Hi Tamar, I'm a fan! I've seen dust collection at work in heavy industry (A Gray Iron Foundry). What I see in your dust collection is essentially called a "Drop Box" where stuff falls to the bottom but can not be captured because of where your vacuum is attached. Three improvements to try - 1, Add additional removable boards on the left and right side of the router (this will better contain the dust and chips as they fall, and reduce the extra "free space" in. your dust collection. And 2, - split your dust collection from one 4" hole to two 2" holes (that will join into a "Y" adapter that connect to your 4" main dust pipe - on the 2" holes - put one where the original 4" hole was originally (above the top of the router table (Bed), and the other just above the "dust shelf bottom board". And 3, replace your plexiglass door with a new one - same size, but cut a rectangular hole slightly narrower than the width of the sides of the two new side dust collection panels (you could test this with your tape to close off the other slots in the plexiglass door). This hole would be located just above the bottom dust barrier board. Make the new slot about 1-1/2" high. This is confusing - I know, but the idea is to reduce the volume of air in the dust collection cavity, and pull the air straight across the bottom of the cavity. I love your router table!
Great video about going down a rabbit hole. A concise video about a rabbit hole. You showed the iterations without going into the basics that we probably already know. Thanks, I learned something that I will use.
@3x3CustomTamar one of the things I love about your channel is you show your experiments and explanation of why you did what you do. I believe the air vent in front is a good idea because it allows the router itself to "breathe". It's been a while since you made this. Knowing what you know now...is there anything you would do differently?
Look at the bright side -- now you have an extra storage slot in the center section, below your new false bottom. 😃 Great video! I love your router table build and the update is helpful to see. 👍🏼
Wow, great job Tamar! Thanks for taking the time and energy to figure it out as well as making a video about it! I think you are getting as much dust pulled out of the cabinet as possible.
I'm picturing moving the Dust collector hole down lower. Then use a pipe cut in half on the bottom and keep the angled sides. Maybe just a 1-2" slot in the top of the pipe with the angled boards to the edge of the slot
The pipe is a great idea, I was thinking the same thing otherwise. If the outlet hole was lower Tamar you could make everything more or less symmetrical (which we all know it's killing you that it's not atm). 😛
@@kmchartrand99 I too agree with both of you. Also, placing the vent holes only in front of the half-pipe area should really increase the draft to the dust collection port.
These router table videos are so great. I'm finally getting a shop together, and your channel is incredibly helpful. As a bonus, you are funny and super smart! Thank you!!
absolutely love the enthusiasm you have fixing issues with your builds. i made a sand collector for a sand blast station a few years back. i had made the bottom of the box in a downwards slope funnelling down into a 90 degree ABS elbow and right back to my system. i could almost see the same principle for the router table. 4 sided sloped funnel ( like a upside down pyramid) fitted into a 90 degree and into the dust collector she goes.. but might interfere with the bottom storage. either way, you've figured it out. keep being awesome
I'm smiling. This obsession to find perfection is a force that drives us all in different ways. I really appreciate the effort you have put in. I need to update my router table and this will fuel my choices. Going to go with the exhaust on the bottom and let some air in to flow over the bottom.
I love that you are just not giving up! Well done. I think what made the 'final' mod success was the fact that the bottom surface was flush with the pipe opening. And as such I believe you could take the false bottom out, get a new board in the rear with dust collection hole as low as possible. What this will (hopefully) give you, is the flow under the router lift, and maybe even the last bits of the dust gone. It might even allow for the sloped boards to be symmetrical. Well, that is if you fancy experimenting some more haha. So easy for me to say from here lol (sry)
Congratulations!!! glad to see you didn't give up until you were satisfied (that's all that really matters). You have great troubleshooting skills to go along with your other talents. Take care and stay safe!
Tamar, I love your practical approach to engineering to solve issues. As well, your willingness to tackle anything. As a person that likes to re-engineer things I really enjoy your videos. Keep it up!
It looks like it's now working well enough, and that's all that's needed. The router takes in its cooling air at the bottom, and it exits at the top near the bit. So making sure the air at that inlet is clean, as you have done, will lengthen your router's life. Another approach is to add a horizontal baffle mid router, and pull air from above that. If the router and lift allow small clearance there without interference with function, it can work very well. The dust never gets to the bottom, so you can leave lots of clearance there.
What if you just moved the dust collection hole at the back of the stand down to the very bottom? Then you could add the small angled side pieces down and it would give you more room. That said, I think it looks good and works very well. It is a nice job. Thanks for the update.
This was my thought, as well. That would have avoided any issues with the router lift. But it works now, so no need to go re-do it. The next router table she builds will be better.
That is exactly how I built mine. There is still space below router/lift, but the bottom of the dust collection port opening is flush with the bottom of the router/lift compartment. No issues with dust collection on mine.
@@confusingdot Yes. In fact my holes/opening is actuallly a cove routed into the bottom of the door for that compartment (mine is wood not acrylic). You don't want to much area for holes because it will reduce the velocity of the flow. Too many holes/too large opening will give you more flow, but less velocity, you need the velocity to move the chips. Sorry, I'm an Enginerd and can't help it.
Great practical demonstration of what actually did and didn't work. I certainly learned a thing or two. Glad you found a solution that works for you! Thanks for sharing!
Maybe try every so often, blowing compressed air through door slots while vac is on. Creates a dust cyclone of joyous celebration as it draws out that back. Love the videos. Especially the guitar ones. Speaker cabinet?
