Router dust extraction. Why so bad?

[flanajb]

I cannot be the only one who dreads the associated dust when having to use a twin flute router cutter against a curved template. All of the routers I have provide a stupid dust port that sits above the base of the router and it about as much use as a chocolate teapot. I was contemplating designing an extraction mount that is based on a bushing and will help alleviate the dreaded dust issue.

Crowd funding anyone?

 

[Nelsun]

I find my sleeve makes for a very effective dust collector. It's certainly where the vast majority of it seems to go.

 

[mseries]

You are not the only one. I've spent many happy hours on trains or lying awake in bed designing such devices in my head, never got round to prototyping one though. My designs have been either screwed to the base or use the fence rails to hook on (more adjustable). Some have included straight fences too (like the festool one)

 

[custard]

I do masses of template router cutting, almost every project i make has curves that are copy cut from a template with a router (or spindle moulder).

The Festool 1400 is the best tool I've found for this job as there are a optional dust extraction housings that fit below the base to capture the dust. The only potential issue is that these housings will only allow a plunge/cutter depth of about 50mm. In practise that's okay for me as once a workpiece gets above about 40mm thick I'll generally cut it on the spindle moulder, but I believe some kitchen fitters, working on site, occasionally need to go just a bit deeper than this.

I have seen similar, below base plate, dust extraction facilities for other router brands, but I've never seen one that operates as efficiently as the Festool versions, which includes one which can "swivel" so you can follow a profile with a really tight radius without swivelling the router itself. Still, there's nothing that can't be made just a bit better, and it's interesting that the Festool 2200 has clip in replaceable bases. The 2200 is a bit too big for copy routing but tool free replaceable bases would be a huge advantage. The 1400 is probably overdue for a replacement so I hope this will be a feature on its successor.