Shopsmith Forums

For the last few days I've been making vent covers for my neighbor. Using 1/2" MDF and the OPR with a 1/4" bit. Oh yeah, I had forgotten how dusty MDF is. The dust falls into the design during the last cut and builds up around the pin/guide. After every hole, I have to vacuum out the dust and re-rout in order to finish routing the bottom corners.

The first pic shows the buildup of dust after removing the cutout. The next pic is a side view of the Mark V and the OPR. My dress for this project include a surgical mask and of course, an apron and a hat. My glasses work pretty good for goggles.

Very neat use of the OPR!

What?!!!

No new pattern!

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

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

Charlese, being able to do that sort of work is ,in itself, justification for an OPR. Great work.

You could probably go into business making "Custom Grills for Attic Vents".

reible wrote: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!

beeg wrote:Chuck, how about attaching some 1X1 to the bottom with double stick tape. That wood give ya some room underneath for the dust.

And the pattern/pin???

JPG wrote:

beeg wrote:Chuck, how about attaching some 1X1 to the bottom with double stick tape. That wood give ya some room underneath for the dust.

And the pattern/pin???

A LONGER one.