My new (old) bot

[zorlack]

Hi all,

After months of wrangling I just got my hands on an older bot, and after some "persuasion" even managed to get it into my scene shop.

Within 24 hours of getting the bot into the shop we had it working on our scenery, but the bot needs some serious "love" to make it accurate.

For starters, the spoil-board is a mess. The bot was previously used in a High School shop class, and for some reason everyone who used it seemed to accidentally v-carve their name into it.

On top of that, the dust foot had been crushed to pieces. Without the dust foot I don't dare re-surface the spoil-board.

So last night I made a real-life dust foot for my bot:


9159

The foot gently squeezes onto the router body and rides up and down with it. And the 4" DC hose connects directly to it. I used a 2" strip brush from Grainger to make the seal. Anyone see anything wrong with this? It seems to work great, is this similar to what other people have done?

With a working dust foot, I'm now in a position to re-surface the spoil board. What kind of blade should I use when doing this. I'd hate to tie up the bot for days using a 1/4" end mill.

-Dave

[thewoodcrafter]

Hi Dave,
Welcome to the forum.
The boot looks great.
I use a 1.75" end mill for surfacing.
A little expensive but makes short work of it.
It is Amana # 45453.

[zorlack]

Roger,

Where do you source your blades? Is there a reliable online source?

-Dave

[cabnet636]

a spoilboard bit is a one time investment buy a good one! you can get them overnight from several sources

jim

[ljdm]

Try magnate.net part #2705 1-1/2" $23.00 for a surfacing bit.

[zorlack]

I've never used a bit like this (http://magnate.net/index.cfm?event=showProductGroup&theID=136) before.

What kind of stepdown and speed would you use for this kind of bit?

-Dave

[blackhawk]

Dave - I use a Porter Cable 43510 Drawer Lock Bit to surface my table. It has a 2 inch diameter and works great on my MDF top. I use a 2 IPS feed and take off .010-.015 in depth in one pass.

[Gary Campbell]

Dave...
I use an Amana 2 1/2" bit with replaceable inserts. http://www.amanatool.com/cncroutingdetails/rc-2257.html

With a PRSalpha we can run it at 12K-15K rpm, 5-8ips and up to .050" depth without any problems. We are more likely to slow the cut speed due to the massive amount of dust than any other reason.
Gary

[drodda]

Do not try Magnate!

part #2705 1-1/2" $23.00 for a surfacing bit.

I bought 4 of these and all of them were not flat. Some even had as much as 1/16" raise at the edges compared to the center. I surfaced my spoil board and it felt like a wavy board. I call and talked to them and they were clueless about them. They told me that that was normal. I did manage to get my money back, however the overall experience along with the low quality control will keep me away from anything from them in the future.

Buy the Onsrud surface planer that shopbot carries or the amana one. You won't be sorry. You get what you pay for with these!

[thewoodcrafter]

Now there is another "you get what you pay for".
I hate cheap tools. I have always found myself replacing them before I should have to.

[myxpykalix]

I don't know if this is relative to your problem with the magnate bits you got but the 2705 bit is made with a 1 degree bevel on it.

They were made primarily for the Legacy Ornamental mill for turning flat stock round. They were meant to cut from the top center of the stock down to round it. I have used my magnate bit to surface my table and had not noticed a problem. You probably got a bad batch. Nothing is as good as it used to be in "the good old days".

[ljdm]

Router bit brands and opinions............
Just giving another source. What works for me may not be best for others. I never noticed a problem with them, although I probably wore mine out faster by planing rough hardwood with it. did a good job planing too.

[wardsa]

Dave,
Where in the Grainger Cat. did you find the strip? I have been through that 100 times and can't find it. Do you have a part number handy?
Thanks,
Terry

[zorlack]

Terry,

I used: 1TCB6 (http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/1TCB6). It has 2" brushes and is 36" long.

Also available: 1TCB4 (http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/1TCB4) (1" brushes) and 1TCB8 (http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/1TCB8) (3" brushes)

The 2" brushes come nerve-rattlingly close to getting sucked into the router bit when doing deep relief... so probably the 3" brushes are too long for that sort of work.

-Dave

[knight_toolworks]

to keep dust down when surfacing go low rpms not slow cut. I do 6ips but only 9 or 10k max using the 2.25" bit.

[zorlack]

Does the air deflector make a significant difference when dealing with dust?

[knight_toolworks]

they cost less from mcmaster.
I had 4" brushes as I do a lot of cutting with long bits. they got trimmed but it was not a big deal. some are now down to 2" long.

[zorlack]

Steve, here they are at McMaster (http://www.mcmaster.com/ctlg/DisplCtlgPage.aspx?ReqTyp=CATALOG&CtlgPgNbr=1226&t erm=PVC-Backed%20Strip%20Brushes&sesnextrep=73707874715094 0&ScreenWidth=1280)... it doesn't seem to be cheaper. Is there a different part that you're referring to?

-Dave

[knight_toolworks]

look under Strip Brushes you can buy it by the foot.

[ljdm]

Don't know about the deflector you buy, but the one I have(homemeade) makes a huge difference.

[cabnet636]

i ordered the strip brush and holders from macmaster-carr, perfect quality and i needed two inch nylon as the horsehair ones i got from grainger were toooo stiff and wanted to lift the foot!!! got them cheap and quick,

fyi a strip brush with a one inch hieght is available at home depot in the door sweep section it does do the trick if you don't need a tall foot. lowes does not have it

jim mcgrew

[zorlack]

I initially tried the 1" Home Depot brush method. The only problem it was a bit unwieldy to work with because of the wire bristle-holder. McMaster sells the PVC strip brush holder, but it looks pretty thick. I was worried about it staying fastened to the foot.


9160

Ultimately these bristles didn't get nearly close enough to the work surface to keep the dust from blowing out all sides when doing shallow passes.

[ljdm]

Why don't you mount the shoe independent of the router? Then keep it touching the work, as the Z goes up and down.

[knight_toolworks]

my horsehair in the longer size were too soft and kept getting sucked up (G)

[zorlack]

Lou,

That's a fair point. My thinking was that when I'm doing 3D relief carving the more material I remove the poorer the seal would be. Obviously this method has its downsides also, but it was pretty simple to construct - - - I just have to watch out for parts that might crash the shoe.

Actually the other problem that I've had is when I'm doing cut-out patterns, sometimes a small piece will get dislodged by the force of the vacuum. It can get sucked into the shoe and get stuck between the piece and the shoe... then disaster...

I guess the lesson there is to put tabs on all the cutouts.

-Dave