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View Full Version : Tip O' the Day from the Village Idiot



Rick Potter
02-16-2010, 1:58 AM
Here's another simple fix.

I routed triple flutes in about 44 three inch wide door casings the other day. I had my DeWalt 621 router set up using a edge guide. I was using my shop vac with the plastic dust deputy because of the MDF dust.

The center flute worked fine, with the vac picking up almost all the dust, but when I started on the flutes on either side, the hole in the base of the router was hanging over the side of the wood casing, causing me to lose a lot of the suction, with dust pickup efficiency dropping markedly.

I fixed this by putting a temporary strip of 2" wide packaging tape on both sides of the router base bottom, coming to about an inch away from the bit. This eliminated the dust collection problem.

Note that the tape was good for about 20-25 cuts before it needed to be redone. Wrap it up on the side of the router a bit so it will not catch on the work.

Worked for me.

Rick Potter

PS: After finishing the job, I noticed my roll of metal foil tape which I used on my dust collector. I think it might work just as well, and would last longer if you had a big job.
PPS: This job filled the dust deputy pail twice. Lotsa dust.

George Sanders
02-16-2010, 6:46 AM
Sounds like it worked for you. The fine flour like dust when working MDF is why I hate it. I made a base cabinet for my router table from MDF and I have vowed never to use it again.