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Ever since I put my router table in my table saw wing I've had some issues with dust collection. My old standalone table had a dual port for above and below-table dust collection, but as much as I love the Bench Dog cast iron table it does make it harder to catch the dust. Under-table collection of course is a struggle, but in addition I often route without the fence with guided bits or my table saw fence - and without the fence on the table, there's basically no way to catch dust as it's being generated.

So, I rigged up this bracket to mount my Dust Right handle on any steel or iron surface. The jig is very simple: it's a square of scrap plywood with a Rockler Dust Right bracket to lock the handle, and a 4" pipe hanger bracket to keep it from wiggling too much. The handle locks into the bracket and then slides forward into the pipe hanger. The plywood is notched on either side of the brackets to fit a Harbor Freight switchable magnet, which is bolted to the jig through vertical wood blocks glued to the plywood.

This was a really simple concept with a surprisingly difficult execution, because when the Dust Right handle is perched on the edge of a table the weight of the handle and the hose tends make it difficult or unpredictable to properly position the handle where it will catch most of the dust. Thus, I decided to use a larger square of plywood and two separate brackets to keep the handle in place.

And it works great. I've used it on my router table and my bandsaw, and with a little effort (such as affixing a drop-down piece of angle iron to a joist) I probably could even tweak it to provide some above-table dust collection for the table saw.

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841 Posts
Great idea!
 

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8,785 Posts
Have you considered making an auxiliary fence with DC ports to piggy back on the TS fence.
 

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1,135 Posts
It's like you pulled the idea from my head and made it a reality. lol. I was going to do the exact same thing for my drill press using rare earth magnets, since I don't have the mag switches. Great job!
 

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This is one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" moments.

Nice work,

Garry
 

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4,326 Posts
Good work even I have a poor mans version, they work very well !
 

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Thanks for the kind words.

Matt, at some point I do plan on adding a router fence to the back of my TS fence. The stock Bench Dog router table fence is actually pretty good, so I'm thinking I probably will just rig up a way to bolt it to my Shop Fox TS fence with some angle iron - which is what I did previously with my Bosch RA1181 router table fence (when I had that mounted in my TS wing).

Rayne, I have some Mag-Switch featherboard contraptions and I really like them, but for homemade jigs I just use a couple of these magnets - which are like $10 at HF using a 20% off coupon: http://www.harborfreight.com/multipositional-magnetic-base-with-fine-adjustment-5645.html.
 

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unfortunately I have the aluminum&laminate Bench Dog router table, so no aluminum or laminate magnets that I'm aware of. Still this is an awesome accessory that I can see being used in a lot of places, like the lathe for instance.

Thanks for sharing

Scott
 

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Oh nice. I've seen those before at HF, but I didn't think the bar was removable. I'll have to remember that for future jigs. The adapter I'm going to make for my Drill Press will be permanent with the ability to remove if need be. I'll make another for my Band Saw as well. Thanks for the tip!
 

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Thanks for the Info. I guess I didn't notice that the HF Base was switchable , Will have to look into them again as I could use some and most others cost a lot more. If they work for what I need I will save a lot off cash.
 
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