Hey John,
I think with an enclosure you may well reduce dust and noise in the room where you operate the machine, but you will not completely get rid of it. I am thinking about it since I ask myself what I can leave in the room even with an enclosure around the machine and a good dust collection system.
But I think the main reason for an enclosure would be injury from flying chips, especially for your eyes, and also safety of automatic switching off when enclosure is opened. This could be more applicable with faster spindles (or should I say, spindles that hold their speed when under load, unlike hand routers), or when milling metallic material, but since I know the dangers of chips flying around for your eyes, I would not risk anything. Personnally I would at least always wear protective glasses
Here I can show you an excerpt from my spindle’s manual:
Use machine encapsulation!
The high speed of tools up to 24,000 rpm means there is a risk of injury from flying chips or the tool bursting. Fragments reach high velocities and can sometimes cause serious injuries. A separating protective device (machine encapsulation) must therefore be used that protects against flying chips and debris and also has a safety switch that disconnects the frequency converter or the motor spindle from the power supply on all poles as long as the encapsulation is not closed.
If you use Makita’s Hand Router RT0700C/RT0701C instead of a spindle, surprisingly, Makita says nothing in their manual about wearing protective glasses. Dewalt D26204K says to wear eye protection as well as ear protection. Makita just says:
- Some material contains chemicals which may be
toxic. Take caution to prevent dust inhalation
and skin contact. Follow material supplier safety
data.- Always use the correct dust mask/respirator for
the material and application you are working
with.
- Wear hearing protection during extended period
of operation.
Noise
The typical A-weighted noise level determined according
EN60745:
Sound pressure level (LpA): 82 dB (A)
Sound power level (LWA): 93 dB (A)
Uncertainty (K): 3 dB (A)
Wear ear protection
Noise is not surprising when using hand routers, since they (and most hand-held tools for one-phase connection) are a Universal Motors with Carbon-brush Commutators which are very loud. What is called “Spindles” instead are Asynchronous Motors that have no commutators.
Btw: Funny, the Makita is not allowed to use it in a CNC Machine:
- Do not leave the tool running. Operate the tool
only when hand-held.