Prototype Dust Boot Showcase

[Shwerk (Josh Workman)]

Hello again you beautiful people.

I’ve developed a new dust boot design that I’d like to share with you all.

It’s definitely…unique. I’ll say that.

I call it the Hermes.

It is a front mount fixed height dust boot that uses the same bristles and mounting knobs as the Suckit. It has three parts: the boot, the mount (mullet?), and the hose attachment.

The boot slides onto the mount using tapered dovetails tilted at a 45 degree angle. The hose screws into the hose attachment which magnetically snaps to the shoe. The 16 magnet pairs have alternating polarity which allows the hose attachment to orient itself in 45 degree increments. I’ve also made the north poles extend out by 1mm and the south poles recessed by 1mm so that they key together and eliminate rotation on the mating plane.

A couple gifs of how it works:

As with all dust boots, there are pros and cons.

The pros:

• Uses the same bristles and knobs as the Suckit
• Only other materials required is some 3D printer filament and (32) 6x3mm magnets
• Easy access for bit changes
• Closes around the body of the spindle to maximize suction and does not require bit-specific adapter plates
• Can be set at any height and works flawlessly with the Z20
• The 45 degree slant allows the bit/cut to be comfortably seen through the hose port

The cons:

• Visibility is nonexistent while the hose is in place
• The spindle mount will contact the Hermes mount if the spindle goes low enough and can push the Hermes down
• Swapping brush lengths is a pain unless you print a second dust boot
• It is not the simplest nor the most materially efficient design

I’d love to hear what you think. This is the first dust boot I’ve designed, and it’s the first dust boot I’ve ever used. I tested an earlier prototype on a grand total of (1) job, and it performed extremely well except for some user error.

I want to test it myself for a bit, then I’d like to get some beta testers. If you’re interested let me know. Eventually I’ll either make it open source or sell the 3D files. I have no plans to manufacture and sell it as a physical item.

[tKC]

That’s pretty Cool looking, I like the ease of the snap on vacuum hose via magnets and that when removing access to the blade you take off the front half which allows for access to the bit with little effort. The only thing I don’t personally like is the 2 bolts used similar to the Suck it dust boot on the Z Slider rails.

I hated the suck it boot i purchased so much it quickly went in the trash, not only because it did a terrible job of sucking up dust, those rails on the side you always had to watch for when homing the machine or in my case you luck up as its crashing into the side of the monitor and bending the HDMI plug. I eventually landed on the Sweepy 2.0 and absolutely love the design, but feel it could be improved with a couple of the things you implemented here.

Great Job!

[mwaddellus (Michael Waddell)]

Like it a lot. Kind of overkill on the # of magnets. I currently use PwnCNC v7 boot and it has pluses & minuses. Is this a 4" hose (please say yes).

[JimHatch]

@Shwerk

Visibility is nonexistent while the hose is in place

Visibility during the cut is of less importance than good dust extraction.

This looks great.

[DCK (Dan)]

What is the arm length, versus the arm length on a suck-it? I have my z-slider in the second highest position, so it’ll clear my rotary tailstock. The downside of this is that, when down all the way, my dust boot is still 2" above the spoilboard, making it about useless. Connections for a 4" dust hose would also be good.

[SurfinGump (Forrest)]

First, well done and this is an ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT design! Also, I think it actually looks fantastic with all the angles. I also like what appears to be the large and very unobstructed space (chamber) around the bit along with a very sleek and straight forward path for the air without any sharp angles or restricted vacuum area like the stock boot.

Regarding your list of cons:

@Shwerk

“Visibility is nonexistent while the hose is in place”
Granted this would be nice to have, but as a tradeoff for having what looks to be exceptional dust collection power, I could deal with this.

“The spindle mount will contact the Hermes mount if the spindle goes low enough and can push the Hermes down”
I’m pretty sure this would be an extreme case for most people, including myself. And I could very likely adjust the placement of the spindle to make up for these edge cases. As long as an 80mm spindle itself can travel through the opening, that’s all I think is needed.

“Swapping brush lengths is a pain unless you print a second dust boot”
Meh, I would only need two lengths of brushes, and looking at how easily you have made the swapping between them, I have no problem printing/stocking a second brush adapter.

“It is not the simplest nor the most materially efficient design”
But very innovative and, as long as it is effective, this can more than overcome any (perceived) negatives like this.

I would be more than willing to purchase the STL models for this. Even if I didn’t have a 3D printer, I would have no problem getting it made from an online 3D printing service.

Also, as mentioned earlier, perhaps the number of magnets is a little overkill?

Lastly, if you could make a 4" hose adapter, that would be PERFECT!

Please keep us updated.

[Shwerk (Josh Workman)]

Thank you all so much for your replies! I’ll try to address them all.

@tKC

I hated the suck it boot i purchased so much it quickly went in the trash, not only because it did a terrible job of sucking up dust, those rails on the side you always had to watch for when homing the machine or in my case you luck up as its crashing into the side of the monitor and bending the HDMI plug.

I designed the Hermes for my Elite machine and it clears the Masso Touch when the screen is swung left as shown here:

I’m not sure how it will work with a non-Elite machine, but hopefully you can use these pictures for reference.

@mwaddellus

Kind of overkill on the # of magnets.

It would be overkill if you used strong magnets with an N42 or better rating, but I just used generic 6x3mm Neodymium from Amazon. Through testing I determined that 16 magnet pairs passed the gut-check. It would be easy to reduce the number of magnets or increase the depth up to 8mm. I do like that the 16 magnet pairs allow for 45-degree snap increments, but honestly the hose only ever needs to be oriented at one angle.

