New "high tech" dust foot, opinions?

[Sk8MFG]

I have a friend in town who works with plastics. Injection molding, 3d printing, thermoform etc etc...

We got to talking about my dust collection setup on the bot, which is a kent style boot. It works reasonably well, but has huge room for improvement.

After a few brain storming sessions, we've come up with a design for a new boot which will be going on my bot.

The boot has a 4" outlet, clamps to the base of the spindle and can be matched to different spindle diameters. The skirt is mounted to the boot with magnets to aid in easy tool change. The brush is also easily replicable.

This design focuses airflow around the tool which will reduce the loss of vacuum when the skirt hangs over an edge etc. It should really suck.

Once we're done testing on my bot, we may make some more. I'd love to get some feedback on it. Any suggestions or comments would be welcome.

DSC01425.jpg

[Justin G]

I made my own dust foot using acrylic before finding the kent shoe on the forum. It was the exact same concept: magnets, clamps to the spindle, removable brush skirt, etc. Learned a few things before buying my kent shoe. The dust foot that came with my shopbot was not as awesome as the rest of my big blue. Shopbot has since updated the design and has the new ones for sale, they LOOK awesome, but personally have no experience.

One thing about the kent is that it is tight in some area and not in others. I position my clamps perpendicular to the long axis of the dust shoe so that when I am doing a profile cut, the "housing" of the dust shoe does not hit my rockler clamps that are about 2 1/2" high. I think the housing body should be MUCH tighter to the spindle with the brushes protruding out at an angle. Since they are flexible, they can accommodate larger diameter bits and when they brush against clamps or other obstructions, the brush will fold naturally. I'm thinking something like a 45 degree angle.

The hose should definitely go up in front of the spindle in my opinion. With it going to the rear, you lose Z travel or at least have to think about it, and that is one more thing of 1,000. I had an idea to make a tight fitting shoe that would have the hose run around the body of the spindle so that is actually sucked air THROUGH the cooling vents. You would have to reverse your cooling fan, or disable it while DC was running, but I think the added air would help to cool the spindle as well. Small chicken wire could prevent larger chunks from getting lodged in there. If the brushes were large enough to fit a 2 1/2" diameter bit with some slight added clearence, I would be happy.

Also, I made an arm which connects from the back bracket and wraps around to the front, this takes the weight bearing off of the Z axis and has it resting on the Y car. Which should be a lot less gravity to contend with. That should be included, again IMO. I'll post a picture shortly.

Sometimes with doing engraving onto a 3d work, I have to go deep into the carving and I just cant do that with any high angle walls, or tight spaces with the kent. Another reason to make it tighter to the spindle. Of course I could remove the foot temporarily, but I dont and won't and usually just hope It doesn't crash into anything, finger lays in wait on the spacebar...


here is the new dust foot:
http://www.shopbottools.com/ShopBotD...%2010%2029.pdf

[Justin G]

IMG_8305.jpgIMG_8306.jpgIMG_8307.jpgIMG_8308.jpgIMG_8309.jpg

pictures of the arm as promised. Its not pretty but works for me.

[Sk8MFG]

Great, this is just the kind of feedback we need. Keep it coming!

Your setup looks very similar to my current one. I'll pitch the idea of having the port going vertically and see what we can do. Only problem I see of going up the front and tightening it to the body is it would be limited to only a few spindles. With the duct going out back, it would fit on any spindle.

The image I posted doesn't really show the clearance too well, but it should provide more clearance than your(my) current setup. The duct is set above where a kent main plate would be. As for pitching the brushes outwards, that may be a good way to keep the brushes from getting cut up. We will be playing with different brushes, most likely using a stiffer brush to keep the bristles from being sucked into the tool.
The diameter of the brush would be able to fit any bit you can mount. I have a large cove bit, which will be used with this boot. I think it's 4" wide or so.

I'd love to be able to make a few of these for fellow botters. I have a feeling it's going to be quite the nice bit of kit, and won't break the bank.

[Kyle Stapleton]

Do you think this would fit on a bot with air drills?

[donclifton]

I made some out of MDF, Because the brush is much smaller I get more suction. I have inserts to raise and lower my brush for longer or shorter bits.
Thanks
Don

[gc3]

would this shoe work for this...

[srwtlc]

Gene, for what you do and for as much of it that you do, I think I'd just park the machine in a big wind tunnel and let 'er rip! Operator safety harnesses required. ;-)

[Brady Watson]

If you are just doing sheet goods, the SB or Kent foot works fine. For 3D work, unless it is shallow, dust collection is a no-go. Those who cut it on a regular basis will tell you that aside from roughing, it "ain't gonna work". There isn't enough brush length to compensate for the up & down of the Z, but the issue you run into is that the foot actually gets hung up on things like the last pic Gene shows in his examples. Since you are mostly cutting chips and not rooster-tailing when using a ball during finishing, it isn't that bad to just vacuum up the chips.

Kudos to those making their own dust foot - you are smart enough to realize you own a CNC with infinite possibilities...How ya think Kent does it? I think he realized he could capitalize on the laziness of users...and there appears to be a lot of them out there. Good for him.

-B

[myxpykalix]

I think he realized he could capitalize on the laziness of users...and there appears to be a lot of them out there. Good for him.


Hey... I resemble that remark! lol

Actually he makes a good point, in that, I have stopped using my dust boot because i don't like to not be able to see where i'm cutting in order to avoid catastrophe before it happens.
I had mentioned earlier about a open faced dust boot with a air mist type thing to keep the chips within the confines for the vacumn to suck it up but....

I thought about a U shaped boot with bristles around the sides and back and in the front have a plexiglass window with some LED lights to allow you to see the bit, light it up and maintain the suction. Sound feasible?