Best Router Table Dust Collection

Hi! I’d like to give a quick tip to anyone thinking about making their own router table. This is my router table, it’s an MFT with a router screwed in from the bottom, and the bit just sticks out through one of the dog holes. But that’s not the focus of this video, the focus is dust collection for a homemade router table. To me, dust collection is extremely important, especially for something that makes as much dust as a router. So I went out looking at different products – there’s a few out there that offer some sort of dust extraction and chip card functionality. Personally, nothing really stood out. Nothing impressed me, except the dust collection system: the chip guard that ships with Festool’s router table. But, unfortunately that comes – at least I thought – it came with a $2K investment. Well, turns out on on Festool’s EKAT system (their spare parts catalog) you can buy the very same chip guard that ships on the Festool router table, and this cost me $32 in parts – under $32. I’ll put the part numbers in the description for anyone that’s interested. So let me show you how it works.

This is the dust collecting attachment. The hose plugs into there. Screw this down to your table, and then this chip guard goes over the top. Just position it to be slightly above the wood you’re going to be working with. Tighten it down, and get going! This gives you fantastic dust collection.

I went ahead and changed the bit in here from a flush trim to around over and now I can show you just how well it works. Hardly any dust there.

Now for fun let’s try taking this away and see what we get. See all the dust flying off to the right? As you can see it makes a pretty big difference.