@DCK

What is the arm length, versus the arm length on a suck-it? I have my z-slider in the second highest position, so it’ll clear my rotary tailstock. The downside of this is that, when down all the way, my dust boot is still 2" above the spoilboard, making it about useless.

With my z-sider at the highest position, the Hermes at its lowest position, and using the short brush from the Suckit, the Hermes rests 1mm above the QCWasteboard. With the long brush it easily reaches the wasteboard with room to spare. At the highest position, the short brush will clear the bottom of the Z slider while the long brush will extend slightly below it.

@SurfinGump

I would be more than willing to purchase the STL models for this.

Thank you for the kind words, Forrest. I will probably go this route. What would you say is a fair price? I’ll probably implement a try-before-you-buy policy, so anyone can print it and test it themselves for free.

@SurfinGump

Lastly, if you could make a 4" hose adapter, that would be PERFECT!

Seems like a common desire. I designed a highly specific hose adapter for my 2.5" hose that just threads onto the spiral which requires no additional hardware or hose clamps. I doubt that it would fit every 2.5" hose, so I should probably make a more generic adapter and while I’m at it, I’ll make a 4" version as well. There could be a significant performance hit tapering the 4" hose down to the 2.5" opening on the boot, but a hose adapter is simpler than redesigning the entire boot geometry.

I ran another job last night, and apart from initially setting the boot too high off the workpiece, it performed admirably. No hard figures, but I’d estimate that it captured 90% of the dust with the 10% being ejected when the dust boot overhangs the edge. Now, granted, I am using a bargain-bin Ridgid shop vac through 20’ of flex hose, so your results will probably be better with a proper dust collection unit.

Everything is subject to change before the beta release, so please load me with any more suggestions you have! Thanks!

[Dovetailwilly (Bill)]

Looks terrific. Nice design. I would love to try it out. not sure what you mean by ‘materially efficient’, but I would prefer solid and overbuilt as opposed to saving some material and being a little flimsy and perhaps too delicate.

Bill

[SurfinGump (Forrest)]

@Shwerk

What would you say is a fair price?

Considering PwnCNC sells theirs for $5 to $15, but doesn’t include any mounting arms, I would say between $10 and $20 is reasonable.

[DrCori (Gary Laffoon)]

I like the design and would be happy to pay $15 for the digital stl.

[bcfisher (Bruce Fisher)]

Josh,
I like your design and I have been looking for something like this that allows for suction around the spindle. I’m very surprised that no one is handling the dust collection the way that you are. I am presently upgrading my Onefinity Woodworker into an Elite series and adding a water cooled spindle. I would love to be a beta tester.

Thanks for posting this as it is a big improvement over all others.

Bruce

[Sschippel (Steve)]

I would be glad to be a beta tester. I’m searching for a better one now.

[ancosam]

Love the design, would definitely purchase the stl files, or try betta testing.

[DMwoods (Jon)]

I would love to purchase STL files for this, Great design!

[umbert (HUBERT H.)]

Interested in buying STLs as well !

[brooksrv6 (Chris)]

I like it, I would like to purchase stl files and try it out to. It lends well to modify to put in a air blast nozzle I want.

[karma]

I’m very interested as I use a fixed height dustboot most of the time. One thing I’m wondering is why you went with the same footprint as the Suckit boot which is pretty large compared to others that are more of a circle of bristles? To your earlier post, the Suckit fails to perform when the edge of the bristles overhang the workpiece and it’s generous footprint compounds that. Could you close off some of that space to concentrate the suction in a smaller area around the spindle (less chance for the bristles to overhang)? Just curious… Promising design.

[Shwerk (Josh Workman)]

I’m honestly blown away by all of your support. Seriously, thank you all so much.

I’m working hard on fixing a few issues with the beta model. I hope to send out the test kit files soon to everyone who has requested that they want to be a beta tester. I will put out another update when I’m ready in a few days.

@brooksrv6

It lends well to modify to put in a air blast nozzle I want.

Shhhhhh…Dangit Chris, you just spoiled a future upgrade, haha.

@karma

One thing I’m wondering is why you went with the same footprint as the Suckit boot which is pretty large compared to others that are more of a circle of bristles? To your earlier post, the Suckit fails to perform when the edge of the bristles overhang the workpiece and it’s generous footprint compounds that. Could you close off some of that space to concentrate the suction in a smaller area around the spindle (less chance for the bristles to overhang)?

The biggest issue with the Suckit (in my uninformed opinion, having never owned or used it), is the flow-path restriction reducing suction. The Hermes seeks to solve that by having a direct, unrestricted, and mostly-constant diameter flow path directly to the bit. Take a look at the side profile:

The red path shows an exaggerated version of the circular footprint you suggest. I wanted a more continuous flow path (blue) that avoids the red corner restriction. That requires a longer elliptical-ish profile. Is it superior? Maybe, maybe not. But that was my design intent: no restrictions along the path to the cut. I hope that makes sense, karma.

[karma]

Hi Josh and thanks for responding. I certainly get what you’re going after and think it’s a good path since there are not so many fixed height dustboots out there. I do tend to think your blue line on the left is actually going to follow the left edge of the bristles in your photo since vaccumms are like water and take the path of least resistence. I use three different boots depending on what I’m carving and they all work well when fully over the material, but all kind of suck (ha) when they overhang the edge of the material. The boots with the smoother airflows are obviosuly bettter, but I find overhanging the edge to be the biggest detriment to performance. I try to minimize overhang with job layout, but I work a lot with exotic woods and exery sq inch is precious. Regardless, nice design and best of luck with it.

[Sylthecru]

Take my money! Add me to the list for the STL