DC for "Norm's" Router station

[Rob Price]

I'm almost done with my router setup, I just need to finish laminating the top and putting in the T tracks, and I need tp cut the holes for the DC and electrical hookup. I building my version of the very typical "Norm" router station, made for taller people like myself.

I wanted to see what you guys think about the DC setup. The typical setup I see for this style of station is one large opening at the bottom of the router area and then a Y fitting connected to 2" hose at the top, so you get above/below DC at the same time, which I want.

What I've noticed, though, is that my porter cable router pulls air in the top and out the bottom (towards the bit), I'm guessing it's some built in heat reduction to blow air across the motor. If I put the 4" port at the bottom, I'm fighting against that built in air flow.

So I'm thinking of putting the DC at the top of the router area, with a blast gate/fence with an opening at the very top, maybe even a sloped piece starting at the bottom and leaning back towards the opening at the top, that way, the air flows in through the door, up towards the top, and then out the back, it should still pull air down through the router plate, but hopefully compliment the natural airflow of the router and not fight it.

I mention all this because with my last setup, I had my router in the extension wing of my TS with a simple box around it. I used a shopvac at the bottom trying to pull air down the hole, but I noticed my router always got very hot when I did this, as oppossed to when I had no box on it.

Comments?

[glenn bradley]

You might be over thinking this a bit. My dust collection at the fence is in concert with the motors cooling air path but the suction from the cabinet below is obviously in contrast. I haven't had any problems with this and most commercial tables are designed this way.

[Rob Price]

You might be over thinking this a bit.

That's basically my question, am I overthinking this.

[Fred Hargis]

I would agree about the overthinking, but I didn't like Norm's arrangement because it didn't seem to me to move enough air (based on experience, I often had clogs at the fence especially with "stringy" woods like hickory). So I pulled a Tim Taylor reworked the whole thing to have a 6" connection to the cabinet and a 4" running to the fence...the fence connection has a gate for when the fence isn't used.

[Dick Mahany]

I'm almost done with my router setup, I just need to finish laminating the top and putting in the T tracks, and I need tp cut the holes for the DC and electrical hookup. I building my version of the very typical "Norm" router station, made for taller people like myself.

I wanted to see what you guys think about the DC setup. The typical setup I see for this style of station is one large opening at the bottom of the router area and then a Y fitting connected to 2" hose at the top, so you get above/below DC at the same time, which I want.

What I've noticed, though, is that my porter cable router pulls air in the top and out the bottom (towards the bit), I'm guessing it's some built in heat reduction to blow air across the motor. If I put the 4" port at the bottom, I'm fighting against that built in air flow.

So I'm thinking of putting the DC at the top of the router area, with a blast gate/fence with an opening at the very top, maybe even a sloped piece starting at the bottom and leaning back towards the opening at the top, that way, the air flows in through the door, up towards the top, and then out the back, it should still pull air down through the router plate, but hopefully compliment the natural airflow of the router and not fight it.

I mention all this because with my last setup, I had my router in the extension wing of my TS with a simple box around it. I used a shopvac at the bottom trying to pull air down the hole, but I noticed my router always got very hot when I did this, as oppossed to when I had no box on it.

Comments?

Rob,

I have made several router tables and have always been challenged with figuring out the best method for dust collection / cooling, so I understand your thinking. I recently built my own version of the often copied Norm's table. Decided to allow for adjustability as I never seem too get the dust collection quite right. The pics in the attached link show one possible solution that I am happy with so far:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dmshopshots/RouterTable#
By putting a gate valve on the lower 4" hose at the cabinet before the wye, I can selectively regulate the balance between the upper 2.5 " hose and the lower 4 " hose. It has worked the best of all my humble attempts so far, but I'm sure it can always be improved.

Best regards,

[Chris Kerkstra]

Great idea, how's the cooling?

Has anyone ever tried creating a cylinder instead of a box? Similiar to a cyclone.

[Rob Price]

I'm thinking of running 4" to top and bottom, most of the chips will be coming off the top. I'll hook up a Y and see what the flow is like, I like the idea of a blast gate.

[James Biddle]

I've always found Norm's design of using (4) 1" holes in the front door to be WAY undersized. It's a struggle to open the door with the DC on. Can't help much with motor cooling either. With a 4" DC (12.56 in2) input and a 2-1/2" DC (4.91 in2) hose ran up to the fence, you're left with 4.51 in2 for the gap between the router bit and the table ring after subtracting the (4) 1" holes (3.14 in2). To put it in perpective, a 1" bit spinning in a 2" ring on has 2.36 in2 of air flow. Should be a few more holes in the door IMHO. A couple up top might help cool the router motor too.

[Tom Veatch]

The way mine is set up is the air inlet and outlet to the DC are in the back wall of the enclosure. The outlet is at the top, the inlet is at the bottom. Between the two is a horizontal baffle. The baffle ends short of the door on the front of the enclosure leaving an opening that has the same free area as the inlet and outlet. Clean air enters the enclosure through the bottom inlet and exits to the DC through the upper outlet. The router motor extends through a hole in the baffle so that the cooling air inlet is in the clean air stream below the baffle and the outlet is in the "dirty" air above the baffle.

This arrangement serves two functions. First is segregates the clean and dirty air so that the router pulls clean air through the motor for cooling. Second, the pressure differential between the top and bottom of the baffle is in the proper direction to augment cooling air flow through the router.

The picture was taken without any effort to clean the enclosure. This is about how it looks even after long sessions with the router. Have never seen any indications of router overheating, the dust extraction is excellent, and a prior problem of dust fouling the power and speed adjustment switches has not reoccurred.

More discussion of Router Table Dust Collection, and views of my table can be found in this thread:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=105325

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=111155&d=1235446672

[Bill Huber]

I didn't build Norm's table but I did build the cabinet for my Jessem table.

This link shows you how I handle the DC and cooling for the router and table.

I have been using this system now for about 8 months and it has worked very well. I still get large chucks in the bottom but not the dust. I use a Bosch router and they have a problem with getting dust in the switch and I have had no problem with that with this system.

I have 2 blast gates one for the fence and one for the bottom.


http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=65058&highlight=Router


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