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Thread: Dust Collection for CNC

  1. #1
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    Dust Collection for CNC

    So I'm in the planning stages of building a cabinet for my hobbyist CNC.

    The cabinet will be about 60" x 48" in top surface area.

    In the lower part of the cabinet, will most likely be a few drawers for hold down, clamps, router bits, etc.

    I have my regular DC that I use with my normal woodworking tools, a Festool CT26 and an old Shopsmith vacuum.

    My Shopsmith and DC have good waste capacity, but the CT26, when used with the CNC, might be a little limited in this area.

    Ideally, I would like to use a dedicated vacuum that I can place in the lower part of the cabinet to provide a little sound proofing. So I'm thinking of a two stage setup, with the first stage waste collection, with a cyclone, being outside the cabinet. With this, I think the CT26 would work and would be relatively quiet.

    The CT26 has the smaller diameter hose, about 1.25" and the DC and Shopsmith 2.5". The CT26 seems to keep up just fine with my hand held routers, but I know the CNC will move and cut faster than me.

    So if I went with the standalone vacuum, to be used with a cyclone, is there a good brand that is fairly quiet and may be a better fit than the Festool?, i.e, FEIN,

    Thanks

    Edit: If I'm totally off base with my thinking, please don't hesitate to tell me.
    Last edited by ChrisA Edwards; 06-23-2021 at 11:25 AM.

  2. #2
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    Chris, speaking from my own experience, I tried to use my Fein T3 vac when I first set up my Stinger with a Kent dust shoe. It was woefully underpowered for the task. I now run a dedicated 1-½ hp Delta 2-bagger that does a pretty good job, but not great. I think you will be disappointed with the shop-vac approach. JMO
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  3. #3
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    I was skeptical that I would need a small DC so I cheaped out and bought a 1hp Harbor Freight DC on wheels. I wanted something that I could use with tools that don't make a ton of dust. Things like my bandsaw. Well now I wish I had bought a nicer brand, one that didn't have a canvas bag. It works great and is very quiet. I try not to be cheap but there's a part of me that just thinks it's wrong to use a 5hp DC while running a 1hp oscillating spindle sander. So my plan is to mount the cheap DC on the wall (like how the Rockler Dust Right collectors mount) with a Dust deputy right next to it at the edge of the table. That way the length of flex pipe will be as short as possible. I had thought about under the table but access to it would be harder and the hose will be going up from the spindle so it's a shorter run if I don't go up then back down again. It'll also give me an excuse to replace the HF DC with a nicer one of the same size.

  4. #4
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    I am using the HF dust collector along with a cyclone collector for my Avid CNC table. This seems to work pretty well for my purposes. I have the Kent's dust shoe and am using 4" diameter hose/tube from the cnc to the dust collection setup. This duct collector is fairly noisy, but I have it in a separate room from the cnc and can close the door. I know most will recommend 6" hoses, but the 4" are working fine for me doing my "hobby" work.
    David

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  5. #5
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    Winston Moy has one or two videos on YouTube that discuss and show a cabinet integrated dust collection solution for a small CNC machine. (Shapeoko in his case...whom he now works for) It's shop vac based with sound control and he also shows how he dealt with the hose to gantry in the upper cabinet where the CNC lives. He used a modestly priced shop vac for this application.
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  6. #6
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    I would be worried about running a shop vac for extended periods of time. I know my Rigid shop vac (which doubles as my central vac) both the cord and the motor get pretty warm when the wife is cleaning the house.

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alex Zeller View Post
    I would be worried about running a shop vac for extended periods of time. I know my Rigid shop vac (which doubles as my central vac) both the cord and the motor get pretty warm when the wife is cleaning the house.
    Yes, you have to shop/purchase carefully to insure that extended run time is not an issue with the particular unit and also insure that it has what it needs for proper cooling, too, if it's in an enclosure.
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  8. #8
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    Looks like I'll most likely use my current DC with a 2.5" hose. I just need to add a bit of ducting to where I would like to park the CNC cabinet.

    I'm not using this in a production shop, so I can't see run times of more than a two or three hours for most of my projects.

  9. #9
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    Chris, if you dabble with 3D models you will be surprised at some of the cut times. I’ve had them run as long as 14 hours. I cut the step over % down so that very little finish sanding/cleanup is needed.
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  10. #10
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    Bruce speaks the truth. General cutting is "generally quick", pardon the expression, but when you get into 3D carves, even tiny ones can take a very long time because of the size of the tooling and the excessive need for z-axis movement up/down which slows movement. Even a big, robust gazillion dollar CNC can be brought to its knees speed wise with an intense 3D carve with a lot of detail. My longest cuts were about 8 hours.

    ----

    On the DC for CNC question in the situation as posed, there's no harm it trying to use your "big" DC with the smaller hose in the cabinet first. If it works, great. If you do not get the results you desire, then you can investigate a higher static pressure solution. As you likely know...dust collection systems that we use with the big tools operate by moving large amounts of air at a given velocity but at low static pressure. They don't move material as well if air is limited by small ports. So see how things go and decide from there.
    Last edited by Jim Becker; 06-25-2021 at 8:59 AM.
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