My ultimate dewalt 611 dust boot (easel!) + upgrades

Ive been doing a lot of upgrading to my once bone stock x-carve. I first did the steel spar mod, in preparation for a new, heavier spindle so I could cut aluminium more precisely and have more rigidity. Then I upgraded to the Makita RT0701C trim router with the dewalt 611 spindle mount. Ive spoken on this router in previous posts, and I love it. Eats everything like its nobodies business. I then needed a dust boot, or some form of dust collection, and there are some awesome dust boots out there people have made, but they were all a little too complicated for me, I wanted something I could just cut out in easel, so I designed one. Its not adjustable height, but the bristles are soft enough and bend well. It is incredibly low profile, and takes advantage of the bolt holes on the 611 spindle mount. I made mine out of acrylic as well, so I could see the end mill when cutting or locating. Its very simple, and can be done in a few hours. It even deflects the router cooling air, so you don’t need an air deflector.
https://www.inventables.com/projects/dewalt-611-dust-boot

I bought the brush material at home depot for 6$ It was an under door sweep from frost king.

Also, to prevent v-wheel crap buildup I fitted some pvc skirts to the y-carriages.

As a note, I’ve noticed when using collet adapters and spiral upcut mills, if it is not very tightly held, the bit will pull itself down into the material, causing a myriad of problems like all the sudden taking a full depth cut, so, tighten your collets extra tight :smile:

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That looks great! I’m still very new to the X-Carve so I tend to ask a bunch of materials related questions. What’s the thickness of the acrylic you used for this and where did you find it? Also, similar question on the PVC.

This is much simpler than the dust shoe design I’ve been building, but I bet it’s just as effective. This is where I smack myself on the forehead and say “Why didn’t I think of that?” :smile:

Just cut slots in your mounting bracket, and change your socket head screws to thumb screws and you’ve got yourself an adjustable dust shoe. This is great - very simple and it looks like it makes an effective air deflector as well.

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WeldOn #3 is what I use.

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It was 5mm thick acrylic and I got it and pvc from a local dealer, but if I can’t, I really like http://www.eplastics.com/

@Earwigger Ah! good idea, I didn’t think of that since I was using a drill press for the holes after the fact, and mine is always at its highest point anyway since i use the shortest bits possible, but that would be a really good addition.

@AngusMcleod Interestingly I actually just used super glue, since that’s what I needed to put the brushes in the slots. But I actually recommend against super glue since its so easy to screw stuff up. Epoxy and a plastic weld would be best.

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That 90 degree angle corner hits corner bracket on YX zero point. Or you can push your homing switches further in, this time you lost about 1" or more on each direction. Besides it’s not up/down adjustable.

It doesn’t hit anything on mine, no matter how far I go, but I don’t use homing switches. My first revision did hit the y rails, but I just shortened it and now it clears everything. As for adjustability, it was said earlier that you could mill a slot where I put drill holes, and it would adjust up and down.

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Looks perfectly good and practical, only my concern was if you search thru posts to see my first and second shoe, you’ll see I had to turn complete assembly about 35 degrees. Yes If you don’t do home 0, it will never see that corner. Such a clean design.

I looked at mine and I see what you mean, on mine it does get very close when at the zero, in the x direction the x-carriage stops before the shoe hits the y-rails, and in the y direction the shoe just touches the end plate before the bit is over the zero point, but it still can reach 1/8th inch above the zero point, so I lost 1/8th inch of space on my machine with this dust shoe, in my easel file you could easily just cut the box a little thinner and that would have it clear in all directions.

Yes, that was my first mistake. I zero the machine, it’s fine. When I start carving to material starts fro X0Y0, this time Z axis goes down, and start hitting corner bracket. I put one more extra MDF as waste board for a while. Then I decided to draw another one. As long as you’re able to Machine zero and you’re clamping your material different place and have Work zero, you will not have problems. Don’t clamp your work to X0Y0 point. That corner plate is angle.
Cheers.