CNC Dust Boot

Using the CNC machine can be a messy job. Cutting hardwood often leaves a wonderful scent in the air, but shavings get everywhere. The worst offender, by far, was some black HDPE plastic I cut. The shavings consumed much more volume than the original piece, they static-clung to everything and got everywhere.


The common solution for CNC owners, especially those with a good dust collection system in their workshops, is to create a dust boot (or dust shoe). Rockler sells a dust boot for my machine, but it costs more than I wanted to pay. I decided to take the hobbyist route and make my own instead.

All the dust boots I've seen require modifying the machine in some form. Usually they require replacing existing bolts with longer ones or replacing the clamp or spacer in some form. I wanted a solution that worked without modifications. The existing bolts are long enough to put an extra nut on, but there's no space for material in addition to the nuts. After taking some measurements, I determined I could use the existing bolt tails if I could find a nut that would protrude through the material to access the bolt threads. T-nuts did the job perfectly. The picture does a better job of explaining this than I do.


I ended up making two prototypes out of plywood before finalyzing it with acrylic, which is much more expensive.


To complete the dust boot, I added the skirt, which I think was intended for conveyor belt systems. Copper tape and a grounding wire were also added so I can ground the vacuum hose and prevent the static cling that occurs on the hose's exterior.