Vacuum system

[signmall]

Hello, i was wondering if any of you can solve my question about the vaccum system that they use.
Currently i am looking to buy the product with the universal vacuum system, but my question is this. What i believe is, that the machine itself has to have a lot of suction to hold down the material in place while the cut is being done. In which case, i do not see any of the dust from cutting getting sucked in. Also, the dust kit with the skirt, from the video doesn't work very well in my opinion. So, I was wondering if the universal Vaccum system would have enuff suction to get the dust out when the material is being cut. Maybe im dumb and don't understand how this works but if you can make me understand how this works i would appreciated it.

[danhamm]

Thomas...I think you are talking about 2 different systems...the dust collection from the cutting action...and the vacuum sytem are separate systems...

[signmall]

yes i know there are 2 seperate systems, but im trying to understand if there are so much power to hold down the material with the vaccum while cutting, then there should be some dust going down the vaccum while cutting...
the dust kit w/ skirt doesn't look too promising to me at all.

[richards]

Thomas, normally a 'universal' type vacuum system pulls air through a 'bleeder' board. The 'bleeder' board is a piece of trupan or MDF that has been 'skinned' top and bottom, but it is a solid piece of material. Dust cannot be pulled through the 'bleeder' board.

Although I agree that the dust kit from Shopbot doesn't vacuum up all of the dust, it works pretty good. Several 'botters have designed dust collector attachments that stay at a fixed position relative to the table surface. For the 2-D work that I do, that would probably work better than having the dust collector attachment rise and fall with the spindle.