Shop Fox W1727 - Unboxing and Assembly

The recent purchase of a Shop Fox W1812 Molder required an upgrade from my typical shop-vac dust collection. Looking for a budget solution, I settled on the Shop Fox W1727, which is a low-end model, but sufficient for removing chips from the molder.

I was able to order from Amazon with free Prime shipping. There was some minor damage to the box, but everything inside the box was just fine.

The box indicates a weight of 27 kg (60 lbs.), and it was wrapped with two plastic straps which made it easy to lift and move around.

The dust collector is packed in styrofoam to protect it during shipment and everything fits nicely in its place.

Four wheels attach to the base using a nut on the top side of the base. Two of the wheels rotate and two are fixed. Since I will be moving this around, I think four rotating wheels would have been a great idea. The base is thin and the support bars that attach to the base seemed a bit flimsy, but once the motor frame was attached, everything tightened up well.

The bag support slides into two slots on the frame. However, one of the slots was too tight to fit the support rod. The slot is just a rounded over piece of metal, so I used a pair of needle-nose pliers to open it up just a bit so the rod could slide in.

The dust filter has a clamp that threads through it to secure it to the frame.

The same type of clamp is used to secure the bag below the filter. I used a few magnets to hold the bag in place while securing the clamp, then stored the magnets on the base for use in the future.

I attached the dust collector to the molder using a 10’ hose and did some test runs with straight planer knives, taking off different thicknesses from a cedar plank 5” to 6” wide. The dust collector definitely moves enough air to keep up with the molder, however, I did run into some problems with the hose clogging up when making heavier cuts. Lighter cuts of 1/64” to 1/32” did okay.

At first I thought the problem was in the elbow that attaches the host to the impeller. There is a plastic bar that runs across the center of the elbow that seemed to catch a lot of material. However, when I removed the elbow to clear debris, it seemed that the grill pattern that covers the impeller opening is the more likely problem. I think the solution is going to be adding a cyclone separator to catch all the heavy material so only smaller particles enter the impeller.

I don’t have any other experience with dust collection, but if you’re considering the W1727 Dust Collector, I’m glad to answer any questions you may have.