Wondering About Router Dust Collection
Elcoholic
| Posted in Power Tools and Machinery on
I spent the last few nights cutting out (6) 8′ palm trees out of 9 sheets of 3/4″ ULMDF with a 1/2″ pattern bit. They are sets for the spring musical at the church where my daughter works. As I was ankle deep in sawdust with my respirator on I began to wonder if that 2 HP DW router with the integral DC or something similar would have made much of a difference. Keep in mind there was no way of attaching any kind of collector to the base of the router in this case. Anybody care to comment?
John O’Connell – JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It’s tougher if you’re stupid – John Wayne
Replies
John,
An option would be to do the operation over a down draft table. Enclosed is a design that I created for a large scale (up to a full sheet of plywood) down draft table. It's easily fabricated from plywood, some screws, and a few pieces of scrap hardwood. It works best when the top opening is mostly covered, thus creating the most suction possible. The unit isn't the silver bullet that will allow you to work without a respirator, but it does work. Make the cross supports thick enough so that they can be routed through without compromising their function.
Please feel free to send along any questions that you may have.
Dan Kornfeld, Owner/President - Odyssey Wood Design, Inc.
If I only had enough space for one of these!John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
"If I only had enough space for one of these!"
John,
The beauty is in the details. By using steel bed rail fasteners ($7 from Rockler - picture below) on each corner, some scrap hardwood cleats for the down ramp to rest upon, and some wooden cleats for the cross members to rest in - the whole unit stacks up to (approx.) six inches thick! Depending on how deep you build the box, with a sheet of plywood thrown on top, the unit makes a great, temporary low assembly table for large pieces.
View ImageDan Kornfeld, Owner/President - Odyssey Wood Design, Inc.
Good point.John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
Elcoholic,
They do work ! I especially like them when cutting mortices...sucks up everything....of course the vacs add to the noise and definitely need ear protection..
Who uses a router wihout ear protection anyway?John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
I use the DeWalt 621 hooked to a regular Shop Vac and it does wonders for keeping the shop cleaner. Any kind of MDF product is terrible to route and makes a fog of fine dust as I'm sure you have experienced. The 621 does a very good job of capturing this fine dust but it looses a little.... although nothing like life without it! I know Porter Cable has DC on a couple of their routers too and attachments are available from them for other models. The only problem with the 621 I have is the base. It's sort of tippy and if you use a fence to guide it, the base can pull out of square and spoil the cut. A round style would be a nice addition. The base comes with an adapter for use with Porter Cable guide bushing. Nothing is perfect I guess.
Louis T.
I have the DW614 and 625 routers. I am used to the base now but had to learn to keep them tight to the base. If I have a choice I always keep the router on the waste side of the fence in case it wants to stray. The 614 has developed a curious problem lately. Sometimes it doesn't shut off, may need a new switch.John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
John,
Before you purchase a new switch for the 614, unscrew the yellow shroud on top of the motor, and hit all of the electrical contact points with compressed air. Give a blast in and around the switch itself as well. I have a relatively new 18 gallon Shop Vac that refused to turn off. Some how, wood dust got into the switch (it's sealed under a rubber cover) and was causing it to malfunction. A few shots with the air gun, and its back in action.Dan Kornfeld, Owner/President - Odyssey Wood Design, Inc.
I have experienced the same problem.
I have a bosch router and I bought the DC base but found it got in the way of most jobs.
What I do now is attach one of my 4" vacuum hoses to my dust collector w/ a bunch of duct tape, and that get's almost everything.
I got a 2hp Jet dust collector, I recommend it if your're going to do any amount of woodworking. Not too noisy either compared to portabel vacuum cleaners.
I have a very quiet Fein vac (58 dB) and a 2 hp collector. The hard part is connecting the hose to the router and still be able to use the router.John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
I hook up my router to my shop vac. I also found it awkward to move the router with the 2" vac. hose pulling. To keep the hose from pulling I hook it to the ceiling, together with the router power cord. I use a "chain" of rubber bands between the ceiling and hose to keep it lifted up in any position of the router. This works great. I use the same procedure with my random orbital sander.
I built a little 6x4 inch 3 sided box and incorparated it into my router fence. The bit spins partly in the box. This box is attached to a reducer that goes to a 4 inch dust collector hose. Some dust gets past it, but it works well enough and was a cheap fix.
Frank
John
I use the DW 621 for free-hand routing. Hooked it to a smaller 6 gal Shop-Vac with the 1 1/4" hose. I attached enough hose so I run the vac hose and the electrical cord over my shoulder and strap them together with a piece of velcro. I run the two under an epilet on an old military shirt I wear when routing. Both stay on my shoulder an out of the way.
Almost dust free with the 621. In warm weather I open the doors and run a 24" fan behind me toward the open doors also. Literally no clean up. ha..ha..
sarge..jt
John, I received the current copy of a new magazine "Just Woodworking" today, and it had a very interesting and seemingly effective do-it-yourself DC add-on for routers. Appears to work on anything that has those holes for the edge-fence to mount to, and looking at a picture of the DW621, they are there, no?
They currently have a "free issue" thing running. Go to their home page (link below) and look for the Free Issue button on the left-hand side. Maybe you can request #3, which is the one that came out today.
http://justwoodworking.com/index.php
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Jamie: Thanks for providing the link to the magazine they have a neat forum with scrollsawing , one of my favorite scrollers William Young posts there,the things he does with a scroll saw is truly amazing..
ToolDoc
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