Tamar, I recently found a woodworker here on the tubes from Holland who has some great shop system setups and advice. Anyways he build this beautiful zero clearance insert for his tablesaw however the concept is for optimal dust extraction and it absolutely applies to your situation if not all dust collection issues! He goes by Hooked On Wood on TH-cam and the episode is “A New Zero Clearance Insert You Should See”. The clearest demonstration is at 2:45 min into the episode. He does several test/demonstrations of air flow issues and solutions using a wooden box with plexiglass front (just like your dust collection box under your router) and what he’s found to be a great solution for optimal dust extraction, and his idea does work. It’s basically the principle you applied here but I don’t know I think you’ll get something out of it and his demonstration makes sense of why your dust extraction issues existed after the build
wow. Seriously, thank you. Thank you for going through all that. I had suggested the dust hole under the router lift, but I didn't realize you had such little room for that adjustment. I agree about keeping the drawer. Great problem solving. Awesome video.
Thanks for showing us your process and thinking. a small fan(s) in the front that draws power when vacuum is on? With a small strip of vinyl near the door top that angles back to direct the chips to the back. The chips are likely to heavy and the air flow does not circulate to create a good vortex
I admire your persistence. When I designed my router table I only allowed enough space for the router to clear the bottom by about 1/4" when fully lowered. I used a Shop Vac/Dust Deputy for dust collection relying on the higher velocity of the Shop Vac rather than the higher volume of my 1200 CFM dust collector. I made the router box as small as possible in hopes that the small volume would help with dust extraction. It seems to have worked. I always have a small accumulation of chips in the router box but the amount doesn't grow over time. I have a "Y" connector to draw from both the router box and the fence, both with 2-1/2" hoses going to the Shop Vac and Dust Deputy.
About 15 years ago I built the New Yankee Workshop router table that only used a 2 1/2" dust collection pipe (if you can call it that, it was actually just a short section of PVC pipe) that works really well, and it picks up the dust very, very well. However, his design had kind of a V section in the back leading to the dust extraction port (narrow near the dust extraction port, wider in the main compartment), and Norm's dust extraction port was actually slightly below the base in the compartment containing the router so the dust would not need to "jump up" over a lip or have any dead spots. Basically, the dust could just shoot directly into the dust collection opening unimpeded. My impression is you are getting close with your modifications but you may need to modify the back to move the dust extraction opening as close to the (even a little below) base of the router housing area as you can. One last thing that greatly helped, put some past wax at least on the base, and also on all the walls if you can. In my case I actually used polyurethane on the entire compartment (I wanted it durable) than put a past wax on top of that because I was concerned it was only a 2 1/2" outlet. However, things worked out very well. Just some thoughts...hope this makes things easier on you.
Hi Tamar, a big thing that will greatly aid in your dust collection endeavor would be swapping the bag on your dust collector for a canister filter. The canister filter will increase your cfm and not pump fine dust in the air, your lungs will thank you! I'm assuming you have the Harbor Freight DC unit, the Grizzly and Wynn canister filters will fit with little to no modification. Cheers!
As I mentioned before. Take out the false floor. Cut a slot about 1/2” wide the entire length of a pvc pipe cut to same length, back to front, of your cabinet. Lay the pipe in the bottom with slot facing up. Replace your sloped sides so the bottom edge connects with the slot in the pipe. Move your dust port down to connect to the pipe. The sloped sides will funnel the dust into the pipe and the restricted airflow of the pipe concentrates the suction to remove the dust that ends up in the bottom of the pipe. I wish I could show you a photo of mine. It works great.
When I recommended to move the dust port to the bottom I meant to cut the hole all the way to the bottom of the back panel, not 3-4" above the bottom. You would not have to add the inserts if you move it down. This would allow your router lift to work without hinderance. Glad you got it working.
You are correct in assuming that a bottom-mounted port would be better, but only if the bottom was shaped to funnel the dust to it (let gravity do the heavy lifting). In your case, the bottom drawer on your cabinet would make that almost impossible, but any others out there designing this sort of thing could benefit from that fix. (I'm building a dust collection box to go under my router table - right after I build the folding outfeed table for my new SawStop cabinet saw). My router table is mounted to a WorkMate style stand, so the bottom is wide open, and any dust not captured by the fence dust port (quite a bit, actually) has to be swept up off the floor the old fashioned way. But here's another thing - with that easy access, transparent door, so what if a little bit of dust remains at the bottom of the box? That's what shop-vacs are for! LOL. Great job troubleshooting & improvising the improvements... shows an analytical mind.
Great results Tamar! Glad to see you experiment with your and viewers ideas. Your results appear about a 80-90% improvement. I changed mine to the bottom as I said and with a slanted baffle achieved about what you did. Another thing I've done is having a blast gate on mine, I partially closed it and it helped a bit more...but I'm only running 2.5" hose on a shop vac/separator. Really enjoy your channel and the designs you come up with are well thought out and highly functional! Thanks Much!
Really enjoyed seeing how you worked through the ideas and how methodical you process was. You continually demonstrate your engineering and analytical skills. Thanks for taking the time to make the vid!
Excellent - and very useful for me. I'm planning to rebuild my router cabinet later this year and I'm so grateful for your posting. I would almost certainly have allowed too much room round the router lift and it's good to know that that may be counter-productive from a dust collection point of view. It seems that sometimes the only way with dust collection is trial and error - I'm on my third iteration of it in my workshop and I'm not too confident this version's gonna work well either...! Best aye!
Watching you try all the suggestions you got - and then reading the comments below...I couldn't help be reminded of Aesop's Fable "The Man, The Boy and the Donkey." 🤣🤣
Perhaps before woodworking you were a scientist? I was impressed with your PDCA methods (plan, do, check, act) That's exactly the best way to figure it out. I'm really impressed, you kept going and didn't give up. Great job Tamar! I enjoyed this video and when it's time to build mine, I will explore the suction hose port in the bottom. Great stuff. Thanks so much. I learned something today.
Well done! Got there in the end. You could always make a plywood door with slots so you don’t have to look at the unsymmetrical system inside, and slot in a small storage drawer underneath if you wanted.
