Improving? the 611 plate

I have had some time on my Low Rider and I’m looking at the 611 plate. I have been brainstorming on some improvements.

  1. I think the dust port that is meant for the 611 is kind of terrible. Maybe it’s something else going wrong, but I’m getting a lot of resistance, and I think it has to do with the router getting in the way of the air movement. I was thinking maybe it would be easier to just cut a hole in the 611 plate for the vacuum. Any thoughts on such a thing?

  2. I want to see where the bit is in relation to the work, especially when zeroing out x, y. I was thinking of cutting out a window on the front. Maybe I would install some plastic, but maybe I’ll just make the hole, and make a simple plug to friction fit in when I’m running the machine.

  3. After I get a window to see, I could probably get away with adding some brushes to the outside of the platform, to stop the dust from getting too far away from the vac hose. I’ve seen that on a lot of dust shoes, and it makes sense. I’ve never seen anyone’s before/after though, so I’m not convinced it will matter.

Anyone else have something they’ve been thinking about while watching it? Maybe a fire extinguisher, @Barry?

I’ve been eyeing that little bitty dust port too. Was thinking about making a new one with a full 2" hole for the vac hose. Current one is too restricted, I have a couple pieces of wood stuck in it now too. I’ve thought about making the whole platform out of plexiglass. Use like 3/8ths with countersunk screws. Not sure how well a brush on the edges would work, when cutting 3/4" plywood, even my longest bit has very little clearance. The brushes might cause problems.

I also want to build a sharpie holder to replace the router motor. Would be cool I think. Especially for conventions where you don’t want to be running a router. I was eyeing the tables they have at MRRF. Pretty sure the lowrider will run along them just fine. A roll of butcher paper hanging off one end and it can draw pictures all day long!

Jeff, you are killing me with the wit! I see all your replies and I keep cracking up, good thing there is no one here to hear me!!! I love it.

P.S I just added .gcode and .nc upload support! Yay me, 2 years later I figure it out…

Barry I like where you’re going with this, prepping for MRRF already…me too. Business cards, stickers, hats, and shirts, overkill? Everyone likes giveaways.

As for the vac port is is small but seemed to work okay, I think I want to try the stream of air like they are doing with the laser. This is big sheet material and that HDPE was packing in the cut with the downcut bits I have been using. So a stream of air to stir it up might just do the trick. I knew I bought that berd air for something because I can’t stand to hear it hissing on my printer.

I concur with Jeff… you definitely need a a fire extinguisher port in there for when you barry the collet in the wood… (sorry, couldn’t resist)

I’ve been wondering about making the dust port larger as well. I’ve had it plug up a couple times with larger bits of wood. Maybe we just need to 3d print a part with a straighter air channel and the full 2" width so that the larger pieces don’t have to turn a corner.

I wouldn’t mind being able to see what it is doing, but i don’t know that I’d make a new 611 plate just for that.

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Barry I’m sorry but that is some good material there. I’ll buy you some tacos for laughing at it!

John, High five.

Oohh… i bet you could 3d print a sharpie holder that fits in the dewalt router outer shell. Then changing would be a cinch.

For the dust port, I was thinking of just drilling a 1 1/8" port in the plate, and taking the current dust port off. It seems like the pinch point is the router getting in the way in the base.

+1 for making attachments in the router base. It would be a real PITA to get that base off. You could also just make something that clipped to the side, or something. We probably also need a laser beam.

Thank you for the gcode support. Also, I’m glad someone’s laughing at my ribbing Barry.

Hahahahahahahaha!!!

@John That’s what I was thinking too. I don’t think it would be too hard to design something that clamps into the dewalt holder.

@Jeff You might be onto something there. Doesn’t the dewalt exhaust air straight down if the dust port is plugged? If we put the vac over on the side with a hole, the router should blow the chips out of the cuts, then the vac could pick them up, maybe.

@Ryan The rule at work is if someone does something stupid, we get to laugh at him. If he does something stupid that hurts himself, we make sure he’s not going to die, then we laugh at him. Them’s the rules! :smiley:

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You guys are the best.

I just dug out a sheet of 1/4 polycarb, The clear mount is a good idea.

I was looking at it thinking maybe we could mount the 611 from the other side to open up the hole a little bit. Does not seem feasible.

The hose next to the router would save some room enabling a smaller slider, and the ability to 3D print a better hose mount. I’m sure it would have better suction.

Love improvements.

