[jhowelb]

My take on a small dust foot.

Lacking a better (and cheaper) material I settled on MDF in as much as I have at least a hundred pounds of it stacked against the wall and in my way.

I simplu carved two identical "boats" from the MDF and put an appropriate sized hole in one end of one of them to accept a short piece of 1" PVC pipe. I turned a shoulder on the pipe for a stop as it interred the boat. All three pieced were glued together with Wilhold glue.

Photo four shows a hole in the top positioned so as to accept the bearing boss on the router while diverting the ventilation draft from the router motor. There is a matching hole in the bottom to allow air to flow in around the cutting bit.

Carriage bolts provide vertical adjustment and hold the vacuum tube (1" sch 40 PVC) in position with the tapped holes in the PVC wall.

The foot pops right off to facilitate bit change and zero set and then simply slips back on.

A short skirt of some sort will possibly prevent some of the few escapees that I've seen.

.........and there is my claim to fame!!

[HelicopterJohn]

Hi,

Your dust foot looks really nice. Thanks for sharing.

The foot pops right off to facilitate bit change and zero set and then simply slips back on.

Does the foot come apart at the PVC fitting or does it come out of the MDF foot?

I have a prototype I am working on for my Shopbot PRT. I have the lower dust shoe about finished and have ordered the brush material. My goal is to make the dust shoe as small as possible and not interfere with the cutting bit. I think this will create better suction and allow you to get closer to the edge of the table without loosing suction. Once I have the concept proved, I will make it look nice. I have ordered different lengths of brushes so that I can experiment for maximum efficiency. I think being able to switch to different length brushes would be a definite PLUS.

John

[jhowelb]

There was no PVC cement used so it will come apart at any fitting. All three pieces shown in photo one were glued together with Wilhold glue.

Brush material is expensive so I would recommend using vinyl during your R&D. In any case the skirt will be more flexible if attached to the top of the foot rather than the bottom.

Another possibility is to make the foot float 1/16" or so above the work while the bit travels up and down thru the access hole.

[jhowelb]

On second thought.........

After putting the dust foot into service I realized that it would really have to have a skirt to work well and with it there are few if any escapees. But what if I needed to cut deep into thick material? A skirt long enough to cover a 6" bit would get sucked into the vac tube and tangle the bit.

It occurred to me that I could make the foot "float" some fraction above the work independent of the z axis.

In the photo I've done exactly that. The new foot is "floating" a quarter or so above the work and is ready for a bit access hole. Haven't decided how large I want the bottom hole.

There are other ideas shown also, like the clamping system built around Lowe's "super strut" and the weirdly shaped nut that easy extraction and movement and clamp bodies of my own design.

Also there is the rail and bearing system built around Igus DrylinW .

[HelicopterJohn]

Hi,

Here is a sample of 4" diameter 2" high brush installation which is part of a new desgin universal dust collector shoe that I am currently working on.

John

[jhowelb]

I finally decided to cut a .8" hole in the top of the shoe (to allow the router chuck to enter) and a full1" hole in the bottom and found the the velocity of suction is huge. No loss problems created by moving off the edge.

Because the shoe is only 1/16" or so away from the surface the brush isn't needed and the bit can lift as high as it needs to. The only limitation is that the bit has to be long enough to reach thru the shoe to whatever cutting depth whith the bearing boss of the router down against the top of the shoe. A reach of about 1/2 inch or so?