Glad to see ya got the dust collection get most of the dust. Something I noticed on those expensive boxes you see for routers mounted on a table saw is an adjustable air inlet. I am guessing there is a sweet spot for the amount of air allowed in between the door and the cutter to get the best dust collection. I am sure the big companies pay people lots of cash to figure that stuff out.
Tamar - like others have said - great experimentation and results! If you "really" want to figure out what's happening, have Katz-Moses shoot the particle movements with his high speed camera!
Raises all kinds of possibilities. I have to add the same kind of enclosure to my open cabinet router table. Maybe a smooth curve skateboard-ramp-style bottom. Great experiment. Thanks for the video.
I designed something similar to this recently. But I designed it with a Big Gulp Dust Hood in the bottom. The dust drops down into the hood which is oriented with the exit hole at the bottom, to a PVC elbow, then out to the collection hose. Shape-wise you’ve basically recreated the dust hood but your hole is not in the bottom. Regarding the holes in the door … I too used a piece of plexiglass so I could see what is going on inside. I even mounted a short strip of LEDs above the door. What I found is that a row of 1/4” diameter holes spaced at about 3” apart at the very bottom of the door have a sweep effect on the dust. Basically I looked at the bottom of my floor sweep attachment for my shop vac - these always seem to have relief slots of some sort - I recreated that idea at the bottom of the door.
Great video! I'm getting ready to upgrade the dust collection on my router table & you confirmed I was on the right track with my design. I might even look into moving to the bottom if I can.
Nice video. It's good to discover things like this. I used a floor register (metal vent) for mine. Same area in the cabinet, but the DC pulls from a spot closer to the bottom.
Super good content. Thanks for the willingness to keep working at problems you come across and provide that process. For me, the next time I make a router table, I'm putting the dust collection in the bottom of the router lift box with the box funneling towards the port. Maybe placing some chicken wire or something in there for large chunks. That way, everything "falls" into the dust collection.
Wow, appreciate your time trying all the different suggestions. Looks like the router lift is blocking the air flow on that side. Perhaps redoing the back so the vac is truely at the bottom (along with the angle prices directing the flow) would have produced the result you where seeking. In any case it was great improvement over the previous layout.
Very happy you got this resolved and learning the dust collector was clogged/reducing your air flow. Great build and always entertaining to see your projects. Was puzzled on the first results as it seemed like your box was OK with vents for airflow and size of dust bucket ... so many times I forget to clean the dust from my collector and scratching my head why the tool hook up isn't getting dust though the system. LOL
Haha! It was actually a build up of epoxy “chips”. I let a friend use my planer to plane his “River” serving board. And I kept smelling that epoxy smell when I would turn the DC on… lo and behold… epoxy was built up in the hose… ha
Tamar, I believe that because your vacuum port was on the wall this system would need to capture dust while still airborne, but the vacuum wasn’t strong enough. Also as you noted I see an issue with the air slots. It seems you may have more air intake capacity than vacuum capacity so the draw isn't strong enough to totally evacuate the cavity. Maybe tape off two of the five slots as a test. Also... the new small cavity at the bottom you've created could house the vacuum port now but with a 90 degree angle. Since the vacuum connection is round, maybe buy or fashion an adapter from rectangular to round to place at the rear. All my best. You do a great job!!
What a great video, thank you. I have been looking at the boxes they sell but from the reviews it seems like you pay 100$ and still have to modify them. What a mess my Kreg table makes even with dust collection on the fence. I was honestly stuck until I saw your video. Now I know, all I have to do is build a box and modify it until it works. Again, thanks for a very helpful video.
Once it builds up a bit a trick I’ve found is to put a solid piece blocking the top (replace the filler plate with a cut out circle) and take a piece of scrap (like 1/4” MDF of whatever you have laying around) and cover the slots but not the finger hole. Take an air hose and slide it through the finger hole and blast some air in there with the dust collector running. That’s how I clean most of my “cabinet” style tools. You should be able to hold the piece of MDF with one hand and use the other to blast the air. Essentially trapping the dust in the box and with the forced air input the only place for the dust to go is out the dust collector
Late to the suggestions but I will be making my own table soon. I've watched the inital build vid and this one back to back. Most of the dust on Version 1.0 was from the lower door stop block literally blocking the wind. Mounting that on the side wall would have helped a lot on it's own. Gap at the bottom of the door would help sweep the floor and no other holes in the door. As for the rear connection I am thinking something on the very bottom similar to what is used on the fence but having that rear wall 3-4in cut out completely. Now using a wider home made version of the fence collector style. This with no holes in door except the gap at bottom will really sweep the floor clean. New subscriber... really like the router table. Roll chair vids were, ummm, entertaining. Triangle table is awesome. Will be watching more.
Great solution! That little bit of sawdust can be blown toward the dust collector with a can of compressed air occasionally and that’s pretty close to a perfect system. Don’t vent from the back, because you want to draw the air across the chips and pull them to the vac. If anything, try blocking the higher vent slots and see if you can concentrate air flow across the false bottom. Other than trying that with a few pieces of tape, I wouldn’t change a thing. Probably the best system I’ve seen for a router!
Always love your videos👍 I watched someone designing a dust collection system for their saw while designing a zero clearance throat plate for the saw. The throat plate had holes as well to allow the dust to be pulled through instead of winding up on top as it often does with a zero clearance. In the end it boiled down to finding the right balance of air flow. Too much inflow and it wouldn't pick everything up, not enough and it would starve the system. Based on the size of your cabinet and the holes in the Plex, you might have to much inflow. It would be easy to add a seal around the door to prevent air being pulled through the edges. Then you could seal off the holes in the Plex one at a time or even 1/2 of one at a time with tape. That should allow you to find the right flow for your system. You may also consider closing off the very bottom where the false floor is. Airflow into that area would serve no purpose and take away flow towards your collection hose. Hope this helps, thank for the great content.
