Open Source Dust Shoe Designs

[Tomnewry]

Hi guys does anyone have any designs for a nice looking and simple to move and adjust dust shoe, i need to make one as things are getting very messy.
Thanks in advance.

[Lee Roberts]

Hey Tom,

Did you manage to find anything or come up with a solution you can share?

.Me

[Tomnewry]

No nothing yet i have see a few designs but i think i will do something similar and will post the design when im done.
Cheers

[Lee Roberts]

Hi Tom,

Sounds like a plan, after I posted I did go away and give it some more thought, with an intension of just designing something I could post up and offer you and anyone else that wanted to use it.

However I didn’t get passed the thought of, actually it’s the same scenario we often see here, that one design wouldn’t really be suitable for everyone, as we often see different types of Z Axis and gantry design, meaning what may work great for your machine, may hinder and get in the way for another man’s machine.

So I have the feeling this is one of those parts that, actually, needs to be designed on a per machine/application basis.

.Me

[Tomnewry]

Aye I think you are right as on my machins the dust shoes will have to sit to the left of the spindle.
Still i will post what i come up with.
Cheers..

[routercnc]

I'm in the process of upgrading my machine (MK3) which will include a new dust shoe. I cut mostly wood so need to keep the dust down.

I wanted to improve upon on MK2 in a number of ways, including extraction. I'm nearing completion of the machine so will post all the photos/renders soon. But in brief they are:

1. Upgrade to 100mm pipe (so it is 100mm pipe all the way from the extractor to the cutter, not throttled down to about 30mm pipe as it runs down the Z axis)

2. Floating dust shoe - the support brackets are attached to the Y axis, not the Z axis. This featured is carried over from my old machine which allowed me to set the dust shoe at just the right height, independantly of the Z axis movement. I found Z axis shoes a bit crude and can end up crushing the skirt on plunge cuts. The floating height setting is made by adjusting the collar/thumb wheel on the front guide rod. Initially the shoe drops with the Z axis but when this collar bottoms out the shoe drops no further, although the cutter can continue downward into the work.
As machining progresses the Z axis can rise and fall but the shoe stays at the same height, skimming over fixtures and creating the 'best' seal to the workpiece.

3. Automatic raising shoe - there is also an adjustable tab on the rearmost rod which catches on the Z axis if it raises past a certain height. This would be set to happen to move the shoe up and out of the way once the job is complete.

4. Magnetic main plate. The lower plate containing the skirt will be magnetically attached to the smaller plate above it on the end of the hose using recessed magnets so it can be snapped in and out to change tools, leaving lots of space for access. There are youtube links etc on these sorts of designs, and I think also some for sale (in the US?). I will make my own again. The skirt will be plastic strips which has worked well before, although you have to have enough stiffness to stop the skirt being sucked into the extractor airflow. The magnetic main plate, and smaller plate above it will both be clear plastic to give a better view of the cutting. Using snap-in skirt plates will also allow me to fit other types of skirt such as broom hair type etc. if required.

5. I'm sure I've seen commercial machines somewhere using ballscrews and steppers to raise the shoe in software as and when required (but I searched for this recently and couldn't find it so might have imagined it!). I pondered this idea but settled on the passive solution described above.

Hope this gives you some ideas. I would post a render showing some of this but having a few problems attaching images . . .

[EddyCurrent]

Sounds like a good design, look forward to seeing images

[GEOFFREY]

Some commercial machines use a an air cylinder to set the dust shoe to the correct height. I look forward to seeing your post with your solution which sounds very interesting. G.

[routercnc]

Only got a few minutes, here is an early render which happens to show some of the dust shoe features.

[EddyCurrent]

@routercnc, any update on your dust shoe build ?

Also I can't find a good source of the brush strips with decent length bristles, i.e. 50mm+
There are some places but postage doubles the price.

Edit: just found these

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Iron.../sd2802/p84655 ( looks like the aluminium will pull off making it useable)
http://www.kronosrobotics.com/dust-shrouds/
http://www.instructables.com/id/CNC-...boot/?ALLSTEPS