I thought some of you might be interested in seeing a few photos of my thicknessing rig. I got a lot of ideas for this from some of you a while back. Thanks!
I made a dust hood that bolts to the drill press head casting. Then I made a hold-down arm that utilizes the flex of a soundboard cutoff to keep good downward pressure on the plate I'm thicknessing regardless of how thick it is. It's got a little wheel on it from Home Depot, angled in toward the fence slightly. This arm, as you can see, attaches to the dust hood with a spring clamp. This way it a) stays in line with the planer (rather than moving with the fence - got this idea from one of you; sorry I don't remember now who), b) comes off in a flash if I need it out of the way, and c) can be quickly adjusted up and down if need be.
I know a lot of you have no trouble with your rigs as they are, but I wanted to ensure a good tight hold-down in line with the planer to help with consistent thicknessing of plates that have a bit of cupping.
The fence is straightforward. I made it to go on the drill press table I made a long time ago, with one end on a T-track and the other end held by a spring clamp. I cut out the underside in the middle to help with chip clearing - you can't see that in the photos.
It works well. Thanks again to those of you without whom I never would have even thought of thicknessing plates with a Safe-T-Planer!
). This looks like a great fear suppressor.