My kid tried to "help" me with some clean up. He put scrap pieces of wood into the dust collector hose and managed to get them way down in it. I didn't notice right away and spent a bit of time trying to figure out why my dust collector wasn't doing much. Good times!
Nice work and good thought process! There were really 2 issues: size of the box (too big) and a sharp change of x-section (from a square box to a 4" tube), both of which cause losses in flow speed. But you solved it, as always! Also you could have used a large hopper (from Woodcraft) instead of the whole rear face w/ the 4" hose--it would have gradually reduced the x-section reducing the flow losses. Any time you have a sudden change of x-section, it kills the flow speed.
Good work! If you intend to do more (although "better" is the enemy of "good enough") you might try leaving the router off and pouring sawdust or something in from the top with the vacuum on and observing the airflow.
Thank you for explaining your efforts and results. Is thewre any problem with dust escaping through the breather slots? Have you used this evolution enough to tell whether a thin layer of wood flour is settling out of the shop air?
Great & informative video - thanks for feedback. Did you think to make inlet of dust collection smaller? (chips from routing are small and it should increase air velocity as well as suction, just guessing, have no experience)
I have the perfect solution! A while back I told you that I would love a router lift like that. You should sell me the router lift (with discount) and your design would work so much better and everyone would be happy!
Awesome work, Tamar! It's much better now! 😃 I have a pretty easy fix for you to the symmetric issue: replace the transparent door for a wooden door. 😬 Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Thank you for this vid. It is so nice to see how you tried different ideas to get the dust to a minimum. We all have to experiment with our setups and figure out what works best. Great video and thank you for sharing your trial and success.
Remove the “shelf” and move the hose fitting to the bottom of the compartment (may need to make a new back piece). Then make the angle pieces to funnel air toward the opening. The router base should be out of the way and not block flow on the one side. You may want to try and Tape off the top door slot to give more air across the bottom of the opening. Table looks great! Who’s top do you have?
Yep. I came here to say this. The root cause of these dust collection trouble seems to be the location of the hose outlet. It needs to be as close as possible to the bottom of the compartment so that gravity is working with you rather than against you. Some angled pieces might still be needed to direct the air, but they wouldn't be in the way as much and there would still be good access around the router. I haven't had time to watch the router table build video yet, though, so maybe there was a reason the hose connection had to be where it was?
Yeah. I was trying not to have to make a new back…. Ha. I was leaving on vacation in 2 hours and was trying to fix it as quickly as I could. Been using it for the past couple days and it’s been amazing. And the top is from MLCS
it would be interesting to do these experiements with one of those smoke machines to track what the air flow is doing. I'm guessing total volume, shape and inlet location are the key variables that all work together. I'd be interested to see what happens if you blocked some of the inlet holes.... thanks for the video, I'm about to make a router table and will use this!
Great job troubleshooting! You made some great progress. I think the air flowing from the front would be best for pushing the sawdust towards the back. (Rather than vents in the back as you mentioned). I know you have a lot of time invested in this project, but I would like to see a trough with equal angles on the sides, with the front of the trough (near the front door) higher and sloping to the intake tube at the bottom of that angled trough. I think this design would allow more room for your router lift, While allowing room for the sawdust to get past the lift and the wiring. That said, I wouldn’t blame you for being happy with what you’ve already accomplished, haha! I think your router stand is brilliant. Thank you for the great videos.
Hi Tamar, I'm a fan! I've seen dust collection at work in heavy industry (A Gray Iron Foundry). What I see in your dust collection is essentially called a "Drop Box" where stuff falls to the bottom but can not be captured because of where your vacuum is attached. Three improvements to try - 1, Add additional removable boards on the left and right side of the router (this will better contain the dust and chips as they fall, and reduce the extra "free space" in. your dust collection. And 2, - split your dust collection from one 4" hole to two 2" holes (that will join into a "Y" adapter that connect to your 4" main dust pipe - on the 2" holes - put one where the original 4" hole was originally (above the top of the router table (Bed), and the other just above the "dust shelf bottom board". And 3, replace your plexiglass door with a new one - same size, but cut a rectangular hole slightly narrower than the width of the sides of the two new side dust collection panels (you could test this with your tape to close off the other slots in the plexiglass door). This hole would be located just above the bottom dust barrier board. Make the new slot about 1-1/2" high. This is confusing - I know, but the idea is to reduce the volume of air in the dust collection cavity, and pull the air straight across the bottom of the cavity. I love your router table!
"Better than it was." The hallmark of a successful engineering project.
"Better than it was." Knowing Tamar a bit she'll probably revisit this one 😂
Haha! Not anytime soon. I used it all day yesterday yesterday with no extra dust build up. So I’m super happy
Best part: you’ve given all of us who still want to build one of these some great insights into what we should and shouldn’t do. 🙏
Absolutely true.
Great video about going down a rabbit hole. A concise video about a rabbit hole. You showed the iterations without going into the basics that we probably already know. Thanks, I learned something that I will use.
Awesome to hear
Way to go, Tamar! Great job showing the design process and how to modify the design to get more out of the design.
Glad you liked it!
We know you are smart. This is the beauty of this channel. Finding solutions. Good luck
☺️☺️👍
Thank you for this follow up video . I really wanted to see the solution for dust collection. Good job Tamar.
I am dealing with similar issues in my Router Table build.....THANK YOU for sharing your experiences! I could watch your helpful video's all day!
I should have watched this video before writing a chapter on the previous one. Glad you're satisfied with it.
@3x3CustomTamar one of the things I love about your channel is you show your experiments and explanation of why you did what you do.
I believe the air vent in front is a good idea because it allows the router itself to "breathe". It's been a while since you made this. Knowing what you know now...is there anything you would do differently?
