Dust. Ugh. Sawdust is one of those things you have to deal with in a woodworking shop. One of the biggest contributors to the sawdust load is my contractor’s saw. I bought it about a decade ago, back in the days of open stand contractor’s saws with splitters. It’s been a good performer, but the dust that pours out of the bottom of the saw has always bothered me.

To help curb this problem, I have turned to several different types of solutions. A plastic plate that sat on top of the saw’s stand. It was a pain in the rear to get the dust collector hose to it. I went with the canvas bag type of setup, but that never held in place.

No, what I wanted was a hopper. With a dust fitting I could plug the hose into. That was sloped so the dust would migrate down to the outlet. But, how to make one?

I fished around on the Internet and saw lots of crazy complicated plans, but none of them did it for me. I broke out a sheet of graph paper and started figuring out an idea.  It wasn’t as tough as I thought it was going to be.

What I drew up was a five-part hopper. The first part was a plywood deck that had a hole cut into it. This serves as a frame for the rest of the hopper to fit onto. These pieces were complicated, but pretty simple to cut. The wall that holds the dust flange is attached to is 9 inches tall by 12 inches wide where it attaches to the top at a right angle.  This tapers down to 6 inches at the bottom. Before I cut everything out to size, I used a fly cutter on my drill press to cut a 4 inch diameter hole on this piece of the screw on dust flange.

The sloped piece that connects the deck to the flange piece took some finagling, but by using a little bit of scrap wood, I was able to determine the angles that both ends needed to be beveled at. Once I had them all cut to size, I simply glued and bradded into place.

The sides were cut out of some scrap 1/4″ plywood, and were very easy to cut by simply holding them up to sides and tracing them. More glue and brads, and they were ready.

The fun came in when I started using foil duct tape to make everything airtight. That stuff is sweet. If my car’s bumper gets damaged, I’ll just use this metal on a roll to make the whole thing look good again. The beauty about this stuff is that it sticks like nobody’s business, and really seals the thing up well.

I was able to hold it against the bottom of the saw’s stand, and then screw it through four conveniently placed holes at the top of the legs. I used some shop made wooden washers to bridge the width of the hole so the screw heads don’t slip through the hole.

As you can see, I have the dust flange facing the right side of the saw as you face it. This keeps it out of the way of the rip fence and miter fence storage, and out of the way of the foot pedal for the lift. It also happens to be the side that the dust collector is stationed to in my shop, so I don’t have to step over the hose.

By the time that I got this done, I was too tired to try it out. But, judging from some tests I have done, it should serve me well for a while.

Summertime, and the living is easy. Everyone is headed outside to take in some glorious sunshine and enjoy the outdoor activities we look forward to. A trip to the mountains. Sand between your toes on the beach. Picnics in the park.

Oh, and some folks like to go out and enjoy a round or two of golf. While I have only ever played golf once (no, you don’t want to know what my handicap is), there are lots of people who play a whole lot more frequently. From what I understand, it’s a great way to get outdoors, be social, and spend hours looking for a tiny white ball you just smacked with a club.

Every player is looking for the perfect shot, but I’m pretty sure I have never hit one. My mantra on that warm spring day was that if it went left, it was a hook; if it went right, it was a slice; and if it went straight, it was a miracle. The other shot I made a lot was the shank.

I’m not sure why it was called a shank, but it didn’t look anything like the shanks I see on my router bits. Now, those babies are sweet looking – precision ground, perfectly round and made of sturdy steel. Sure, the cutters of the bit get all the glory, but the shank is equally as important to the health and well being of your router bit, and deserves a little bit of love from time to time.

That’s what Kurt Raschke – the craftsman in residence at Infinity Cutting Tools – told me at a recent router basics class. The key thing to remember is that the shank is precision milled to hit an exact dimension. Yes, a 1/2″ shank is 1/2″ diameter, and a 1/4″ is a 1/4″.

The reason they have to be so precise is that the sit in a collet, not a chuck, as you would see in a drill press. The collet can be smaller and lighter than a geared chuck, has tremendous holding power and is automatically self-centering. The downside is – of course – the collet can’t really adjust to different sized bit shanks. Keeping those tolerances tight is critical to getting a good fit.

Fortunately, keeping router shanks – and collets – in good shape is a simple matter of maintenance. First of all, every so often, you should inspect your bits. Is there any sign of wear? Burrs and grooves worn into router shanks could be a sign that the collet on your router may need to be replaced. Try not to sand them out, because that will affect the dimension of your shank, which can lead to pretty disastrous results. Can you say ‘bit slippage’?

You may want to wipe down the shanks from time to time with whatever you are using to clean pitch build up off the cutters to ensure debris or residues are cleaned off the shanks. Be sure to avoid using anything slippery on the bit, for obvious reasons.

It’s also a good idea to check your collet from time to time. After numerous bit changes, metal fatigue can begin to settle in, making it more difficult to tighten down your collet on the bit. Your first reaction will be to crank down heavily on the collet to get things snug, but that just compounds the problem you had in the first place. Spare collets for popular router brands can be found easily online. Some less-expensive routers may have a permanently attached collet on their models. In this case, a new router may be in your future.

Also, be sure to give the collet a good wipe out on occasion. This helps remove any residue that gets in there, extending the life of the collet a bit. A great tool to clean out the bits can be found at a gun shop. Pick up a .25 brush for your quarter inch collets and a .50 for your half inch ones. The soft metal of the brush is designed to be gentle on the rifling of a weapon, and it will also do a good job on a collet.

When you insert the bit into the collet, push it in until at least 2/3 of the shank is inside, or push the shank until it bottoms out, and then pull it up a fraction of an inch – maybe 1/16 or 1/8, to give the bit some room to move as the collet is tightened. You don’t want to leave the bit bottomed out as you tighten things up, because the tightening action will pull the bit closer to the router.

Also, just be sure to snug the bit up until it’s hand tight. If you have to crank down on the collet to get it to tighten up, you are looking at a replacement,, and you are making bit removal a nightmare later.

While they aren’t the prettiest or highest-tech part of the router bit, treating their shanks with some respect will keep your cuts true things of beauty.