Triton router dust collection

FWIW, for a hand held router, a shop vac will work better than a big dc system. Lower volume, bit higher air flow.

-- He who dies with the most tools... dies with the emptiest wallet.

NiteWalker, thanks. In this case, it is table mounted. But this definitely changes my mind about what I wanted to do to connect my Dewalt palm router as well (I’m planning on mounting that one into a shop made mortising machine).

-- David - Tucson, AZ

I see.
In that case it seems there’s too many reductions for the dc to work as it should.

I would use a Y connector with the 4” end go to a router compartment and have the 2.5” end go up to the fence. That’s a pretty standard setup and works well.

-- He who dies with the most tools... dies with the emptiest wallet.

I might try that. The thing is, the Triton router has a dust hood and most of the chips get sucked in that way and there isn’t much staying at the top.

-- David - Tucson, AZ

It’s called Bernouli’s equation. You have gone from a small area with a high, but limited, flow to a large area with a low flow – in this case too low to remove the chips from the hose. Opening the blast gate to the table saw was exactly the right thing to do because it increased the area through which the air was sucked, allowing more air into the pipe, and so making the flow rates more similar – and obviously high enough to remove the chips.

• Make a habit of having the blast gate to the table saw (at least partially) open when you are using the router. This is providing it does still suck some air, and the chips, out of the router when you do this; or
• Run a small diameter pipe from the router to a high point in your DC system. When you have finished with the router, or periodically while using it, open a large blast gate before switching the DC off, just to clear out the system.

-- I may have lost my marbles, but I still have my love of woodworking

Thanks Tootles. As a former medical student, I’m familiar with Bernoulli and the fluid mechanics, but that was quite a while ago!

I will do some testing while partially opening the table saw’s blast gate. I’m wondering about what size of pipe to use if I wanted to build a box around the router while still running a small tube to the router’s built-in hood. I was interested to hear from owners of the same router if they got more chips pickup from using the hood and small hose and taking the chips at the source, or by ditching that and building a box the old fashion way. It’s possible that the hood makes the most sense in a hand held configuration, not in a table. That said, having to open and close a door constantly doesn’t sound that great.

-- David - Tucson, AZ

Funnily enough, I have the same router. Mine is installed in a Triton router table and connected to a Triton dust collector (I bought the whole set-up second hand) with suction provided by my shop vac. Initially, the dust collection worked well, but not so well just lately. In my case, I think the filter on the dust collector has blocked reducing the amount of suction, but I have also wondered whether there is a better method than just hooking the vac up to the port on the router. I will be watching with interest.

-- I may have lost my marbles, but I still have my love of woodworking

I have personally found the stock DC of Triton routers to:

• Look drop dead gorgeous
• NOT work worth a crap (I own both the 3 1/4hp and 2 1/4hp versions)

FWIW, I have to rely on my router fence DC on the router table, or my self-designed DC on my horizontal mortiser.

-- HorizontalMike -- "Woodpeckers understand..."

I have a DC connector on my Incra fence but I don’t see it as a good way to collect. Most of the time when using the router it’s a non-through cut or the fence is relatively far from the bit. When I collect dust from below, there is barely anything remaining above the table.

-- David - Tucson, AZ