Thread: 2 1/4 hp router- dust extraction?

Originally Posted by hdman

Hi all, I purchased the 2 1/4 hp Triton router late in the fall and very pleased with it's performance so far. Mine is table-mounted. The router sits in an exclosed box (with access door) under the table. For edge routing using the fence, the fences dust port works well, but for through cuts, some dust and chips are entering the box enclosure through the hole in the base plate.. I was wondering what the best method is to do the dust collection. Has anyone connected the clear plastic chip collector to their shop vac when using the router in a table? If so, did that work well. The other option is for me to merely cut a hole in the bottom of the box/enclosure and put in a vac port. In that case, would you remove the plastic chip collector from the router body to provide a freer air flow?
Thanks in advance, Rick.

Rick I have connected my vacuum to the clear plastic dust port. It works well, but not perfectly. My advice would be to extract also from your enclosed box. I made the mistake, I think, of shrouding my router with a plastic garbage bag held by magnets under the table - with an arrangement to let the router breath though. I think this resulted in mdf dust fouling up the router switch. Keep the works of the router as free of dust as you can.

Rick,
I'm assuming by

through cuts

you mean trench cuts or rebate cuts. In this case your table won't offer very good dust extraction. You may like to set up some sort hose at the end of the table where the dust will escape to. Most of it should shoot out forward of the router bit.

On another note, you said that your router is enclosed, you need to make sure that it gets a good supply of air to it, otherwise it will get hot and burn out.

Originally Posted by Fencepost2

Rick I have connected my vacuum to the clear plastic dust port. It works well, but not perfectly. My advice would be to extract also from your enclosed box. I made the mistake, I think, of shrouding my router with a plastic garbage bag held by magnets under the table - with an arrangement to let the router breath though. I think this resulted in mdf dust fouling up the router switch. Keep the works of the router as free of dust as you can.

Perhaps the best arrangement is to just remove the plastic chip deflector from the router and put a 2 1/2" or 4" port in the bottom of the enclosure. That way dust and chips shouldn't get trapped around the router body.
Thanks George for the caution about air flow and heat build-up. I'll be putting in some breather holes or slots.

Originally Posted by Fencepost2

Rick I have connected my vacuum to the clear plastic dust port. It works well, but not perfectly.

Ahhhh. A number of us are wondering about hose size/ fittings etc to fit the clear plastic dust port and the black auxilary dust port.
Is this a standard size or is there something special you are using?
Why doesn't the industry standardize sizes for this sort of stuff??
Incidently, we tried my buddies Festool vac and small-size vac hose and it did a quite good, but not perfect job at capturing the dust, just as you mentioned.
Living in Canada, we have all fashion of products and standards, both metric and sae which complicates things some.
Thanks, Rick.

Originally Posted by hdman

Thanks George for the caution about air flow and heat build-up. I'll be putting in some breather holes or slots.

No problem, would want your router burning out now would we! Just make sure that it does get enough of the good old H2O, more holes / air are better than a router that overheats.

Originally Posted by Just George

No problem, would want your router burning out now would we! Just make sure that it does get enough of the good old H2O, more holes / air are better than a router that overheats.

Now why would you want him to water-cool his router?