Dust foot under construction in Cape Town
 

12mm thick steel "anvil" former:


Forming by hammer (gently!):



Formed metal sheet. Will be cut through at notches (upper left) to make front of foot removable later:


McMaster Carr flexible PVC brush:



12mm thick HDPE stiffener for inside the foot. Self-tapping screws will pass through the sheet into the HDPE

Nice Gerald

Nice Dust foot. Wow lots of pictures too. :);) Will this foot be fixed to the Z or stationary or selectable?

stationary

...Those PVC brushes look familiar ;)
Glad I have the stock number handy!~

Wow! That's beautiful. No way I'm posting pictures of my homemade foot now.

Doug,

Gerald is a professional. The rest of are interested in what you produced. Lets see some photos.

Experimenting with some wire in the joint to tighten the grip and twist the bristles more vertical:



Test drive . . . . does it ride over clamps? :)

Gerald would you please ship me the anvil so I could make one of those. :p:confused: How are you going to keep the front with the pins in? I was thinking maybe some of those super strong magnets in the bottom of the hole might work, but if it ever came out while cutting:eek::mad::(

JR, you are going to laugh when you see the high-tech hold-in method. It involves 2 O-rings, but I don't have any at home this weekend. I might pose a photo with a substitute for the o-rings tomorrow :)

The lucky ones who have access to McMaster-Carr can have a look at "draw latches"

Even a simple hasp & staple will work

Maybe I ordered brushes that were too thick but when I pushed them a clamp, I felt quite a bit of resistance. That caused me to worry to I might lose steps. I still haven't used mine yet but I know they won't have a problem with my low profile pipe clamps.

Nils: There is no way I'm going to post pictures so y'all can laugh at my handiwork. :D ...or lack of handiwork.

These brushes may be a bit on the thin side (they ride over the clamp easily) but there are no choices on thickness. Our 3-year old brush is much thicker, but it has had a couple of haircuts to thin it out. That also has longer bristles to make it more flexible, but they sometimes get sucked up the pipe. All the factors for brush choice are quite involved. Have now got 2 different grades of brush from McMaster:
- The one in the pics is 7372T2
- Also have some 7372T3 with stiffer/longer bristles that will probably be the better choice - can cut those bristles a bit shorter if needs be.

JR, the high-tech hold-in doesn't merit its own pic......you should get it from this description:
1. Vertically insert 4 more screws, 2 per side, straddling the joint. These screws 25mm [1"] long with the heads left 12mm [1/2"] proud of the top foot surface.
2. Use McMaster 12205T82 (or o-rings) for the rest . . . .:p

Doug,

This is part of the rewards of being a member of this forum. Everyone learns from others. Did you laugh at my Mug with the blue spots on it? Post some pictures.

Gerald, got it. I like simple. I made mine to drop out the bottom :( with 2 pins to hold it in place, After about a month I realized it only needed 1.

I like the KISS principal, in fact I like the MIEMSS principal better. :D

Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems? :confused:

MIEMSS, "make it even more simpler stupid". This is my reminder to me.

Public holiday here today . . . . further work:

The brush 7372T3 is far better than the other one I tried before. The bristles are firmer and longer and retain their shape better.

For "twisting" the brush around the bends (stop it from flaring out), the metalwork needs a few more taps with the hammer, and the inner plastic plate needs more clearance:

I was beginning to think you were super-human.

The hose flange is bent the wrong way.

It looks really nice though!

I like it a lot.

to carry on
 

Well spotted Marc . . . .here I started undoing the mistake . . . .

Going the right way now . . .


See that this long bend is not as sharp as it can be . . . .

. . . . . that's the reason for adding the backing bar under the clamps:

Nice to see the use of flex hose. ;)

Wait to ya see my new dust foot design. Hope to be cutting PVC next week.

Alan's work has inspired me to make a 3D model. Ugh, it's been awhile. This Ole dog is a little slow with new tricks. :)

Gerald,

do you think we could do this with a wooden or plastic "anvil former/die"?