Look at the bright side -- now you have an extra storage slot in the center section, below your new false bottom. 😃 Great video! I love your router table build and the update is helpful to see. 👍🏼
Ha. Didn’t even think of that
Wow, great job Tamar! Thanks for taking the time and energy to figure it out as well as making a video about it! I think you are getting as much dust pulled out of the cabinet as possible.
Nice you found a solution. Great persistence.
I'm picturing moving the Dust collector hole down lower. Then use a pipe cut in half on the bottom and keep the angled sides. Maybe just a 1-2" slot in the top of the pipe with the angled boards to the edge of the slot
The pipe is a great idea, I was thinking the same thing otherwise. If the outlet hole was lower Tamar you could make everything more or less symmetrical (which we all know it's killing you that it's not atm). 😛
@@kmchartrand99 I too agree with both of you. Also, placing the vent holes only in front of the half-pipe area should really increase the draft to the dust collection port.
These router table videos are so great. I'm finally getting a shop together, and your channel is incredibly helpful. As a bonus, you are funny and super smart! Thank you!!
Awesome to hear! Ha
absolutely love the enthusiasm you have fixing issues with your builds.
i made a sand collector for a sand blast station a few years back. i had made the bottom of the box in a downwards slope funnelling down into a 90 degree ABS elbow and right back to my system.
i could almost see the same principle for the router table. 4 sided sloped funnel ( like a upside down pyramid) fitted into a 90 degree and into the dust collector she goes.. but might interfere with the bottom storage. either way, you've figured it out. keep being awesome
Wow that was so much more intricate than I would’ve imagined. Great work though, thanks for showing the process
I'm smiling. This obsession to find perfection is a force that drives us all in different ways. I really appreciate the effort you have put in. I need to update my router table and this will fuel my choices. Going to go with the exhaust on the bottom and let some air in to flow over the bottom.
Haha it’s always a battle
Cool. You have tremendous patience. Nice job
Hha I have 3 kids… 😂
I love that you are just not giving up! Well done.
I think what made the 'final' mod success was the fact that the bottom surface was flush with the pipe opening. And as such I believe you could take the false bottom out, get a new board in the rear with dust collection hole as low as possible. What this will (hopefully) give you, is the flow under the router lift, and maybe even the last bits of the dust gone. It might even allow for the sloped boards to be symmetrical.
Well, that is if you fancy experimenting some more haha. So easy for me to say from here lol (sry)
You working very smart, you are amazing girl and you are very smart girl!I follow you from the beginners and you are big talent in woodworking!
Congratulations!!! glad to see you didn't give up until you were satisfied (that's all that really matters). You have great troubleshooting skills to go along with your other talents. Take care and stay safe!
You do a great job with your presentations. You are always cheerful and smiling while teaching how to complete difficult projects easily
Awesome to hear. Thanks!
Tamar, I love your practical approach to engineering to solve issues. As well, your willingness to tackle anything. As a person that likes to re-engineer things I really enjoy your videos. Keep it up!
Awesome to hear!
It looks like it's now working well enough, and that's all that's needed.
The router takes in its cooling air at the bottom, and it exits at the top near the bit. So making sure the air at that inlet is clean, as you have done, will lengthen your router's life.
Another approach is to add a horizontal baffle mid router, and pull air from above that. If the router and lift allow small clearance there without interference with function, it can work very well. The dust never gets to the bottom, so you can leave lots of clearance there.
Glad you were able to work it out. Thanks for sharing your process and final resolution.
So happy with how it’s been working the past few days
I love the evolution of your router table and the experimentation you shared with us. Thanks for bringing us along on the journey!
Glad you liked it!
Beautiful router table it is super designed. I like the doors.
Thanks for taking the time to show us your attempts to make it better. You always keep things real and in perspective.
What if you just moved the dust collection hole at the back of the stand down to the very bottom? Then you could add the small angled side pieces down and it would give you more room. That said, I think it looks good and works very well. It is a nice job. Thanks for the update.
This was my thought, as well. That would have avoided any issues with the router lift. But it works now, so no need to go re-do it. The next router table she builds will be better.
That is exactly how I built mine. There is still space below router/lift, but the bottom of the dust collection port opening is flush with the bottom of the router/lift compartment. No issues with dust collection on mine.
Exactly my thought.
I think the vent holes could also be at the exact same height as the dust collection hole to help with air flow.
@@confusingdot Yes. In fact my holes/opening is actuallly a cove routed into the bottom of the door for that compartment (mine is wood not acrylic). You don't want to much area for holes because it will reduce the velocity of the flow. Too many holes/too large opening will give you more flow, but less velocity, you need the velocity to move the chips. Sorry, I'm an Enginerd and can't help it.
Hope you get to enjoy a long weekend with the family. Thanks for posting. ✌️
👍👍👍
Great practical demonstration of what actually did and didn't work. I certainly learned a thing or two. Glad you found a solution that works for you! Thanks for sharing!
Glad to hear!
Maybe try every so often, blowing compressed air through door slots while vac is on. Creates a dust cyclone of joyous celebration as it draws out that back. Love the videos. Especially the guitar ones. Speaker cabinet?
Creative, good work. 👏👏👏
Tamar, I recently found a woodworker here on the tubes from Holland who has some great shop system setups and advice. Anyways he build this beautiful zero clearance insert for his tablesaw however the concept is for optimal dust extraction and it absolutely applies to your situation if not all dust collection issues! He goes by Hooked On Wood on TH-cam and the episode is “A New Zero Clearance Insert You Should See”. The clearest demonstration is at 2:45 min into the episode. He does several test/demonstrations of air flow issues and solutions using a wooden box with plexiglass front (just like your dust collection box under your router) and what he’s found to be a great solution for optimal dust extraction, and his idea does work. It’s basically the principle you applied here but I don’t know I think you’ll get something out of it and his demonstration makes sense of why your dust extraction issues existed after the build
wow. Seriously, thank you. Thank you for going through all that. I had suggested the dust hole under the router lift, but I didn't realize you had such little room for that adjustment. I agree about keeping the drawer. Great problem solving. Awesome video.
