[cwelkie]

One cut in MDF convinced me that some form of dust collection will be required to help keep the rails and bearings relatively clear. The full enclosure of this design is one of its differentiating features that I like and wanted to retain. Being fortunate in having a shop dust collector, it was a natural progression to use it with the router.

I started with a cutout in the rear hinged cover just a little smaller (by area) than the dust collector hose. (Reckoned that if the cover was open, dust collection was a mute point ) It is placed just above the spoil board in the centre of the door.



A couple of 3/4" pieces went into making something of an adapter and mount for a standard 4" dust collector damper / hose connector. one of the hose connections of this piece was cut down in length to just act as a register in the hole cut for it. The 3/4" thick adapter panel right up against the back door has a mantle clock-like cutout to ensure the round hose can draw from the rectangular cutout.





To create a draft across the work surface openings were cut in the front panel of the lexan cover. Matching adjustable dampers were fitted to provide some control over the restriction. (I'm still sorting out the best setting for them.) Without the openings the dust collector will seriously cave in the cover panels!:nono:





So far I'm very happy with the results. I don't need to use it all the time but when I want to keep most of the fine dust off the working bits I can. Either way, the full cover is intact.

Hopefully this is helpful or perhaps even thought provoking.
Charlie

[bobsch]

Nice idea. I like the vents on the cover, looks like a very professional job.

[SpeedyDad]

Been there done that. Take a look at my thread (Chris' Momus). I tried the same system as you and the dust still gets everywhere inside, just not as much and the rollers and tracks still get dusty causing odd feeds. The problem is that the router exhaust pushes dust all over the place and once it gets up on the gantry or on the rails, it is out of the airflow path of the dust collection system and just collects there.

I'm in the process of building a dust hood for my router. It will gather the dust at the tool and divert the router exhaust in to the vacuum hose.