Dust Foot Modification

[terryjones]

Good morning everyone,

I have made a modification to my Shopbot OEM dust foot. With normal wear and tear, the plastic became broken mainly at the screw areas for the skirt attachment. The rest of the unit was in good shape. So the digitizer was connected to the spindle and disassembled the entire foot to just the main piece. Double face taped this piece to the table and then used the digitizer to make a perfect perimeter file. First took a 3/4" piece of plywood and milled a prototype of the new outer ring to make sure it would fit. The two small pockets are for the Harbor Freight rare earth magnets. The prototype fit like a glove.

[terryjones]

Then once the prototype fit, I cut a 3/4" acrylic with the same file.

[terryjones]

Once the base was cut, then I made another file of just the interior and exterior of the base and cut it with Jim Rutske's Epilog laser. The holes here are to insert the rare earth magnates for attachment to the base.

[terryjones]

Measurements were taken of the outside of the skirt and cut some more 1/8" x 3/4" wide pieces of acrylic to superglue to the skirt plate. Used a torch to heat the acrylic to make the bends of the outer perimeter. I used the prototype plywood as a bending jig with spring clamps as the acrylic cooled and remained in this shape. Two inch wide military web belt was then cut in three different lengths of the roll. Attached to the 1/8" x 3/4" wide pieces of acrylic with 2 part epoxy. Once the epoxy was cured, a dental pick was used to fray the belt to get a brush like fringe. Made 3 different lengths of skirts for a variety of applications.

[terryjones]

The rare earth magnets sure make it easy to attach and detach the skirt for bit changes. They work super, but with one flaw. It was really dark in the cutting area. I like to watch the progress of the tool path being cut and now could not see very well. I had remembered seeing some 12" LED light strips at Walmart automotive department. They are 12 volt driven and with a 12 volt connection on the mother board of the Shopbot computer, I used some CAT-5 cable to connect the LED s to the computer. When the Shopbot computer is turned on the LED s come on. This is nice because it has a two fold purpose. 1. My cutting surface is well lite. 2. When I close the shop, if the LED s are on, I have forgotten to shut of the computer.

[Brady Watson]

Ha! Dig the lights. *Bling*

-B