My idea was to mod the Z endstop bracket to be able to hold 2 pipes. this bracket would make the pipes removable somehow, i was thinking magnets, every one loves magnets.
There would be a Dust Shoe Core that is linked to the pipes that reaches down to hold the plate that @Davejavu sorta drew. This is held at your chosen hight via simple knob/ bolt that sits between the tubes maybe.
Combine that with the bellows to go around the router and a printed collector that runs “forward” under the bars and comes up in front of them. Doing that will not limit travel. The whole thing slides on the bars via some more skate bearings. Z hight of the dust show is set via a simple knob/ bolt arrangement that does not interfere with the sliding.
Having the dust collection hose out the front, same as it is standard, get around the different sizes of collection hose.
So usage works this way in my brain.
remove the dust shoe, set the location of bit on the workpiece. Hit start, the hight is set (if you run the height setter) the program pauses and moves z up enough for you to load the dust shoe contraption. While loading you hold down the bellows to slide it under the bit.
hope that made sense, its a bit chaotic in my brain at the moment.
I just hit the reply button and thought that the endstop mod and the parts that hold the bars could be made to mimic the distance between the bars to be the same as the gantry, to follow the design of the LR3.
the Dust CORE could be made to follow the design of the CORE.
@Fodder1 I’m happy to see you run with an idea. I just got my LR3 running with a temporary table. I need to finish building more permanent table/clamping rails/waste boards before I go down the rabbit hole of mods. Plus, I tend to chase shiny objects way more than any sane person should. So I fear getting side tracked will take away from me figuring out how to best use my new toy.
Feel free to hit me up with ideas though. My day job as an engineer focuses on high dollar inventions at one of Detroit’s car companies. So tinkering on quick turn ideas is right up my alley.
One of the best things about this forum, is that you see this happen all the time.
Someone ask the question and someone else helps or comes up with the idea.
It really is a great forum free from the trolls. Just check out the “Prusa Mk4 is out” thread. Lots of pople with different printers, all getting along and no “this brand is better than yours” augments. Amazing.
I am little further along that you in my build, i have been chasing the “shiny” dust collector at the moment. Way too much time and brain power, but i cant let i go. lol
i spent some time refining my idea, to better show how i imagined it
it ‘Rests’ on the top of the xy frame and uses the hole for the ZSTOP to secure it
there is a rebate into the “frame” with magent holes in both the frame and this mount that holds the tubes
The tubes are cut to close length and then slid inside the highlighed mount.
I am still working on how to give those tubes a little bit of freedom, maybe a slot with a screw into the metal. That will allow the slight movement to enable the magnets to grab and still allow ease of fitting.
Along the 'Ease of fitting" lines, i made the rebate in the frame so that the tube mount will have some positive locking when slid in. the weight of the dust collector is going to try and force the collector down and rotating out. Slot my thoughts are that the slot will stop that movement.
Clearly this will need to change, as if it was to go into production it would need some bearings, at least four, but more likely 8 (four for each tube) to get the ease of movment, and that would take a lot of work for me to build with my skill base. I might get to it, see how time goes.
But this just you the idea.
This is looking good! I’m curious to see what you come up with for its vertical movement, and what will link it to the core so that it gets its X axis movement linked/synchronized to the core while its vertical movement is not synced. This is, of course, doable. The design I’m currently working on is basically along the lines of a floating Z shoe that is mounted to the core. It’s not unlike what was suggested above about a pressure plate.
At first I was thinking that maybe your secondary X gantry (just for the dust shoe) could be made with smaller diameter EMT, not as thick as the main gantry but then again, the main gantry has all of that stiffening with the braces on the struts. So maybe you are doing right by making this out of the thicker tubes.
Wings either side of the core, made so that they are close to the gantry beams
Or a 3D printed arm that is arched to clear everything and can flip up outof the way and over the back of the core. this arm just drops into a slot on the top of the dust core.
Dunno jsut spit-balling, but i like the idea of the arm more than the wings.
This has the beauty of linking the CORE to the DUST core and keeps everything nice a free.
Clearly more design work to do, to come anywhere near the quality of the LR3 parts. Like the DUST core i would love to mimic the actual CORE etc.
Bit beyond my skills to create those things, quickly anyways.
EDIT
lol the forum software just told me off for talking to myself. "no more than 3 replays to yourself, wait for someone to reply or edit a post.
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
ok, here you go in relation to mimicking the core shape.
Like i said above i would love to make the dust core the same as the CORE, so i suppose you could actually make the rails like the LR3 gantry. that would aid with the removable nature of the design. and would defiantly stiffen up the whole structure for the removal and replacement.
The size of the tube was not really even a though in my head, other than "that is what i know i can get.
LOL
Dont get me wrong this is just an exercise to get this idea out of my head and try to give back to this community. I dont really know if it will work. I might get some time to build it once the smart people here offer suggestions to make it better.
You never know hat comment/picture/idea will create the next “IDEX” build or some other design.
Then design a small carriage with 3/4 608 bearing riding inside this strut (I’ve seen designs for this but I cannot find a link right now)
EDIT: found one link, although it’s not the one I had in mind, but you get the idea…
The beam would be installed between the YZ plates just like you designed (either verically or horizontaly with the opening facing down) and the dust boot would be bolted to the carriage
