[MiniMe]

For dust collection I have the Harbor Freight dust collector and I am in the process of building the separator as well
using these https://www.amazon.ca/Separator-Cyclone-Barrels-Containers-Collector/dp/B071CL5MJN


I also have one these two for a face mask
-3M 7502 HALF-FACE RESPIRATOR - MEDIUM
-3M 2097 NUISANCE LEVEL ORGANIC VAPOR PARTICULATE FILTER P100

I will not do a lot of routing though so I am not extremely worried.
I do have the option to attach a 2.5" hose to the fence and a 4" hose under the table.
I do not understand those who say the router in an enclosure under the table does not have enough cold air for cooling
The DC system will suck lots of air from the box and more will come through the opening of the bit. The sucked air will also move whatever warm air the router generates within its own chassis especially if you cut an additional opening in the underneath box


Building just a partial enclosure/box (shown below) for the router could be another option
As far as I can tell the router cooling happens at the lower end there are some vents there

 

[Souza1969]

40 years later and I’m yet to see this….

Yeah I have to agree with you, only 35 years for me though!
Where do they think the air is coming from in a dust collection box? And how does it flow?

I'll tell you it's coming from the room and it's flowing right thru the router fan.....

How long do you think it would take Incra to pull their dust box, or Harvey for that matter, if there products were causing routers to burn out???

 

[Souza1969]

If you enclose the router in a box, the DC will suck away all the air and the router motor will overheat because the router fan cannot get any cool air into the router motor.

Maybe a water-cooled spindle will work in a BOX.

(language removed by moderator)
Where is that air in the dust box coming from and where does it flow?? It's coming from the room as make-up air, which is ambient temperature. And it flow or is sucked thru the opening in the table thru the router body and cooling it!
I'd be happy to run the thermo profiles on any router you want to stick in a box with constant air flow and chart the results. I'm a thermodynamics engineer. It's moving air, all it does is cool, because of the velocity carries the heat away.

Please don't speak if you don't have your facts straight.

 

[bfblack]

Very good point I will reconsider.Probably I will use the adapter that came with it as bad as it is.

I have the INCRA clean sweep downdraft dust box with a PC 7518 router and have been using it for several years. All the cooling air come from above the router table and I have never found overheating to be a problem.

 

[reuelt]

(language removed by moderator)
Where is that air in the dust box coming from and where does it flow?? It's coming from the room as make-up air, which is ambient temperature. And it flow or is sucked thru the opening in the table thru the router body and cooling it!
I'd be happy to run the thermo profiles on any router you want to stick in a box with constant air flow and chart the results. I'm a thermodynamics engineer. It's moving air, all it does is cool, because of the velocity carries the heat away.

Please don't speak if you don't have your facts straight.

Tell me, why is the lowest speed of an air cooled router limited to 8,000rpm or 10,000rpm? Because at slower RPM the FAN propeller cannot cool the motor enough and the motor will overheat.
The external DC sucks air from some cavities to the DC hose directly creating low pressure in the box. So the propeller of the fan in the router is drawing much less air into the router body itself to cool the motor inside.

I can run my VFD at 1,000rpm because it is water-cooled and won't overheat.

(I had been a Factory Manager of a fully automated factory running 24hours 6 days a week for 15 years - I don't and won't do things by trial and error. Until I quit, zero accidents for over 3,000 employees was my record).

 

[Souza1969]

I have the INCRA clean sweep downdraft dust box with a PC 7518 router and have been using it for several years. All the cooling air come from above the router table and I have never found overheating to be a problem.

And you never will....

 

[reuelt]

And you never will....

Watch her TRIAL & ERROR on Dust collection enclosing the router in a box

She wasn't using a Dewalt DW621 with proper dust chute - that was the root cause.

 

[Richard (St. Helena)]

Yesterday I was trying to familiarize myself with my newly installed router and router table.
I used a round over bit on a left over piece of wood and that went OK
I would like to add a sacrificial board to my Incra 1000SD miter gauge and I would like that to have a T-Track installed on it for the area that is not in hitting the table saw blade
So I reused the same piece of wood and a straight bit set to the proper depth to try to cut a channel.
I did not realize that with the piece of wood sitting on top of the bit the dust won't be sucked in by the dust collection system that I have attached to the fence's dust collector port.
Is this an improper use case for the router table? I did this operation before for a cross cut sled that I was building but that was done manually with the router attached to the plunge base. I did not feel extremely in control of my router back then although there was a straight edge I was using. That was my first attempt to use the router. It worked OK but it was quite messy and dusty. Since then I built a dust collection system that I can now attach to the newly installed router table.

My question: Is there the proper way to cut a T-track channel in a table saw/ miter gauge sacrificial fence board ? How should I setup my router table for proper dust collection for this? The dust and debris was flowing/flying out to the left, channeled out by the very slot I was cutting.
I could see some videos where the fence guide workpieces named so in the below picture were pushed toward each other to close the opening for dust collection. That makes sense when you have an enclosure under the router table but my setup does not have that (see the second picture).

Funny you should ask, I just routed a t-track channel for my workbench yesterday. In addition to the good advice you have already received, be sure to set your final bit depth so that the channel is 1/16 or so below the table surface. That way, your workpiece won’t snag on the track.

 

[C5-Drammen]

One thing I experienced using either straight or round bit on table when cut is not on the edge is - it tends to wander in its own making ugly cuts if I push the wood the normal way. I eliminate this problem if I do push in reverse - means push the opposite direction. This does not happen when using router with the parallell guide. So yes You can use either, but I recommend - i possible to use the guide. But beware, dust tends to clog up, so you must use a system to suck up the debris. I use a Bosch GOF1300 CE with paralell guide. It took many years before I realised it was the debris that gave my router a hard time - means losing much speed, when cutting a channel. I thought it was something wrong with my machine, replaced the speed regulator, but that did not help. At least, this is a problem with this Bosch.

 

[Rebelwork Woodworking]

I use a DW621 in a router table to make rail/stiles without any problems..

Shops all had a routers in a table since I can remember. Normally just adding door edge profiles, or some limited profile that they don’t want to spend on shaper cutters…Most just mounted under a table. During Norms run everyone got the idea it belonged in a box. This discussion had been going on since 2000.

 

[Wooden Dreams]

When your cutting channels/dados on the router table, there's only one place the dust can go. And that's down the cut channel/dado. Here's an idea that you may like Dust Right Router Table Dado Dust Chute - Rockler . You could also make it yourself.

 

[Rebelwork Woodworking]

When your cutting channels/dados on the router table, there's only one place the dust can go. And that's down the cut channel/dado. Here's an idea that you may like Dust Right Router Table Dado Dust Chute - Rockler . You could also make it yourself.

Sometimes…. I cut these and then came back and cleaned them out without any problems..

 

[MiniMe]

When your cutting channels/dados on the router table, there's only one place the dust can go. And that's down the cut channel/dado. Here's an idea that you may like Dust Right Router Table Dado Dust Chute - Rockler . You could also make it yourself.

I did consider positioning a dust collector hose at the outfeed end of the table -the only problem with this solution is that this does not prevent the bit from getting slowed down by the dust that accumulates around it during the cut

 

[ken in minnesota]

I router from above as much as possible...
View attachment 403532

could you use a table saw, dado to cut the channel?

 

[MiniMe]

could you use a table saw, dado to cut the channel?

In my case I will have to buy a dado set just for this and I hate to toy with the tabe aw blades (swapping them, aligning them making everything straight square etc etc)

 

[MiniMe]

I just came across this one

 

[Marco]

I just came across this one

That should work!