Makita router mount & dust boot - now on Thingiverse

Well, now it’s showing up… I swear, I’m not crazy! At least, not that flavor of crazy… My crazy is completely different.

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I have an overhead arm and spring retracting vacuum hose so it shouldn’t create too much pull.

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Finished my dust boot, I think. So far it works great. Almost all the dust is sucked up and very little is blown all over the place like it was before with the downward fan.

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Digging the hose clamps!! That’s an awesome design.

Nice job. Great modelling. I would like to relocate my vacuum tube from the front to the side. Right now it interferes with homing the x and y and I have to remove it to reach the endstops. I think I have had about ten different iterations.

Did you just add a longer bolt for the bearing holder bolt? I’d like to get mine off the Z carriage tubes and onto the mount.

Yes, I replaced the 1.25" bolt with a 1.5" 5-16" one. I also updated the design slightly to clamp instead of just the screw head into the pipe, as it still had a bit of wobble. I also made a 90 degree cord clip for the power cord that’s easily removable (non-warranty voiding :slight_smile: )

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Can you share some details on the dust boot? I can’t tell from the pic whether it’s got a brush or not.
I went big and tall on my dust boot and more dust than I would like just escapes out the back side - thinking your short and small boot may be an improvement. Thanks in advance.

No brush, just a ring with about a 10mm edge on it. Works really well at about 1/8" above the material.

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Thanks! I’m printing my take on that right now to see how it works with my router (DW661). Probably going to eventually be stealing your tube mount design also…

It’d probably be pretty easy to mod this for the 661 since it’s only a few mm difference in diameter. You can’t steal it, I’m giving it away! :smiley:

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You can’t fire me, I QUIT!

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I did a small dust test with your design on my machine – and I’m glad (sad?) to report that it seems to work better than my much larger, more complex attempt:

My only concern is that it’s not going to react well when I run into a clamp (which I’m sure I’ll do eventually) :wink:

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Yeah, I ran mine into a clamp already, ruined the cut… but it was a trial anyway so no huge loss. You either have to clamp away from your cutting area, or make it a little bigger to accomodate a very short brush, maybe 20mm max. I’m considering how to angle it so it doesn’t go as low all the way across.

Or just raise your shoe up so it clears your clamps. Having a space might help with dust collection anyway. You need airflow to pull the dust, the faster the flow, the better it will be. Kinda like sticking your thumb over the end of a hose. There’s a sweet spot where you get the most pressure(spray distance/air speed). Too closed, and you can’t flow enough fluid(air) so it doesn’t go as far, or too much and you get a lot of fluid(air) but not enough velocity and it still doesn’t go as far.

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This one seems to work best at 1/8" above the material, but I’m just using a small shop vac and 1.25" hose to 1.5" PVC pipe.

I’m currently printing to confirm fit, but I’m adding the following parts to my thingiverse: Newly redesigned parts that remove the lower air deflection section to allow for larger dust boots with a brush, which I’ll also be working on next. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4017521

edit: Fit is good.

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I’m sorry for asking the same questions over and over again…
I’m in the process of re-assembling my MPCNC, to add dual end stops. While it’s dismantled, I figured I could update the Makita mount. I have a few questions about this:

The clamp setup. Is it as rigid as the simple “tubular mount” that screw together in the front? I love the simplicity of being able to quickly clamp the router in and out - but I wouldn’t sacrifice any accuracy…

Air-flow. You have two versions, one that directs the airflow away from the piece, and the one that doesn’t interfere. What are the pros/cons with those two setups? The one the directs air away, should you have a vacuum mounted very close to the endmill? Or do you need external air to clear debris? Does this version risk clogging in the milling path more easily?

It clamps very solidly. The cam basically acts the same as a set of screws. I can’t move the router at all in the clamp. I’ve added a longer cam as well to increase the clamping force right to the bottom of the clamp.

As for the air flow thing, my original intent was to keep the router from blowing dust away from the cutting edge since I was using a vacuum attachment anyway, but it limited Z height somewhat due to interfering with the vacuum attachment I made. I’d recommend using the open bottom one unless you’ve got a directed cooling system like compressed air that the router’s exhaust would interfere with.

I have a vacuum attachment and dust shoe as part of the series of parts that uses a vacuum extension tube for the vertical. I does need to be cut down to fit as you don’t want it much longer than about 8" so it doesn’t create lever force on your carriage.

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Thanks a lot!! I’m going for the open version. Attaching the vacuum comes in next round. I very much look forward to be able to quickly access the router for other ways of using it, and I want to make a pen mount with the same shape as the router, that can be easily clamped in. This is great!

And perhaps its possible to make a laser setup fitted within this clamp. Who knows. Time will tell!