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I meant to get some at the local plastic 4th Friday remnants sale, but I forgot. Now I have to wait like 3 more Fridays. That’s the real reason I was thinking cutting a window instead of making the whole plate clear. There was also a dust port in the gallery and a comment from Barry “backdraft” about it scratching.

Not using the DeWalt dust port attachment would save a few Washington’s. You could print a mount, and even have it sort of contour around the router base to spread the area of a 2" hose nearer the router. I have a 1 1/8", but if we aren’t using the stock mount, that’s worth reconsidering.

I’m sadly stuck far away from the machines for a couple weeks, so I can’t help design the dust collector. I was thinking that having it gather dust from the original portal in the dewalt base as well as a hole in the 611 plate might be the way to go. However, I may also not be thinking straight from here in Singapore.

If they emptied that pool, that would make a helluva work shop.

If instead you used the water in the pool as a heat sink, you could cool a heck of a big spindle…

I spent all my free time today working in OnShape trying to make this stupid vacuum hose adaptor, but I finished it, and it’s printed, and it fits my hose (labeled as 1 7/8", IIRC, but it’s 33mm ID). I swear I spent an hour trying different combinations to get the stupid loft to work. It wouldn’t do anything if there were internal lines, so I had to rewrite history without the hole in the middle, and then do the outside part, and then make all the drawings for the inside part. I also started with something simpler, just a circle, with a circular flange, then I saw how little room there is on the plate for this, and I went to this bend hole shape. The area of the hole in the 611 plate is bigger than the area of the hose, so I think building it for a large vac hose is smart.

I think the next step is to make another 1/2" plywood 611 plate with the holes for this thing. I don’t want to take it apart an extra time, but polycarb is rare enough to me that I don’t want to waste it on a prototype. But if it works, I’m trying it again in PC, so I can see the bit easier (and I bet the ladies will like it). I bought some 1/2" PC and some < 1/4" PC. The small stuff doesn’t seem quite rigid enough on its own, but the router and rails will add some strength, I’m sure. I’ll probably just go right to the 1/2" because it seems bullet proof.

Link to the part (work in progress):

https://cad.onshape.com/documents/1560ac6463d8546ffcf8b2a2/w/15f11cd8ef0e440cb4fc25d7/e/e1beb716abe0bdd38e786cea

Hah, just reading my old posts, and apparently I have a 1 1/8" hose, which makes more sense. I used to be so smart!

Also, another good place for a pen holder is those extra y motor mount screws. I went ahead and drilled them out when I was building my plate, so they are ready for a pen.

Pretty slick part.

I was thinking about this when I was doing all those cuts the other day. I use 1/4 sheet for mine you are using 1/2" right? Mine is pretty open but I guess it is 1/4" more open than yours? I hung the bit out a little extra and it kept the dust to a minimum even without a skirt. I was thinking about an insert to focus the suction near the bit instead of open to the whole thing, like a 50/50. the insert would use the blower on the right side and the vacuum on the left and fit in the pocket of the router sleeve. But it kept it clean so I lost interest.

Does anyone know where I put that little window in the base of the 611? I can’t find it anywhere and I’m about to go look in my car… Otherwise, I’m ready to try out this new part.

Hmmm. I see dust shoes attached with magnets all the time. I assume it’s so you can pull it off and line up the bit. But if you had the dust shoe come down another 1/2" and then had bristles or rubber attached to the outside of that, that would work pretty well. The router would have to come down another 1/2", which limits clamps even more… I think it’s better than nothing though, and if it’s just on there temporarily, you could pull it off if you had clamps over your workpiece.

Oh man, I’m an idiot. I thought it had a little window that closed that hole when the dust part isn’t there. But looking at the new one, it doesn’t have anything, that’s just open to blow chips out. No wonder I can’t find it.

So I guess, how do I close that area? duct tape? 3D print something? Anyway, this is what it looks like now:

[attachment file=36841]

Most of that gap will close when I have the router pushed down into the hole.

Nice work it fits in there well.

I just found an issue with the new firmware. It disable the steppers when done if using an SD card…Going to update that soon. But I want to run some test with the arc settings first in case I can roll out two fixes at the same time.

This is what it looks like when the collet is just at the bottom of the plate. I think it would also be good to make a small channel from the router side to the vac side, because I turned it on when it was flush with the work, and it stuck right to it. Hard enough that it would skip steps.

[attachment file=36854]