How to collect dust when routing a dado?

[JayStevans]

Hello,

I've had my BT3100 for over a year and am finally getting serious with it. Well, probably only a little bit serious compared to some of you guys but a lot more serious by my standards. It's a great saw, I love using it.

I prefer using the BT3100's router table to make a dado. It provides faster setup, more precision on width and depth, and it is easier to adjust for me so far than a stacked dado set.

However, it spews dust out the front and makes a huge mess. I get beautiful dadoes plus a horizontal sawdust geyser! I looked through this site for some ideas on how to capture the dust that spews out the front but didn't see anything particular to the 3100.

Can anyone offer some wisdom? Better yet - a picture of a solution?

Thank you.

[Thom2]

sorry .... I just couldn't resist ...

welcome to the forum, but I don't have a better solution that the above.

The only real solution that I've seen for this situation is a router plate made by oak park that has a dust collection opening about 3" from the bit. This would require making a top to accomodate the plate tho'

[LCHIEN]

one thing is, if you use a upcut spiral bit (here upcut refers to the handheld position so the spirals will pull cuttings toward the router, down in the case of a table mount) rather than a straight bit then some of the cuttings at least will fall thru the hole onto your router.
I put a home-made sweep type dust collection at the end of the table to collect spewed cuttings. This works if your pieces are not long.

Store-bought Sweep (back view, apparently)


It's hard to do this kind of dust collection since the only way out from the dado cut is in the tunnel you just cut!

[Thom2]

Here's a link to the oak park plate that explains how it works .... it's a pretty slick setup and something that may be able to be added to the accessory table with a little thought and ingenuity.

http://us.oak-park.com/catalogue.html?list=BP-PC04-

[Copper]

This is very low-tech, but I duct-tape the end of my shop vac nozzle to the end of the table (left side as you're standing at the table). You have to be sure to do it so that it doesn't get in the way of the advancing board though. It doesn't catch everything, but it cuts down on the dust quite a bit.

[LarryG]

Welcome to the forum!

Routers are far and away my favorite tools in the shop, but boy oh boy do they ever make a mess.

Your best solution would be an enclosed box around the router, like I have on my stand-alone router table. With a 4" hose dust collection hose connected, perhaps 80-90% of the dust gets captured when cutting out in the middle of a workpiece (i.e., as with a dado). When profiling an edge, I attach a second 4" hose to the fence and dust collection then approaches 100%.

You don't mention what brand of router you have, but if it has any kind of built-in DC provisions, you might consider routing the dados by hand.

[Jnam]

what router do you use?

[steve-norrell]

This works for me.

I built a box to enclose the router. You can see the dust collection port between the clamps.

Its made from 1/4 hardboard. sized to fit around the router with a little extra space for air movement, and rests on the shelf. The space between the box and the underside of the router table is closed with foam tape. The box fits tightly between the shelf and the taped underside of the router table.

Regards, Steve

[havighurst]

My quick solution that I use for this situation is I took an old plastic powdered laundry detergent bucket and cut a hole in the base and screwed a 4" toilet flange to it and attached a piece of scrap to it so I can clamp to a stand that sits next to my saw. I then attach my dust collector to it. I line up the bucket with the dust stream and it works pretty well. I am not claiming that it will capture all the dust, but it works in a pinch and saves me from having to sweep.

[Tom Miller]

Hmmm, dust collection when routing dados....fleece pants? That should collect it all.

Otherwise, I'd second the suggestion to build an enclosure around your router, and hook up some good DC to pull air through the dado, the throat plate, and into the enclosure. But, for a near-term solution, I'd second the suggestion(s) to hang a DC hose off the rail a few inches below the table height. That worked pretty well for me before I had an enclosure.

Regards,
Tom

[JayStevans]

Wow, so many responses - thanks a lot. And I must say, the broom photo in the first reply made me laugh. That has been my dust collection system to date when cutting dados!

My router is a Ryobi RE180PL - a plunge model with a 1/2" collet. No dust collection mechanism or accessory that I can find. I have it mounted in my BT 3100 router table - a very easy system to use.

I think the approach of building a box to surround the router and putting a dust port in it might work best. Hard to do though because I need underside access to change bits and to adjust height. Someday I'll replace this with a top-adjusting unit but "someday" won't be soon.

Thanks again all.

[BrazosJake]

I don't have to route dadoes to collect dust, I do it just fine in front of the TV:-)

Kidding aside, I do it the same as Loring (Lchien). If the piece isn't too long, I clamp a homemade DC sweep on the outfeed end of the table. The chips fly right into it.