Problem- Guitar Dust Collection a big problem

[777funk]

I have been using a CNC recently to cut guitar bodies and am noticing that it creates uncontrollable (for me) sawdust. I had a dust shoe around the router for a while but with all the edge cutting and not being able to have the dust shoe on an even surface (i.e. cutting the edge of a guitar body where the shoe is at 1 3/4" but the router bit is plunged all the way through the body) it just lets dust fly out the side. It's a huge mess.

Looking through videos of large scale guitar production it seems like most if not all of the big companies do not use a dust shoe but just have an air line blowing at the tip of the router bit to move the chips out.

This works but in my case it's getting sawdust all over the mechanical parts of my machine.

IS there a good dust solution for a small CNC? I haven't had luck with a dust shoe. At least not with guitar body cutting.

[neilw20]

What about letting the dust pile up, and it will shroud itself, and throw out almost no dust or rubbish.
Just vacuum it up in half a minute when done.
Stops you wasting time watching it cut too.

[ger21]

You just need a dust shoe with 3-4" brushes. Let the brushes extend up to an inch below the tool tip, and they should get most of the dust. You also should be using a dust collector with 4" hose, and not a shop vac.

[neilw20]

Now here's a thought.
Wall mount the machine, save floor space, and let all the swarf fall to floor level. Easy to rest the sheets on the reference edge too.
The big VMCs have no swarf problems this way.

[777funk]

Originally Posted by ger21 You just need a dust shoe with 3-4" brushes. Let the brushes extend up to an inch below the tool tip, and they should get most of the dust. You also should be using a dust collector with 4" hose, and not a shop vac.

That's the setup I've been using exactly. The problem is that the 4" port on the shoe that's doing the suction is about 6" removed from the router bit c-to-c so it vacuums just fine but it doesn't vacuum where the router is sucking.

Cutting a guitar makes so much dust (literally about a 1 foot x 1 foot by 6" to 8" tall if you swept it into one pile) that it just piles up around the guitar if I use the dust shoe and this makes it hard for the bit to work since it's just cutting all the chips. It does successfully keep it inside the shoe but very little actually gets sucked up due to the suction port being 6-8" away from the router bit's cutting.

[jshinn]

I have had the same problem. I have 4 inch hose,dust shroud ,3 inch brushes. The problem lies in the fact that the shroud and hose are fixed to the z axis. When the z rises the shroud follows thus leaving many areas exposed ...thus no suction. I am trying to figure a way to attach the shroud to the machine so it moves in x and y however stays at a constant z hieght. If it is 3-4 inchs above the table that is plenty enough room to clear a body blank. I just haven't hade the time to see it trough yet.

[neilw20]

Have you thought of using a heavy clear flexible plastic, like 1/2 mm thick that I have as a table cover to protect the surface, just dragging along. It will sort of seal all the time. Maybe the bottom edge needs to be slightly irregular and wavy. As long as it can't get mixed up with the cutter!

[RandK]

The Techno boot works pretty well except when using a long reach bit for through cavities or for necks. Optimize CAM strategies and stock preparation to make sure you are not doing more cutting than necessary to make the part.

[777funk]

The problem is that sometimes part of the top of the shoe will be on the surface and the other half of the shoe will be over thin air (for example cutting the perimeter route). So if there is any of the shoe over thin air, that's the path of least resistance and no dust will be sucked up if that makes sense.

[RandK]

I don't have much in the way of chips/dust left with the overhang. I'm using a Jet DC1100CK collector. Keeping the distance to the collector fairly short and dumping the bag before it gets to half-full provides a lot of suction. I do still have the stock 3" connector hose between the shoe and my 4" collector hose.

[dustin1706]

What kind of dust collector are you using exactly?

The "KentCNC" Dust shoe is a great 2 piece shoe with a 3" brush. KentCNC. Standard Dust Shoe

Otherwise, I would use a combination of compressed air and vacuum. have a regular dust shoe going, and have compressed air constantly blowing directly at the bottom of the cutter. This way, the majority of the dust will go up the vacuum hose, and a bit will fall out the edges when doing the profile cuts.

It really sounds to me like you just don't have enough CFM from your dust collector. Whether it's too small of a unit, or you have to much restriction in your hose/fittings etc.