Thanks for showing us your process and thinking.
a small fan(s) in the front that draws power when vacuum is on? With a small strip of vinyl near the door top that angles back to direct the chips to the back.
The chips are likely to heavy and the air flow does not circulate to create a good vortex
I admire your persistence. When I designed my router table I only allowed enough space for the router to clear the bottom by about 1/4" when fully lowered. I used a Shop Vac/Dust Deputy for dust collection relying on the higher velocity of the Shop Vac rather than the higher volume of my 1200 CFM dust collector. I made the router box as small as possible in hopes that the small volume would help with dust extraction. It seems to have worked. I always have a small accumulation of chips in the router box but the amount doesn't grow over time. I have a "Y" connector to draw from both the router box and the fence, both with 2-1/2" hoses going to the Shop Vac and Dust Deputy.
About 15 years ago I built the New Yankee Workshop router table that only used a 2 1/2" dust collection pipe (if you can call it that, it was actually just a short section of PVC pipe) that works really well, and it picks up the dust very, very well.
However, his design had kind of a V section in the back leading to the dust extraction port (narrow near the dust extraction port, wider in the main compartment), and Norm's dust extraction port was actually slightly below the base in the compartment containing the router so the dust would not need to "jump up" over a lip or have any dead spots. Basically, the dust could just shoot directly into the dust collection opening unimpeded.
My impression is you are getting close with your modifications but you may need to modify the back to move the dust extraction opening as close to the (even a little below) base of the router housing area as you can.
One last thing that greatly helped, put some past wax at least on the base, and also on all the walls if you can. In my case I actually used polyurethane on the entire compartment (I wanted it durable) than put a past wax on top of that because I was concerned it was only a 2 1/2" outlet. However, things worked out very well.
Just some thoughts...hope this makes things easier on you.
Hi Tamar, a big thing that will greatly aid in your dust collection endeavor would be swapping the bag on your dust collector for a canister filter. The canister filter will increase your cfm and not pump fine dust in the air, your lungs will thank you! I'm assuming you have the Harbor Freight DC unit, the Grizzly and Wynn canister filters will fit with little to no modification. Cheers!
As I mentioned before. Take out the false floor. Cut a slot about 1/2” wide the entire length of a pvc pipe cut to same length, back to front, of your cabinet. Lay the pipe in the bottom with slot facing up. Replace your sloped sides so the bottom edge connects with the slot in the pipe. Move your dust port down to connect to the pipe. The sloped sides will funnel the dust into the pipe and the restricted airflow of the pipe concentrates the suction to remove the dust that ends up in the bottom of the pipe. I wish I could show you a photo of mine. It works great.
When I recommended to move the dust port to the bottom I meant to cut the hole all the way to the bottom of the back panel, not 3-4" above the bottom. You would not have to add the inserts if you move it down. This would allow your router lift to work without hinderance. Glad you got it working.
Great job, Tamar. I'm glad it works now!
So happy!
Good job.......so glad you got the dust collection working better. You'll really enjoy using your new router table!
I used it so much the last couple of days and it’s been soooooooo amazing!!
You are correct in assuming that a bottom-mounted port would be better, but only if the bottom was shaped to funnel the dust to it (let gravity do the heavy lifting). In your case, the bottom drawer on your cabinet would make that almost impossible, but any others out there designing this sort of thing could benefit from that fix. (I'm building a dust collection box to go under my router table - right after I build the folding outfeed table for my new SawStop cabinet saw). My router table is mounted to a WorkMate style stand, so the bottom is wide open, and any dust not captured by the fence dust port (quite a bit, actually) has to be swept up off the floor the old fashioned way. But here's another thing - with that easy access, transparent door, so what if a little bit of dust remains at the bottom of the box? That's what shop-vacs are for! LOL. Great job troubleshooting & improvising the improvements... shows an analytical mind.
Great results Tamar! Glad to see you experiment with your and viewers ideas. Your results appear about a 80-90% improvement. I changed mine to the bottom as I said and with a slanted baffle achieved about what you did. Another thing I've done is having a blast gate on mine, I partially closed it and it helped a bit more...but I'm only running 2.5" hose on a shop vac/separator. Really enjoy your channel and the designs you come up with are well thought out and highly functional! Thanks Much!
Glad you like it!
Perseverance paid off, you did it. Thanks for sharing.
👍👍
Really enjoyed seeing how you worked through the ideas and how methodical you process was. You continually demonstrate your engineering and analytical skills. Thanks for taking the time to make the vid!
Glad you liked it!
Love your attitude and your presentation. Thank-you.
☺️☺️
What a pita. I'm building a router table myself and I can DC problems too after watching this.
You’re a GREAT engineer. You’ve inspired my router table design.
Awesome
I am one of your followers in Saudi Arabia, you are creative
☺️
Excellent - and very useful for me. I'm planning to rebuild my router cabinet later this year and I'm so grateful for your posting.
I would almost certainly have allowed too much room round the router lift and it's good to know that that may be counter-productive from a dust collection point of view.
It seems that sometimes the only way with dust collection is trial and error - I'm on my third iteration of it in my workshop and I'm not too confident this version's gonna work well either...!
Best aye!
