Welcome to the dusty conversation! I hung my hose high after making sure it didnāt restrict movement of my CNC in any way. Some people use an arm, I was planning on it but found it wasnāt necessary in the least. Iāll add a picture when I get out to the shop. It works fantastic except for when I surface things. I have a number of great suggestions from that thread!
My favorite human (my bride) has me tearing out carpet and painting the living room, which is much needed. Flooring is arriving for us to put down in 4 days. Time to crank it out, although I have 2 commissioned pieces in the shop that needs finishing. Wonāt take much time. The hard work is done.
As you can see my hose is a regular vacuum hose suspended in the middle of my enclosure so it doesnāt pull on anything. I rarely use the dust shoe because the enclosure keeps everything inside. I just vacuum up after every carve. The one thing I want to use it for is surfacing my spoil board because MDF is so dusty but with the dust shoe on the mill canāt reach all the way to the right side.
My GF got me a spindle for xmas which invalidated my shopvac/cyclone and pool hose dust collection. Decided to bite the bullet on something more skookum.
Thank you Whatās funny is that is my design computer that Iāve been using for control of my CNC. I bought a new old stock Mac mini from 2018. I donāt have a handle on it yet, but Iām going to use a 32ā flat panel television for the monitor. I will still use the pullout for the keyboard and mouse. I may move the mini to a remote spot in the shop. The keyboard and mouse are Bluetooth. I have a network cable and would only need a long hdmi cable to the monitor. Been busy keeping my bride happy with the remodel of the living room. Pulling carpet and getting ready for paint. Keep her happy may allow me to get a 4x8 altmill when they become available. Remember, dust is horrific for our health!
I have not grounded it yet. I get zapped removing the dust boot pretty frequently. You donāt need to run wire on the inside. Iām going to insert screws every 18 inches or so and run a wire along those. Just havenāt found the uninsulated wire I want to use yet. PVC works just fine and is much more economical than metal. The flex hoses are a little spendy. The dust collector is Harbor Freightās new one. All in it cost me about $900 US
Thatās not bad considering all you got going for you with your set up! I got a grounding wire from a local woodworking store. Essentially, it is 14g stranded wire. I was thinking Iād have to run it inside the pipe and I vapor locked. Never thought of a grounding screw and running it outside. Appreciate that! I have a Jet 1100 single stage chip collector, hooked up to a cyclone from ornida air. 4ā hose everywhere! There has to be a better way!
Upgrades to the dust collector, a 1mm canister filter is in order, expensive? Yep. Better than the 35mm bag filter? Absolutely!
I got a Jet dust scrubber off eBay for 1/2 price. It automatically turns on when the onboard sensor decides it needs it. Havenāt gotten it installed yet though. My bride has me remodeling the living room (which it needed). But new house flooring should mean I get either my AltMill 48x96 or flooring for the shop. A win in my book.
Thanks for sharing your success!
Dust is our enemy!
Jake
Thanks, My next honey do project is remodeling my gfās craft room. I have all of the cabinets, glass storage and work island designed in CAD. Sheās working on a 30x30 stained glass piece at the moment so I have to wait till itās finished to get to work. 14g seems overkill, itās all voltage with very little current.
I neglected to reply that your setup is basically my dream. Truly blown away by the ingenuity. So, totally self-contained? No real need for a robust DCS because everything āstays insideā?
Okay, while weāre at it: Another question. Iāve heard (in my line of work) that finely particulate matter is a fire hazard. So, if Iām running a basic cyclone/dust collection step, should I be diligent about the extremely fine particles that are building up in my bucket?
Fire (or actually explosion) hazard is not related to the accumulated material in the bucket but rather the stuff that is floating in the air. Different materials have different requirements as to what it takes to ignite the material. Secondary explosions are a thing and can happen when the primary explosion disturbs dust that has settled on surfaces causing it to become airborne.
I personally do not believe that my dust collection system is an explosion hazard and donāt even bother with a static discharge wire in the system. Of course this is just me and I might be totally wrong.
In any case, stuff in your bucket is more or less irrelevant unless you have enough of an explosion to make it airborne.
Yup! You could argue that using a dust shoe would keep more dust away from the routerās motor but itās not too bad with anything other than MDF in my experience. I like the unobstructed view that I get without the shoe so I donāt use it very often. The vacuum hose fits just loose enough that I can push it onto the top of the box and it hangs out of the way. Then I just pull it down and vacuum after each job.
The enclosure is 2x4 construction with some ripped to 2x2. The skin is inexpensive āhard boardā that comes white on one side. The hardest and most expensive part was making the bifold door. Each of the door panels has two frames, one notched, that sandwich the plexiglass. I made it tall so I wouldnāt bump my head but having it tall really helped with managing hoses and lighting.
Since that picture was taken I have added a door in the back that is about 1/3rd the height of the enclosure. It swings up to allow easier access to the Y motors and allows pass through work to still be done. I also added a 6" hose for my laser exhaust that hangs down from the top. That goes to an inline fan and is vented outside.
Iām glad you like my enclosure, itās worked well for me so far.
Iām not an expert on this subject but I agree with your assessment. If anyone is interested in this subject this Wikipedia article on a 2008 sugar factory explosion should get you started down the rabbit hole.
EDIT: The more I think about it resurfacing my spoil board might be the most dangerous thing I do. Because the dust shoe limits access to the right side of my spoil board I havenāt been using it when resurfacing. This leads to my enclosure being full of super fine MDF dust suspended in an environment with electric motors providing a possible ignition source.
Maybe I should surface the majority with the shoe then do the little strip on the right separate? I donāt find the thought of a plexiglass infused fireball shooting into my face appealing.
I empty my dust collector down in my burn pile usually right before I burn my branches, junk wood etc. I light it off with a propane weed burner. Iām here to tell you it lights immediately, but doesnāt burn very deep. My barrel is 40 gal or so. Do I worry about it in the barrel? Not really. Is it potentially flammable? My humble opinion is yes.
