Dust Foot question

[dubliner]

OK I lied a little, I worked on my vac table too, but now that I'm ready to surface the grid & spoil board I just broke my dust foot. Can you just buy the clear plastic part as all the other bits are fine & I could transfer them to a new one. I heard that a complete foot for a PRS is $250 - Youch!,

[coolhammerman]

Neville:
I have a PRT with PC router. Here was my solution. It's not that I can't afford the $250. It's just that I'm a genuine cheapskate! Made my own from 3/8" HDPE plastic which machines well and holds screws beautifully. It will also flex apparently without fatigue.

The skirt is two layers of flexible plastic matting sold to dry your dishes on. I cut it into strips and screwed it on thinking I would have to replace it someday. I think brushes would be better, but I didn't have any. Paid $6 for the sheet plastic.

As you can see, this is very similar to the original ShobBot design. Since their's worked pretty well, I didn't see any reason to reinvent the wheel. I was able to reuse the mounting bracket and 4" hose.

Hope this helps.
Ron



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[dubliner]

Ron ~ I considered making one & using thicker see through plexi( thought I had to have clear ) to be more sturdy than the too thin original, but I see that yours will work perfectly with even a little give in the HDPE. Thanks very much for posting your clear pictures. Neville

[sawkerf]

Yes, they do sell just the plastic shell.Kip

[coolhammerman]

Neville:
You have to be very careful using plexiglass as it is very brittle and shatters very easily. Any schrappnel thrown up from the cutting operation could be catastrophic. Also flexing plexiglass is prone to cracking around the screw holes. I have been using this HDPE version for about a year with excellent results.

I know it can be improved in 20 different ways, but this does it's job pretty well for now.

I still can't see the bit in operation and it is a real pain when trying to line up the cutter, but so was the factory dust foot. The main advantage here is that it seems to be very durable and flexes without any fatigue cracking that I can see. The skirt material has held up supprisingly well and I'm still amazed at how well it collects saw dust. I have an 1,100 CFM dust collection system, but choose to use a large shop vac instead. Works great.

Ron

[dubliner]

Thank you Ron & Kip. The original would be great if only it was thicker. I'm going to try make one tonight so I can resurface. Perhaps I might try to put a small window in the front & side. OK, now to sneak the wife's cutting board out of the house :-) thanks again Guys