Gerald,

I don't know. Once you bent those tabs back in the opposite direction, I'm afraid that you have seriously weakened the metal and it may now be unsafe. If you'll send me the whole assembly, I'll be glad to do some stress analysis for you. :D

Hi Paco, a hardwood "anvil former/die" (mould?) should also be okay because we are not looking for precision tolerances. You should be able to test that quite quickly with some scrap in your workshop? I used steel because that is the easiest for me to have it laser cut.

By the same token, that hardwood "mould" can become the permanent stiffener, in place of the HDPE that I used - just needs to be trimmed smaller on the outer perimeter, and the suction hole can be rounded over for a smooth air inlet.

Good thinking outside the steel box Paco :)

Hi Gerald,
May I ask an update about this design?!!
As I need to start thinking about my future need on this dustfoot thing , well not there yet, I was wondering if you have an update comment about this design of yours and would you recommend it (or not) and how is it to change bits w-it ?
Thanks, Robert ;)

Hey guys the dust foot was frustrating but this works great. You take two pieces of .5" clear acrylic. The first bottom piece, near the bed, has a pocketed small recess around the circumference of it and used a piece of dust sweep that is three inches in length. It just snaps into the recess for a tight fit. Than with that same piece pocketed four holes holes all the way through and put rare earth magenets in in for auto lining of the two pieces. The other piece has the same rare earth magnets so the two pieces snap together. Than for clamping it has a notch on the outside that as a slot cut out of it with a bolt and nut that, when screwed, clamps tightly to the router.

here the picture tell all...

James

Hi James,

good Idea with those Neodym Magnets. I guess they`re realy strong.
Any details on this design or even a dxf? :D

Greetings
Claus

Robert, I don't know if my son is using the latest dustfoot, but its form/fit/function is the same as our first MechMate's design of a good few years ago and that one is still used every day. The later design, above, is just easier to manufacture.

I installed a pair of these latches: http://za.rs-online.com/web/search/s...duct&R=687-051 - works quite easy.

The Split Shoe. The goals I had for this were: 1) do a good job of dust collection, 2) have good clearance for missing hold down clamps, 3) allow you to see the bit as it cuts, 4) provide easy access for bit changes, and 5) be reasonably priced. I wasted a bunch of acrylic when trying different configurations and fine tuning the design, but I finally have something that meets all the goals. The brush is 3” in length and is captured in a groove in the “lower shoe”. The lower shoe is attached to the “upper shoe” by three pairs of rare earth magnets. One magnet of each pair is recessed while the other protrudes from the surface thereby serving as alignment pins. This holds the two pieces together very well while providing easy access to the router collet for bit changes.

The shoe itself is only one inch thick which provides a lot of clearance. The brush is 3” long and is very flexible so that it does not interfere with the z-motion as it is compressed against the work-piece. With that length of highly flexible brush it tends to get sucked into the vacuum inlet. Two things were done to solve that. First, the detachable lower shoe has a geometry that helps funnel the air toward the back of the shoe (in the direction of the bit). Second, a 1” brush was added just inside the 3” brush (in a horseshoe shape) to keep the 3” brush from getting sucked in. Those two concepts really help keep the brush down on the table which maximizes the suction.

Nothing is done to deflect the router exhaust. My theory on that was the exhaust actually helps blow the cuttings out of the groove and allows the vacuum to pick them up. Since this design provides very good suction at the bit, it appears that this works well. This also helps keep your router cool.

The current design fits the Porter Cable routers that are 3.5” in diameter and the Hitachi which is 3.25” in diameter. The upper shoe clamps around the body of the router. When clamped in the lowest position on the router, the distance from the bottom of the brush to the collet is approximately 1.5” for the Porter Cable and 2” for the Hitachi. Bit exposures longer than that will result in a gap between the work-piece and the brush which will reduce the effectiveness of the suction. However, most applications should not require such large bit exposure.