Cutting MDF in a Box

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jpifer
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Joined: Wed Nov 17, 2010 8:30 am

Cutting MDF in a Box

Post by jpifer »

I just purchased a Shark to cut shapes in MDF. As you know, MDF creates a ton of fine partical dust. The sales guy at Rockler told me to encase the shark in a plexie glass box to contain the dust. Yesterday I built such a box... My questions it this...can all the dust create a problem for the machine? Also, it gets pretty hot in the enclosure when cutting projects. (My projects take about 20 minutes to cut out.) What do you think?

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CountryWoodCrafts
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Location: Maggie Valley, N.C. 28751
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Re: Cutting MDF in a Box

Post by CountryWoodCrafts »

To make it efficient too. . . Put a fan on one end pushing air in and a vacuum on the other to get rid of some of the dust . . .this will ventilate and keep outside air blowing across components

REG
Posts: 226
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2010 9:30 pm

Re: Cutting MDF in a Box

Post by REG »

Sooner or later the plexi-glass will get clouded up too making the material useless to see what is going on. Consider material like luan. Most dust skirts out there designed for CNC machines block the view too.
I agree it should be vented. I've seen a number of dust collectors on other systems but the concerns of static accumulation and discharge worry me with all the sensitive electronics. Even with grounding, there are a number of concerns with static build-up and in winter and drier air doesn't help.
One of the safer ones I've seen is a cross air flow with a blower blowing diffused air across the work table with a collection duct at the other. The collection duct is under negative pressure created by the same blower blowing across the table. It's not fool-proof but it does appear to collect 80 percent of the dust.

I've done a number of projects already in MDF and I agree, it is a finer dust than other materials I cut on. But it is a cutter so I expect the mess associated with it.

Bobby

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