Bill Hylton vs. Norm router table dust collection

[Adam Slutsky]

I have decided to finally give my router table a proper base and add some dust collection to it. (Right now the router table base is a bunch of two by fours screwed together). I'm wondering about the dust collection and which configuration would work best. Has anyone built a router table like in Bill Hylton's book? Does it work? From those of you who have built a Norm like table, how well does his dust collection system work? Any other ideas to minimize dust from the router table in my basement shop? I do have a good whole shop dust collection system and a dust depupty/shop vac which I could also hook up to it. Any ideas are greatly appreciated!

[glenn bradley]

I run a 4" below and a 2-1/2" at the fence. I used to use the vac for the fence as my little 1HP DC couldn't handle doing both very well. My larger DC does fine for both but, the shop vac worked great for the fence when I was using it.

[Thomas Pender]

My router table fence has a 2" fitting for DC, but that is not that useful. So, what I have done is to run a 4" line from my main 7" DC trunk - plastic hose and set up a wye - one runs to the fence, and the other under the table to a space I built a wire frame for. Still, I too would love to see how guys make it work, I get plenty of stuff I have to vacuum up, but not really that much fine dust. Some cuts just trap the removed material. While it works adequately with larger bits - it does not work perfectly.

[Rick Dennington]

I built Norm's router table about 2 years ago. The d.c. he used pretty well sucked(no pun intended). After a while I got tired of it not working right. I took out the set-up he had, drilled out a 4" hole in the bottom, connected a 4" "Y" at the base from the main line, made a box w/ clear plexy, and drilled a 4" hole in it. I ran a 4" short piece of hose to the Y, and this dude sucks now, buddy. Forget the Norm set-up. Some guys just run a 4" at the fence, and forget about the bottom-- they just vacumn it out-- so I've heard, anyway. Either way will work. Just stay away from a small hookup.

[Rick Alexander]

and I will say you need a pretty good collector to clear out the bottom box completely but overall it works very well. I've got a 3 HP Grizz cyclone run to this with 4 inches to the bottom and 2 1/4 to the top off a 6 inch near the back feeding both. Almost no dust coming out of it or collecting in the bottom. Also, don't forget to make sufficient holes in the door for air flow to the back. I didn't have enough until I drilled those big holes at the top.

[Bill Arnold]

My setup isn't as pretty as some of the others, but it works. I incorporated my router "table" into my tablesaw support tables. After I had the router and lift in place, I added a containment box under it.

Here's a side view graphic of the box. The top is open, of course. The other openings are a slot at the top of the front panel that provides the source of air; the offset keeps chips from being thrown out the front.



The DC connection is a 4" port at the bottom of the back panel. I added baffles on each side to help direct chips and dust toward the DC port.



My Incra fence has a 2.5" DC port, so I added a line to connect to it. From this view, you can see both DC ports for my router table system.



Here's the front view of the dust containment box.



Like I said, it may not be the best-looking DC for a router, but it works great!

[Adam Slutsky]

Bill - if it works, it's good! I also saw a design by Gordon Sampson (see http://www.woodcentral.com/bparticles/rtabcab.shtml) where the larger dust port is directly below the router. Although this eats up some of the space in the drawer below, it seems like a better design that Norms.

[Bill Arnold]

Bill - if it works, it's good! I also saw a design by Gordon Sampson (see http://www.woodcentral.com/bparticles/rtabcab.shtml) where the larger dust port is directly below the router. Although this eats up some of the space in the drawer below, it seems like a better design that Norms.

Adam,

Gordon sure built a great-looking router table - almost too nice to be a shop tool! I had a seperate router table a few years ago, then bought a tablesaw with router lift in the extension. When I built my new shop after moving to Georgia, I wanted any even better arrangement so I built this:


Gordon's DC being in the bottom of the box might have some advantage, but I get 100% pickup with my port at the bottom rear. A key thing that some folks overlook is an adequate source of air for the DC system to work. One might have a few square inches of openings in the router mounting plate or lift but that is closed off at times. The slot in the top front of my containment box is about 10 square inches. A 4" DC port is about 12 square inches, so I always have near maximum airflow. In fact, I have so much airflow that there's a whistle caused by the opening in the lift plate to access the lift screw.

[Stephen Edwards]

I've got 2 /12" at the fence and a 4" port at the bottom of the back wall of the chamber. Both lines have their own blast gate.

The chamber door has 4 7/8" holes in the bottom of the door. Each hole has a sliding cover that allows me to open and close each hole separately, fully opened, partially opened, fully closed. (This was an experiment)

I installed a 4" blast gate in the upper left of the back wall of the chamber, about 2/3rds up the wall. No hoses are attached to this blast gate. It's for air flow only.

If I'm cutting dados, for example, using the fence as a guide, I close the blast gate to the fence dust port. All of the dust, of course, is going down into the chamber. With the lower port blast gate opened and the air flow blast gate in the rear wall half opened there's no noticeable difference if the 4 holes in the door are opened or closed. Either way, I usually end up with about 1 teaspoon of dust in both front corners of the chamber when I'm finished. For me, the blast gate installed in the rear wall for air flow is the trick. I'm 100% pleased with 99.99% dust collection!

[Gary Curtis]

I used the plans in the new edition of Bill Hylton's router book and build his table. Mine has the tilt-up top so I can conveniently swap bits on the Milwaukee router. Setting bit height is accomplished above the table.

But I didn't use Hylton's design for a fence. I have one made by WoodHaven, with a 2 inch dust pickup. I constracted a sloping bottom in the table cavity so sawdust would be directed to the 4" DC port. The tangle of hoses and connecting tubes doesn't make me happy. And they do create noise, but the dust is minimized and the router runs cooi due to the airflow.

Gary Curtis

[Adam Slutsky]

Stephen:

Does your under table dust collection include baffles? I noticed some plans have baffles and others don't. I assume that the baffles are to increase the velocity of the air. I don't understand why some are sloped and some are vertical???