to be doing some but I havent heard back yet. How bout it Pete???
Pete is definitely The Man with Skils.
But, he’s a busy man, so, a modest suggestion. Somebody could take a little scrap foam or wood, shape a male mold for a vac adapter, fire up the vaccuum bagging setup and crank out a few pretty easy.
This is, after all, foam dust, I dunno that metal would be needed. I mean, how abrasive is it? Molding something out of plastic would be expensive in terms of making the molds and all. And there’s really not enough Skil planers out there to make it worthwhile to tool up for the thing.
The trick with the mold would be in making it so you could pop the vac-bagged piece off and do another with the same mold. Might have to do it as a two-piece male mold, one piece for the hose adapter end mating to one for the end that fit the Skil that’d kinda look like, oh, ductwork, or a thick wedge ( not a lot of angle on it) with a rounded top. But still pretty straightforward. In fact, making the mold would be easy for a skilled, experienced furniture maker… (chuckling)
Carbon fiber would look kinda cool… or colors…
doc…
PeteC also makes the best Gore-Tex vents and provides XLNT customer service. When I contacted him long after I bought some vents about needing some new pieces he sent replacements right away. Free.
Thanks my friends for all the kind comments, it really means alot to me. I’ll never match the knowledge that Doc, John, and Roger have shared here over the years nor the support for the small-scale builder that Brad continues to provide. Before he passed away, Terry Martin knew that the art of handshaping was all but disappearing except for hobby builders. He felt that it was the right place for the art since it flowed freely without the pressures of being a business. Terry had gave one-on-one personal sessions to new Skil owners that I did restorations for, to simply share what he knew with anyone that had a true passion for shaping. Same as we do here. Some of the Swaylock’s guys were able to take advantage of that opportunity and it’ll be their turn to pass along what they’ve gained.
Anyhow, back to work. Another way to make a vac adapter is to shape one about 1/16" undersized from eps, epoxy glass it, then pour in some acetone and eat away the foam. Fasten it to the planer with a couple of self-tapping screws. Now the best adapter uses a 2" truck heater hose (fabric with the spiral wire), and you don’t fasten the hose to the planer, just size for a slip-fit. The vacuum will hold it down. This way you can run down one side of the board, turn 180 without twisting the hose and go back. 2" hose will carry those big pieces without clogging, but you’ll need to work out the adapter for the other end that attaches to the vacuum/cyclone booster.