Need Help!- Working with low ceilings...Solutions???

[GrainWise]

Hello to all,

I found this site a few months ago and have been perusing around since then. I must say that I am impressed not only to the wealth of knowledge gladly shared amongst all, but also the level of professionalism in the discussions.

A bit of background…My name is Kevin and I am a High School and College Instructor in Southern Virginia. We are in our first year of offering classes that revolve around wood products and building them utilizing CAD/CAM. We have adopted TopSolid as our design and manufacturing software after an in-depth look at many of the other drawing packages. The vision of our program is a degree program that teaches our students not only how to run the machines that they will find in industry, but also the thought and process that it takes to get a product from initial design to full production. Also, we’ll be a training center for those industries in our area.

We are currently looking to purchase our first CNC router and have been in long conversation with Stiles Machinery, and have settled on the “Vantage 12" to fit our needs. However, the final lab space that we are going to be moving into will not be ready for approximately two years, and an alternate space has been found to house our program for the interim.

This presents us with a bit of a challenge since the ceiling of our alternate space is 10’8” and will not allow to the headroom to install the “Vantage 12” with the appropriate recommended dust collection. We are still in communication with Stiles looking for solutions, but thought that someone here might have gone through something like this and be able to offer us an elegant solution to fit our needs.

These, then, are my questions to you:

One-
Is there a dust collection hook-up that would work in this space and also work with the Vantage 12? Or, would we have to have one fabricated, and if so, who would you recommend?

Two-
Consider leasing/buying a temporary machine to fill in for us until our final space is ready to house the Vantage 12 (or at that time its equivalent). If this is the case, then are there any shops out there that have a low ceiling and also have a higher end CNC running? What machine would you recommend?

Sorry for the long post,

Thanx in advance!

-Kevin