Router Table Intake Air

[Kris Cook]

Building a router cabinet/table. I am planning a 4" suction at the back of the cabinet with a 2-1/2" tee going up to the fence. This will be connected to my DC via 4" flex tubing coming off of a 6" drop.

Wondering if others have seen the need for intake air in the compartment that houses the router (4" suction).

[Jim Becker]

Yes, you want some additional openings to help provide enough air for efficiency and if you do them down low opposite of the port as well as toward the corners, they will help "sweep" stuff away that normally would collect in those corners due to lack of air flow in those areas. I suggest you either do a wye from the 6" to the 4" and 2.5" hoses or take your 2.5" off the cabinet, rather than using a tee. You can do a quick calculation of the area of the 4" inlet and compare it to the area of the 2.5" hose plus the average opening in the table to figure out how many smaller holes you need in the cabinet. It does not need to be exact. You can also use a slot rather than holes if you prefer that.

[Edwin Santos]

Building a router cabinet/table. I am planning a 4" suction at the back of the cabinet with a 2-1/2" tee going up to the fence. This will be connected to my DC via 4" flex tubing coming off of a 6" drop.

Wondering if others have seen the need for intake air in the compartment that houses the router (4" suction).

Yes.
And if you don't do it, your router will be operating in a negative pressure vacuum and the bearings will burn out prematurely. DAMHIKT

[Bruce Wrenn]

A router motor fan is designed so as to blow exhaust air over bit. Otherwise, all that dust and chips would be sucked up into the motor. Too much suction from a DC could offset fans exhaust, instead, drawing dust/chips into router Rather than whole cabinet, I would prefer something that sweeps air between motor and bit, with a fresh air intake in bottom of the cabinet

[Michael Burnside]

I’m extremely happy with my Saw Stop cabinet and fence. Take a look at their design for guidance if you need it.

[Tom M King]

Probably doesn't apply to a regular router table, but I'll show this anyway. For my dedicated router "table" setups for making sash, the PVC pipe riser is the air intake to keep fingers safe and prevent chips from being thrown out.

They get 100% of the chips and dust, and the router looks like new after whatever use I need out of them. More pictures and details on the Windows page of my website.

[Greg Quenneville]

I used a closed (with vent holes) cabinet with only a 4” under table connection. I machined over 120 sheets of mdf on that table and had to service the Triton router twice due to dust ingress into every crevice possible. I now have a big hose connection on the fence which probably gets 90%+ at the source.

Now that I have a 10hp shaper the dust collection problem has started all over again.

[Lee Schierer]

I ran my Freud FT2000 router for maybe 5-6 minutes once without the dust collection turned on and I was amazed at how warm the router cabinet enclosure became in that short time.

[Brian Tymchak]

I ran my Freud FT2000 router for maybe 5-6 minutes once without the dust collection turned on and I was amazed at how warm the router cabinet enclosure became in that short time.

I did the same recently experimenting with how to get better collection when I was "free" routing (without a fence). I have a 3 1/4 hp in a dust box and in just a few minutes, the box was warm to the touch.

The OPs proposed setup, with an air intake at the back of the cabinet, is pretty much what I have and it does an excellent job collecting with the fence in place, not so much without the fence as I mentioned. I tried changing the size of the insert ring openings to get better collection but that didn't help. Still looking for a better idea on that as I do quite a bit of that operation.

[Jim Dwight]

I had a router table setup in the auxiliary table of my old table saw. The router was in a box with a 4 inch port on the bottom. I thought the router got too hot in that setup, presumably because the DC flow was limiting the effectiveness of the router cooling fan. So when I designed my current router table, I put a piece of 4 inch flex inside the cabinet with the inlet in the router chuck area of the router. My lift is home made so it was easier for me to do this, probably. My 4 inch DC connection thus enhances flow through the router motor. The door into the compartment with the motor is an inch or so shorter than the opening to let air in at the bottom of the compartment. I also wye the 4 inch line from the blast gate of my DC to have a 2.5 inch connection to the router table fence. I am very happy with this setup. It doesn't get everything but gets most of the dust and the router seems to stay reasonably cool.

[glenn bradley]

My replacement air opening is directly across from the 6" collection port on my router table. The move to a 6" port really improved the collection of spoil around the bit and table top. I also use fence collection. Your replacement air opening area should be about equal to your collection port's area.

[Jack Frederick]

I have the same 4”/2” connection as you. This is how I built mine. Saw dust does not build up in it. It is made with a plywood bottom, angle iron corners and filled in with sheet metal. There is a small gap at the top of the sheet metal to allow some air in and the three holes in the plexi create the sweep.

[Tom Bussey]

Why not just collect the chips at the top of the router with a vac and sweep the floor when done for the day?

[Tom M King]

Someone needs to come up with an adjustable setup like my dedicated ones. The router never even smells dust. Bits have to be installed from the top though. There is a hole that the shank comes through, and a recess in the top that leaves that ever so slightly bigger than 1/2" hole for the shank.

When I was first playing around with building them, I found that a shop vac did better for getting all the dust than the DC. The shop vac air velocity is higher, and the hose still moves plenty of air volume for this job.

Tops are made from free phenolic bowling alley surface scraps.

[George Yetka]

I try and keep opening minimal around bit, sufficient at fence, and the door on the front of my cabinet leaks a bit.

In this way the 2-1/2" hose takes away the lion share of the dust the 4" will pick up anything that hits the cabinet