Awesome
Watching you try all the suggestions you got - and then reading the comments below...I couldn't help be reminded of Aesop's Fable "The Man, The Boy and the Donkey." 🤣🤣
😂😂😂
Perhaps before woodworking you were a scientist? I was impressed with your PDCA methods (plan, do, check, act) That's exactly the best way to figure it out. I'm really impressed, you kept going and didn't give up. Great job Tamar! I enjoyed this video and when it's time to build mine, I will explore the suction hose port in the bottom. Great stuff. Thanks so much. I learned something today.
Awesome to hear
That was some good old fashioned troubleshooting.
Well done! Got there in the end. You could always make a plywood door with slots so you don’t have to look at the unsymmetrical system inside, and slot in a small storage drawer underneath if you wanted.
Now this is practical engineering!
Good engineering skills. I see a new router table build in my future.
Always nice presentation
Glad to see ya got the dust collection get most of the dust. Something I noticed on those expensive boxes you see for routers mounted on a table saw is an adjustable air inlet. I am guessing there is a sweet spot for the amount of air allowed in between the door and the cutter to get the best dust collection. I am sure the big companies pay people lots of cash to figure that stuff out.
Tamar - like others have said - great experimentation and results! If you "really" want to figure out what's happening, have Katz-Moses shoot the particle movements with his high speed camera!
Raises all kinds of possibilities. I have to add the same kind of enclosure to my open cabinet router table. Maybe a smooth curve skateboard-ramp-style bottom. Great experiment. Thanks for the video.
That was my initial thought! But didn’t have that kind of time this day. Ha
Yeah, you have to make like a funnel shape. Very nice Tamar.. once again great video!
Glad you liked it!
I designed something similar to this recently. But I designed it with a Big Gulp Dust Hood in the bottom. The dust drops down into the hood which is oriented with the exit hole at the bottom, to a PVC elbow, then out to the collection hose. Shape-wise you’ve basically recreated the dust hood but your hole is not in the bottom. Regarding the holes in the door … I too used a piece of plexiglass so I could see what is going on inside. I even mounted a short strip of LEDs above the door. What I found is that a row of 1/4” diameter holes spaced at about 3” apart at the very bottom of the door have a sweep effect on the dust. Basically I looked at the bottom of my floor sweep attachment for my shop vac - these always seem to have relief slots of some sort - I recreated that idea at the bottom of the door.
Excellent problem solving. This gives me some good ideas on how to fix the same problem in my shop. Thanks!
Glad you found it useful!
Great video! I'm getting ready to upgrade the dust collection on my router table & you confirmed I was on the right track with my design. I might even look into moving to the bottom if I can.
Awesome. Glad it was helpful
Nice video. It's good to discover things like this. I used a floor register (metal vent)
for mine. Same area in the cabinet, but the DC pulls from a spot closer to the bottom.
Cool idea
Super good content. Thanks for the willingness to keep working at problems you come across and provide that process. For me, the next time I make a router table, I'm putting the dust collection in the bottom of the router lift box with the box funneling towards the port. Maybe placing some chicken wire or something in there for large chunks. That way, everything "falls" into the dust collection.
Hi from Argentina!
Wow, appreciate your time trying all the different suggestions. Looks like the router lift is blocking the air flow on that side. Perhaps redoing the back so the vac is truely at the bottom (along with the angle prices directing the flow) would have produced the result you where seeking. In any case it was great improvement over the previous layout.
Very happy you got this resolved and learning the dust collector was clogged/reducing your air flow. Great build and always entertaining to see your projects. Was puzzled on the first results as it seemed like your box was OK with vents for airflow and size of dust bucket ... so many times I forget to clean the dust from my collector and scratching my head why the tool hook up isn't getting dust though the system. LOL
Haha! It was actually a build up of epoxy “chips”. I let a friend use my planer to plane his “River” serving board. And I kept smelling that epoxy smell when I would turn the DC on… lo and behold… epoxy was built up in the hose… ha
Tamar, I believe that because your vacuum port was on the wall this system would need to capture dust while still airborne, but the vacuum wasn’t strong enough. Also as you noted I see an issue with the air slots. It seems you may have more air intake capacity than vacuum capacity so the draw isn't strong enough to totally evacuate the cavity. Maybe tape off two of the five slots as a test. Also... the new small cavity at the bottom you've created could house the vacuum port now but with a 90 degree angle. Since the vacuum connection is round, maybe buy or fashion an adapter from rectangular to round to place at the rear. All my best. You do a great job!!
While I have no interest in a router table, I LOVED seeing your problem solving experiments!
Ha glad to hear
glad you got it working better.
Me too ha
Great job! Symmetry isn't always the best solution.
Now I can fix my router table. Thanks!
What a great video, thank you. I have been looking at the boxes they sell but from the reviews it seems like you pay 100$ and still have to modify them. What a mess my Kreg table makes even with dust collection on the fence. I was honestly stuck until I saw your video. Now I know, all I have to do is build a box and modify it until it works. Again, thanks for a very helpful video.
Once it builds up a bit a trick I’ve found is to put a solid piece blocking the top (replace the filler plate with a cut out circle) and take a piece of scrap (like 1/4” MDF of whatever you have laying around) and cover the slots but not the finger hole. Take an air hose and slide it through the finger hole and blast some air in there with the dust collector running. That’s how I clean most of my “cabinet” style tools. You should be able to hold the piece of MDF with one hand and use the other to blast the air. Essentially trapping the dust in the box and with the forced air input the only place for the dust to go is out the dust collector
Late to the suggestions but I will be making my own table soon. I've watched the inital build vid and this one back to back. Most of the dust on Version 1.0 was from the lower door stop block literally blocking the wind. Mounting that on the side wall would have helped a lot on it's own. Gap at the bottom of the door would help sweep the floor and no other holes in the door. As for the rear connection I am thinking something on the very bottom similar to what is used on the fence but having that rear wall 3-4in cut out completely. Now using a wider home made version of the fence collector style. This with no holes in door except the gap at bottom will really sweep the floor clean.
