David A's New 2x3 Bench Top CNC

[davida1234]

X-carriage, Z-slide, spindle and accessories are all assembled.

Everything is ready for the installation of the dust
collection and lighting system.

Dust collection system consists of a lower plate and
an upper box which has a 4" screw-on hose coupler,
lights and vacuum tubes:


Use open gear grease to coat all mating surfaces:


Stack the three box frames on the box bottom plate:

[davida1234]

Put on the top lid with the hose coupler:


Screw the box together and clean up the
oozing grease mess.

We can't buy the 'good old' paint thinner
anymore where I live which probably would
have worked best here. Nothing else really
works on the grease either. Just keep rubbing
it off with a lot paper towels.

Upper vacuum box finished:

[wmgeorge]

Another interesting concept, so where do the brushes mount?

[davida1234]

Install the upper cross bar of the Z-slide to the vacuum box:




Screw on the cross bar to the top of the
steel shafts of the Z-slide:

[davida1234]

Another interesting concept, so where do the brushes mount?

Just hang in there please, wmgeorge.

[davida1234]

These are the lights for the cutting area:


First install the grommets:


Then push in the lights:

[davida1234]

The two components of the dust
collection are finished:


Install the bottom plate halves to the
bottom of the spindle mount:

[davida1234]

The Z-slide with the installed bottom
plate on the X-carriage:


And the whole setup with the top box
and the vacuum tubes:

[davida1234]

Dust collection system installed:

[davida1234]

I really don't like the conventional dust collection layout
with the 4" hose coming down in front of the spindle and
a dust shoe which covers up the cutting area and the bit.

I like to see what the bit is doing and how the cut looks
like while I'm cutting.

I explored and tested open dust shoes on my big CNC
and developed an open dust shoe system for that one
and this new machine.

The bottom plate has six magnets where the brush
snaps onto:

[davida1234]

Here is the brush shoe made of Lexan:

[davida1234]

Pretty tough material.
Doesn't break or crack:


I had only a 2" brush strip so I installed that one.
Brush shoe snapped onto the bottom plate:

[davida1234]

Cutting performance of the open brush shoe with a
dull bit to create more 'crap' on my big machine:

[davida1234]

Another interesting concept, so where do the brushes mount?

I hope your question has been answered....

[wmgeorge]

It all looks very nice, but the proof is will it do the job and with your all your new innovations do it better or faster?

[davida1234]

The dust collection system is finished.

Most people will probably be very skeptical and dismissive of the design
as it is quite different from a conventional dust shoe on two major issues.

One is the two half-sized suction tubes instead of the big 4" hose and the
other one is, of course, the open dust shoe.

I can only tell you what I have observed on my other machine where I
ran this dust shoe design on and off for several years.

The two half-sized tube design:
There must be some loss in suction as the Y-diverter on top definitely
diminishes some efficiency.

The advantage of the two tube design is when cutting along the long edges where
a conventional brush goes over the edge and looses suction and when cutting
along the front edge where a 4" hose goes over the edge and looses suction.

That effect is much less pronounced on this design as the brush side going over the
edge still has one tube directly above it and the other tube still providing some suction.

The open brush:
It seems to collect like 95-97% of the chips . On very fast or deep cuts, some heavier
chips do get thrown out through the opening. The fine and the very fine dust actually
seem to get collected a little bit better. I don't know why.

It is a trade-off of seeing the cut and the bit vs. having a bit more powerful suction.
And, of course, I can always attach a closed brush shoe to the bottom.

You can watch the video above to see the effects yourself.

[mactec54]

It all looks very nice, but the proof is will it do the job and with your all your new innovations do it better or faster?

It does not have to do anything better, it's all about making something different instead of following what everyone else does which in most cases are very inefficient, copying other designs you only end up with the problems that they have

The only problem I see is with the servo's he choose to use, I hope he can get them working better than what is in the Video

[davida1234]

It all looks very nice, but the proof is will it do the job and with your all your new innovations do it better or faster?

Hah, that's the big question.

I would probably be content with just being as good as........

[mactec54]

The dust collection system is finished.

Most people will probably be very skeptical and dismissive of the design
as it is quite different from a conventional dust shoe on two major issues.

One is the two half-sized suction tubes instead of the big 4" hose and the
other one is, of course, the open dust shoe.

I can only tell you what I have observed on my other machine where I
ran this dust shoe design on and off for several years.

The two half-sized tube design:
There must be some loss in suction as the Y-diverter on top definitely
diminishes some efficiency.

The advantage of the two tube design is when cutting along the long edges where
a conventional brush goes over the edge and looses suction and when cutting
along the front edge where a 4" hose goes over the edge and looses suction.

That effect is much less pronounced on this design as the brush side going over the
edge still has one tube directly above it and the other tube still providing some suction.

The open brush:
It seems to collect like 95-97% of the chips . On very fast or deep cuts, some heavier
chips do get thrown out through the opening. The fine and the very fine dust actually
seem to get collected a little bit better. I don't know why.

It is a trade-off of seeing the cut and the bit vs. having a bit more powerful suction.
And, of course, I can always attach a closed brush shoe to the bottom.

You can watch the video above to see the effects yourself.

From the Video the dust collection works very well, I have seen the 2 smaller tubes used like this before, I to would prefer this if I had to do it that way

[davida1234]

The only problem I see is with the servo's he choose to use, I hope he can get them working better than what is in the Video

Thank you for the encouragement Mactec54.
The machine you see in the video actually runs and cuts on a $100, 35V HobbyCNC board with 300oz HobbyCNC steppers all around.