Acrylic, plexy, lexan?

[harryball]

I'm going to make my own dust foot... I'm thinking either 3/8" or 1/2" clear material. For those that have made one, which would be best, Acrylic, plexy, Lexan, doesn't matter?

I know about Piedmont Plastics in Atlanta, are there other places as well that sell smaller quanities around here?

/RB

[Gary Campbell]

Robert..
Acrylic is cheaper and easier to glue. (Plexiglas is a brand name of acrylic)
Acrylic heat bends easier than Polycarbonate. (Lexan is a brand name of polycaronate)
Acrylic machines slightly easier, but not enough difference to tip scales.

Lexan (polycarbonate) will bend a LOT before breaking. you can bend 90's on a sheetmetal brake.

I have a plastic shop near me and get scraps fairly cheap. Here is what I have been using for the type in the pic below:

3/8 lexan for the top and attachement shoe.
1/8 acrylic to bend around the sides
1/4 acrylic for the bottom.
4" OD by 1/8 wall acrylic tube from McM for the dust hose connection
3" ID by 1/8 wall acrylic for the tube around spindle
PVC strip brush from McM
top and bottom are rabbeted for the sides.
I glue it together with Devcon plastic Welder that seems to work well on both. But its not clear if you need that


3390
Gary

[harryball]

Thanks Gary. I thought Plexy and Acrylic were the same thing but I didn't want to assume since this is not my area of expertise.

I think I'd be OK to go with all acrylic. The only thing I'm missing now is a toggle band clamp with brackets on the side. I saw one at the IWF, it clamps directly to the black round part of the spindle and was holding a dust foot. Be perfect for me... but I just can't find it.

/RB

[Gary Campbell]

Robert...
If you can fab the bracket... here might be the clamp: McMaster page 254


3391
Good Luck, Gary

[myxpykalix]

Gary,
Why would someone want to pay $35.00 and up for this clamp? It looks like a quick release with a worm gear but do you need to take it loose that often? I just push the "leaves" of the regular shopbot dust boot aside when changing bits. Is the brush just too thick to do that with? Seems to me a regular $1.00 worm gear clamp and use your small screwgun is a cheaper alternative.

[Brady Watson]

It's a quality thing. Cheap worm/gear clamps don't come close to the clamping force of the clamp that Gary listed. I'd imagine that it would be durable enough to withstand being taken on & off several hundred times or more without failing.

-B

[gabepari]

Jack, I'll put my 5 year old roll of duct tape up against your $1.00 clamp and screwgun anyday


Gabe

[harryball]

That is similar to the clamp I saw, but it had L shapped brackets (albeit small) tack welded onto it in about 4 locations, maybe 5. The dust foot was screwed/riveted to those brackets then a brush put around it. The bracket looked very "factory" produced and not something rigged together.

I've not figured out how to attach L brackets to a band clamp in such a way I would be confident they'd hold without bolt heads inside the clamp. Anyway, it looked to be a very eloquent solution.

/RB

[Gary Campbell]

Jack...
I have no idea if Robert was willing to pay that much for the clamp. Nor do I have any but the smallest of info on how he plans to use it. I was simply passing along some info that I had.

I can surely understand why people would not want to pay over a certain amount for a part, but have you considered that sometimes having a quality part that does the job properly may be worth much more than just a few dollars spent. We get about 1/3 of our annual gross redoing work that was completed using less expensive materials that either didnt work as expected or simply failed due to being cheaply made.
Gary

[myxpykalix]

Gary,
Many a time I have bought something from BigLots or the dollar store thinking it would be a cheap alternative to a more expensive solution.
(only to be proved wrong), so you are right there.....
Is this supposed to be a quick release system? I guess i didn't understand that as I don't take my dust boot off often and didn't see the need for the band clamp release mechanism. Thanks..

[harryball]

I didn't mean to start a war here... my issue is that I can not install the factory dust foot as intended because it strikes the gantry if I try to raise it high enough to clear several of my production files. Plan A, turn the dust foot around so the hose is in front of the spindle. I made my own bracket and SOLVED.

Then, I decided I wanted two Z's. I can not install the second Z with the hose for the dust foot coming out in front of the spindle, I can not turn the boot 180 degrees because it hits the gantry. So, the hose needs to go straight up in front of the spindle and to one side from a dust foot mounted on the spindle head. NEATEST way to do that is with the spindle head toggle clamp. I plan to remove it as little as possible, but it does the job well with minimal contraption taking up space.

As for the $35.00 clamp, I'd have one on the way in a heart beat if I didn't already have a $20 clamp here very similar to it that I've tortured beyond recognition trying to devise away to add the L brackets to it.

I like for the dust foot to ride with the spindle.
I can't bring the hose out the back.
I can't bring the hose out the front.
I don't want a huge strange mess.
I need to keep room for two spindles.

While I'm sure there are alternatives... such a clamp would solve the problem eloquently, simply, effectively, quickly and economically.

To make matters worse, I SEEN ONE used for exactly this. If I'd known it would be this hard to find I've have made more of an effort to steal that one from the IWF :-)


/RB

[myxpykalix]

When I type things please read them in the vein of a straightforward naive question and not as if they were meant in a condescending or insulting way. I hope no one takes my questions like that, that isn't the way they are meant...

[bcammack]

There's a thread around here somewhere about the modifications I made to the standard dust foot mounting configuration so it would rise and fall based on contact with the material being cut. I cut out a jacket of aluminum sheet that wrapped around the spindle and was pinched to it with 1/4" threaded rod. On each side of the spindle, there is a drawer slide affixed with pop-rivets. The dust collector "foot" rides on the end of those. There is a limit strap to keep the bottom of the brush bristles (I replaced the slit vinyl curtain) about even with the tip of the tool so the dust collector is lifted off the material when the unit transits in X and/or Y.

The thread has links to pictures of the implementation. I can provide a dwg file of the aluminum jacket and a parts list for the pieces from Grainger.