New subscriber... really like the router table. Roll chair vids were, ummm, entertaining. Triangle table is awesome. Will be watching more.
Love it when a plan comes together!! Great work Tamar
Thanks so much!
Great solution! That little bit of sawdust can be blown toward the dust collector with a can of compressed air occasionally and that’s pretty close to a perfect system. Don’t vent from the back, because you want to draw the air across the chips and pull them to the vac. If anything, try blocking the higher vent slots and see if you can concentrate air flow across the false bottom. Other than trying that with a few pieces of tape, I wouldn’t change a thing. Probably the best system I’ve seen for a router!
Actually after I’m done routing I leave the DC in and block off the front holes while the router is off and that has been sucking up what remains! 👍
Always love your videos👍 I watched someone designing a dust collection system for their saw while designing a zero clearance throat plate for the saw. The throat plate had holes as well to allow the dust to be pulled through instead of winding up on top as it often does with a zero clearance. In the end it boiled down to finding the right balance of air flow. Too much inflow and it wouldn't pick everything up, not enough and it would starve the system. Based on the size of your cabinet and the holes in the Plex, you might have to much inflow. It would be easy to add a seal around the door to prevent air being pulled through the edges. Then you could seal off the holes in the Plex one at a time or even 1/2 of one at a time with tape. That should allow you to find the right flow for your system.
You may also consider closing off the very bottom where the false floor is. Airflow into that area would serve no purpose and take away flow towards your collection hose.
Hope this helps, thank for the great content.
Definitely something to consider but as of now I think it’s fine. I used it all day yesterday and there was no extra build up
My kid tried to "help" me with some clean up. He put scrap pieces of wood into the dust collector hose and managed to get them way down in it. I didn't notice right away and spent a bit of time trying to figure out why my dust collector wasn't doing much. Good times!
😂😂😂 sounds like a good time. I once found captain America in our home a/c vent… at least they’re cute!
Love how you work through the problem until to come up with a viable solution.
Nice work and good thought process! There were really 2 issues: size of the box (too big) and a sharp change of x-section (from a square box to a 4" tube), both of which cause losses in flow speed. But you solved it, as always!
Also you could have used a large hopper (from Woodcraft) instead of the whole rear face w/ the 4" hose--it would have gradually reduced the x-section reducing the flow losses. Any time you have a sudden change of x-section, it kills the flow speed.
Good work! If you intend to do more (although "better" is the enemy of "good enough") you might try leaving the router off and pouring sawdust or something in from the top with the vacuum on and observing the airflow.
LOL! Suggesting strong cross lighting and using cigar smoke's completely off the table, I suppose?
Thank you for explaining your efforts and results. Is thewre any problem with dust escaping through the breather slots? Have you used this evolution enough to tell whether a thin layer of wood flour is settling out of the shop air?
Try taping of the bottom & top slot in the door to see if that would increase air speed.
You continue to rock!!
You could also lower de dust collection connector even further to make room for the router lift.
Great & informative video - thanks for feedback. Did you think to make inlet of dust collection smaller? (chips from routing are small and it should increase air velocity as well as suction, just guessing, have no experience)
I have the perfect solution! A while back I told you that I would love a router lift like that. You should sell me the router lift (with discount) and your design would work so much better and everyone would be happy!
Cheap man .😂😂gust make your own table and sell it to me then every one will be happy
😂
Awesome work, Tamar! It's much better now! 😃
I have a pretty easy fix for you to the symmetric issue: replace the transparent door for a wooden door. 😬
Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Haha!
Thank you for this vid. It is so nice to see how you tried different ideas to get the dust to a minimum. We all have to experiment with our setups and figure out what works best. Great video and thank you for sharing your trial and success.
Glad you liked it!
I've said it before. You're a problem solver. Well done!
Thanks!
Thanks for saving me tons of time when I decide to build one myself.
Glad it was helpful!
Remove the “shelf” and move the hose fitting to the bottom of the compartment (may need to make a new back piece). Then make the angle pieces to funnel air toward the opening. The router base should be out of the way and not block flow on the one side. You may want to try and Tape off the top door slot to give more air across the bottom of the opening. Table looks great! Who’s top do you have?
Exactly
Yep. I came here to say this. The root cause of these dust collection trouble seems to be the location of the hose outlet. It needs to be as close as possible to the bottom of the compartment so that gravity is working with you rather than against you. Some angled pieces might still be needed to direct the air, but they wouldn't be in the way as much and there would still be good access around the router. I haven't had time to watch the router table build video yet, though, so maybe there was a reason the hose connection had to be where it was?
@@laurawerner only so she had a storage drawer to use below.
Yeah. I was trying not to have to make a new back…. Ha. I was leaving on vacation in 2 hours and was trying to fix it as quickly as I could. Been using it for the past couple days and it’s been amazing. And the top is from MLCS
it would be interesting to do these experiements with one of those smoke machines to track what the air flow is doing. I'm guessing total volume, shape and inlet location are the key variables that all work together. I'd be interested to see what happens if you blocked some of the inlet holes.... thanks for the video, I'm about to make a router table and will use this!
Great job troubleshooting! You made some great progress. I think the air flowing from the front would be best for pushing the sawdust towards the back. (Rather than vents in the back as you mentioned). I know you have a lot of time invested in this project, but I would like to see a trough with equal angles on the sides, with the front of the trough (near the front door) higher and sloping to the intake tube at the bottom of that angled trough. I think this design would allow more room for your router lift, While allowing room for the sawdust to get past the lift and the wiring. That said, I wouldn’t blame you for being happy with what you’ve already accomplished, haha! I think your router stand is brilliant. Thank you for the great videos.
Oops! I just noticed this video is older, maybe you already came up with a solution that I haven’t seen yet
Great problem solving video.