[DHay13]

This might sound odd but I recently purchased a small CNC machine but don't know where to put it. I haven't completed the assembly yet so I haven't ran it. A couple of questions come to mind:

1) how much noise do these make? I'll be using a Bosch Colt and cutting wood, plastic, and aluminum

2) how much 'dust' do these generate when milling/carving wood

I have a small office in my basement that I do computer repairs and other odd jobs in. This are has to stay relatively clean. I don't mind sweeping up or running the Shop-Vac after running a project but don't want to have to dust every piece of equipment. This would be the ideal location for it. The only other issue with having it there is my son's bedroom is right above it. I am concerned with how much noise it will produce. He will be going off to college this fall so the room will be empty the majority of the time and I won't be running it late at night.

The other option is in my garage. My son races karts and I have a one stall garage that I could put it in. This is where all the kart equipment is kept. The only issue I have with keeping it in there is that in the winter my wife parks in there and it will be a very tight fit for me to get to the CNC. The other issue is that our family room is right above it. If it is too noisy my wife will be complaining.

Yes, I did think about all this prior to making the purchase but it ended up being a little bigger than I had thought. It has a 24x24 cutting area but fully assembled with the motors off the side and back makes it about 33x33.

Just to add, I don't plan to attach any vacuum devices to it but could if I need to. I don't know how long the average cut takes and don't really want to have the Shop-Vac running for the whole time. Not sure I could handle the noise for that long.

[blau_schuh]

1) noise... a crap load. Routers are loud, not sure about the colt though. If your budget allows I would go the spindle rout.
I have a porter cable 690 (one of the loudest) based cnc in the basement right below me, and its loud enough to be heard through the floor (oak flooring over pine boards, over joists, no insulation, 7' basement ceiling). Not 'cant hear yourself think' loud, but loud enough to be kind of annoying and there is no way I could sleep with it running. The floor filters out the worse high frequency jarring sounds though, so you're let with a low drone.

2) dust? stuff gets everywhere. I slapped together an 8020 and lexan enclosure which keeps most of the stuff in. Before that I just hung tarps from the ceiling. I generally shop vac every couple of days.

average cut is dependent on the design... I ran it for 4 hours straight last week doing aluminum with a 0.03125" bit, sometimes its a 15 minute run for something easy.

[fixtureman1]

Dust will be your main problem the colts are loud but not as bad as a bigger router. I would start out in the garage and see how that goes in the basement you will be getting dust through out the house when your furnace or air runs.

[nainino]

You should build an enclosure around the machine to keep the dust inside and to reduce the noise.

I think your office would be the best place to put it.

[Jhodges]

What I ended up doing with mine was, I built a dust shoe to keep the dust to a minimum since im running it in the basement. I haven't really had any troubles with the noise yet.

If you want Dfx for dust shoe or pics, just send me a message

[vtx1029]

Build a dust shoe. It keeps most of the mess contained. Most importantly it keeps most of the chips and dust off your linear rails and screws. A box does help with noise some but a shoe is best for mess imo.

[Phife]

while the router is fairly loud.. i find most of the noise comes from the actual cutting, expecially with small diameter bits.

[louieatienza]

I think half of the router's noise is from the fan blades attached to the arbor to pull cool air through. This cool air blows down the bottom, which spreads dust everywhere. And if you cut stuff like MDF, you'll be cleaning dust off your stuff for days! I love the smell of Padauk (Vermillion) but the dust makes me sneeze so bad. I cut a lot of 3/8" G10 for a customer and the dust is hideous, even while my shopvac sucks the dust in.

While I agree with a dust shoe, I also would find a way to divert the blown air from the router onto the table. I did this with my first machine, blowing the air UP, and that kept the chips settling onto the table a lot better..

[nigbing]

Hi! Jhodges I, and no doubt many others would be interested in your dust shoe attachment.

Many thanks in advance!

[pippin88]

Cutting is loud not matter what really.
I would not use a router / spindle without hearing protection or a good sound reducing enclosure.

[BanduraMaker]

I think half of the router's noise is from the fan blades

Maybe more - I've got a nice Italian air cooled spindle and when you put your hand over the fan intake, it's almost silent!

One of these days I'll switch it over to electric cooling.

[adprinter]

This might sound odd but I recently purchased a small CNC machine but don't know where to put it. I haven't completed the assembly yet so I haven't ran it. A couple of questions come to mind:

1) how much noise do these make? I'll be using a Bosch Colt and cutting wood, plastic, and aluminum

2) how much 'dust' do these generate when milling/carving wood

Routers are noisy, and when cutting wood, get ready for the Dust Storm it will create. I would locate the machine in the garage, if possible. This will keep the noise, and the dust out of the house. A dust collector, and a dust shoe mounted on the machine to collect the dust at the source is the best system.

For the past month, I have been busy modifying (redesigning, and rebuilding) my machine, and have resolved NOT to make another cut with it (although it is ready to cut right now) until I have completed my dust shoe system. I previously had one on there, with 3" bristles on the brush. But the assembly added so much weight to the Z axis, that it sometimes lost steps.

Also, it had to be completely removed when using 1.5" length cutters. So the new dust shoe I have been building features a system which removes the cutter length limitation problems, as well as the increased load on the Z axis. It is designed to be dropped onto the surface, and locked in place.

Which leaves the Z axis free to move the router up and down, (without the need to also lift the dust shoe up and down). Basically, it is just an air-tight plexiglass box, with 1" bristle length brush around the perimeter. The opening in the top of the box, also features brushes to "Seal the hole" that the router plunges into, and out of as it makes it's cuts.

Low-profile clamps must be used, and "Spacer" strips must be mounted on both sides of the stock, to provide a uniform surface for the box to seal against. However, it must be completely removed for 4th axis cuts. A limitation which may require the use of a second dust shoe designed to catch the dust from the 4th axis only. (Perhaps just a section of pipe, with a slit along the top edge of the pipe to allow the cutter to pass thru- seems like the most efficient design for that application).

[dbc1218]

My router is a little smaller than yours and I am using the bosch colt, DIY CNC Router I finished it in Febuary and have done a few jobs so far without a dust shoe or enclosure. I have the router in a spare bedroom and saw dust now covers eveything in the room. I have been using a shop vac to clean as the machine is running but dust still goes everywhere. I also where ear plugs when running the machine. I've only run the machine for maybe 3 total hours but have already decided that a dust shoe and enclosure are required, so thats what I'm working on now.

I plan on building a dust shoe like the on adprinter explained, there are a few designs I like here on the forums, just search "dust shoe" I also plan on building a stand/cart/enclosure for the router to mount all the electronics and a shop vac underneath the router. The shop vac will be the one that attaches to a 5 gal bucket and I also have a Dust Deputy® DIY - Cyclone Only | Oneida Air I also plan on using some sort of sound deading material for the enclosure, possibly like the matting used inside car bodies.

If you want to test the sound levels in the other rooms just leave your router and shop vac running plus another vacuum cleaner for the added noise of the router cutting. then walk around your house and see how loud it is.