This morning I installed three manual blast gates on the spindle extraction and replaced two (out of three) sets of dust boot brushes. The old ones didn't look too bad, but they were rather stiff with resin from pine and possibly also the glues from MDF/chipboard/plywood. The initial results look to be one heck of a lot better, at least on MDF. I'll know about hardwood when I do a batch next week. The dust extraction is much more efficient with two spindle heads blocked off, even when drilling. I've found that the extraction on drilling is beter when the middle spindle hose is sucking, that way I seem to be getting a 3-point extraction. Still isn't as good as I'd like, but it is better. I think the next thing I'll look at is replacing large parts of the flexible hose with steel ductwork before automating the blast gates.
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Scrit
from the Sunny Pennines, England's Backbone |