Dust Collection

One of the first things I wanted to add to my CNC is a dust collection system. Not only is this good for my lungs, but I wanted to limit the amount of dust getting into the linear rails and other parts of the machine.

I experimented with a couple ideas and finally ended up with a 3D printed duct system and mount for a dust skirt:

The black plate in the center is the spindle carriage on the machine, and all the other parts (red, green, and grey) are 3D printed. The following render shows the channel at the bottom for the dust skirt:

I tried to keep the bottom part as low-profile as possible, so that reduction of the usable bit length would be small. The channel for the dust skirt is sized to accept 2mm thick art foam that is readily available from craft stores. I then cut a series of slits in the foam to end up with the final product:

The front skirt part is held on with magnets and can be removed for better visibility:

The duct comes up next to the router, and is sized to just fit when the X axis is homed to the left:

The adapter that connects the duct to the vac hose is a separate part so other sizes could be made. At the moment I only created one size, for the Festool 27mm (1-1/16") size hose shown above. If you have a larger hose, perhaps some masking tape could be wrapped on the adapter to pad it out to a larger size (tape fixes everything, after all)

Reinforced Version

My first version of this design worked well, although I had an accidental firm tug on the hose and found that it developed a crack. I printed with PLA (and relatively cheap PLA at that), so perhaps with ABS or better PLA it would hold up fine. Still, I updated the model to add more plastic around that stress area, which hopefully will help prevent this. (I actually didn't reprint mine, since a little superglue fixed it up just fine.)

STL files and instructions

There are four STL files:

• cnc-dust-duct-m.stl - Main duct that connects to the spindle plate (green in above renders)
• cnc-curtain-m.stl - Forms the back and right side dust curtain (red in renders)
• cnc-vac-adapt-m.stl - Adapts the duct to a hose like the Festool 27mm (1-1/16")
• cnc-front-curtain-m.stl - Removable front curtain

The first two (the dust duct and the main curtain) will require supports enabled to print, due to the overhangs that grab around the spindle plate. I print using Simplify3D, and the supports worked nicely. I would expect/hope that supports from other slicers should be ok too.

The dust duct and curtain attach to the spindle plate using the existing M5 threaded holes. Three M5 12mm button-head socket cap screws are the best choice, since they are very low profile. I found them available at my local hardware store.

To make the curtain, I used 2mm thick art foam sheets:

I cut a strip of foam about 35mm wide, and then wrapped a piece of blue painter's masking tape on one long edge. The tape makes it more rigid and much easier to slide into the channels in the dust duct, curtain, and front curtain pieces. Here's a close up of the front curtain to show how the tape wrapped around the foam:

I slid the tape-wrapped foam in from one end. It is a little tricky to get in, but not too bad and it has held in place so far.

Also, the front curtain has two holes for some 8mm x 3mm neodymium magnets, which will allow it to be easily added/removed from the spindle plate. The magnets should just press-fit into the holes with some pressure.

And as a bonus, when you are not using the front curtain it can store away nicely on the side of the machine:

If you decide to try building this duct, I hope it all goes together well for you. Perhaps you could leave a comment to let me know how it turned out.

How I created this

I modeled these parts in my favorite 3D design application, Fusion 360. If you are interested in customizing this model, you can download the design files here:

http://a360.co/1wMvG8O