Vent covers & OPR

[reible]

I will have to check out things again, if I can get a new insert then I don't mind drilling mine out and seeing how well it works. Just don't want to wreck something that is no longer available.

I'll have a look at the parts and maybe even get an order next week, kind of booked up this week with other projects. I do have a OPR project coming up soon so I could even do a little testing then.

Ed

I feel your router dust issue. In a way it is to be expected, there is just no way for the dust to escape the trap that is created. I was seeing the same thing some years back when I was cutting out parts and had to stop and clean things out all the time.

I had an idea how I might fix this or at least improve it but did not attempt to make the change because of how rare the inserts are of the old OPR and if things did not work out I would have potentially wrecked one.....

My thought was to drill a series of hole in the insert without taking too much away as to weaken it. Then add a vacuum attachment below the table so the router dust had some where to go.

I don't have the new version so I'm not sure just how that would work but at least you would have the option of getting a new insert if need be and if it did work it would be a major improvement...... or at least even if it were a small improvement it still might be worth the effort.

Ed

Ed, FYI, when I bought my old-style stand-alone OPR last year, it didn't have pins, pin inserts, or even the small router inserts. No problem -- Shopsmith had everything in stock at what I thought to be very reasonable prices. I purchased a set of pins, a couple of each type of insert, and a blank table plate that I could drill to mount my Triton router.

The only problem I encountered was that the new table plates had the insert-mounting hole pattern drilled out of alignment. I emailed Shopsmith some photos of the bad one. They immediately screened the rest of their inventory for the problem and sent me a new one. As for the bad one, they said to keep it. So if and when I want to use an oversized bit, I'll bore it out with an oversized clearance hole.

As luck would have it, I picked up an incomplete backet-case stand-alone OPR at auction later in the year for peanuts, and it also had a good table plate. Thanks -- now I know what to use that one for!

[jsburger]

Can't you just make your own insert to drill? I have never seen an OPR so I don't know what the insert looks like.

[reible]

When I had previous thought about making the dust port I had stuck some dots on the insert to see what it might look like with (3) 3/4" dust ports. I just shot a picture of it so you can see what it looks like. Now remember this is the old OPR, I don't have one of the new ones to look at or to get a feel for the size....

IMG_7094sc.jpg (77.74 KiB) Viewed 1508 times

I think it would work but again I can say for sure with out trying it first. The other issue would be adding a dust port below to suck the dust as gravity alone might not do enough.

Ed

[charlese]

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[charlese]

Wow! when I started this thread - there were two goals. One to just show what I was doing and the other to showcase the OPR again, which hasn't received much coverage in the forum lately. I am surprised by the number of posts here and want to thank all of you for your interest. There are a lot of new active members that may not know anything about the OPR. Perhaps this thread may give them an introduction to that available SPT.

Dennis nailed the secret to avoiding dust from clogging the template (pattern) and csusing the pin to be larger than it is.

Would a piece of sheet goods, sandwiched between the pattern and the workpiece, solve your dust-packing problem?

Because of the time past since my previous use of the template, I had forgotten about the need for a sandwiched board. After Dennis' post, I checked and found it actually has such a board in place. Duh! It has a 1/4" piece of MDF in place between the 1/2" plywood pattern and the workpiece. It is still there, glued to the pattern, but the template had been compromised by earlier use. (my bad!) I did not set the stop low enough to avoid routing through the sandwiched board. I had routed through it when making some 1/4" vent covers for my car port. I had forgotten it's purpose

My reason for making more of these covers is for my neighbor's house. His plastic covers have succumbed to the sun and are falling apart. Only the back of 1/4" hardware cloth and four screws are holding them in place. They are really quite ugly. He asked if I would make him new covers and said he would pay for them. He had to wait until the rocker had been made. Now there is time to make them. He needs 21 of them.

About the dust problem - If I had not routed through the sandwiched piece there would be no issue about clogging up the pin. When routing out the designs, I only made depth cuts of about 3/16". Dust flies like rooster tails! This way the cutting goes fast and the routing is smooth. The only way to capture most of it is to suck it up from the top side. When making the last pass, the dust will fall through to the pin if the sandwich board is not there. A sandwich board will cause the dust that does not fly, to stay in the design where it can easily be sucked up.