More on Improving Dust Collection on a CNC Router

Ways to modify and tweak your CNC device for better dust collection. October 9, 2006

Question
Our CNC is as dust-collected as I can get it. We have a Busellato flat table router. We mostly cut MDF or MDF core material. The amount of material left is astronomical. One of the problems is that the shroud seems to be elevated too high above the router bit. From a glance, I didn’t know if the shroud could be lowered. Also, even if that first problem was resolved is there an external auxiliary vacuum to dust collect?

Forum Responses
(CNC Forum)
From contributor A:
Dust hood heights can be tricky, depending on stock height and length of tool. You don't want to wreck the hood if you are using a short tool, or very thick stock and a long tool. You can probably mechanically adjust it down a little, probably less than an inch. You can also run an airline to blow toward the tool to help dislodge chips and get them airborne at the site of the existing hood position. Finally you can hook up a wand on a hose using the existing vacuum system to sweep off the table. I do that instead of blowing the dust off the table and making all that cancer causing dust airborne. It is better to just knock the dust off the table to the floor and sweep it than to blow it off if you can't hook up the hose and wand. Wear a mask!

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From contributor B:
You may try writing a program that lowers the dust collector to as low as you can get it to run effectively, then sweep back and forth across the table, similar to the motion of facing off the spoilboard. This will collect most of the dust pretty well.

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From contributor C:
We too run a Busellato. Ours is a Jet 4002XL machining center. The dust shroud moves up and down by an air cylinder when changing tools, I assume that yours is working. Ours also has a butterfly at the top of the head that turns on the different zones of the dust collection, be it router, or drilling or sawing. If yours has that check to see if that functions correctly. We also have had plywood fibers form a birds nest around those butterflies that needed cleaned out. We trimmed our skirt to sit down on our panels without bunching up too much. We also installed an inline booster fan to increase the cfms. This fan turns on and off with the cycle light. You never can get it all but now ours really sucks.