Pillar Drill Dust Extraction

[Weekend_Woodworker]

My brother in law asked me what I wanted for Christmas, and remembering that he had just got a 3D printer, I asked him if could print me a positionable dust extraction pipe. I found one on thingverse which I emailed him a link to. Have got it I then set about thinking how best to fit it. I desired that it would be good to build a larger table for the drill at the same time. I based the design on a number of different ideas I had seen on the internet, in particular taking some of the ideas from Dennis from Hooked on Wood. I got an off cut of Valcromat from Avon Ply for £15 which was good to make the table out of. I also made a wooden hand wheel off to one side so I don’t need to fiddle round the back when I want to adjust the height.

 

[9fingers]

Excellent! A plethora of good ideas in that table set up :eusa-clap:

Bob

 

[Malc2098]

Nice.

 

[AJB Temple]

Very neat. Do you have to do a lot of drilling then on the press? I don't have dust extraction on mine, mainly because I don't use it enough and when I do it is often metal.

 

[9fingers]

The pillar drill operation that seems to produce the most mess in awkward curly shaving is drilling with Forstner bits. I wonder how well your extraction snake copes with that sort of waste?
I've a similar sort of home made table on my drill and have fitted a couple of shallow drawers one each side which are great for drills, chuck key etc.
Bob

 

[Weekend_Woodworker]

I decided not to build a drawer into the table for two reasons. Firstly I have a drawer just below the bench the pillar drill is on with all my bits in. It also has a half shelf in it with the chuck key and the bits I use the most in it so I can get to them readily (and I don't lose them under piles of bits on my bench). Secondly with it being a cheap pillar drill the pillar isn't that long, so I didn't want to lose too much height adjustment.

The forstner bits I have are cheap and not very good, so i don't get the shavings I suspect you get with quality bits. I haven't used it much with the dust extraction on, but it does make a huge difference as it was always one of the tools that tended to create lots of sawdust that would go everywhere.

 

[Woodbloke]

Very neat. Do you have to do a lot of drilling then on the press? I don't have dust extraction on mine...

Same here and it's somat I ought to have if I could be ar$ed to extend the extraction system - Rob

 

[Mike G]

Does anyone take a vacuum hose along with them when they drill a hole with a hand-drill or a hand-held electric drill? So, what's the difference with a pillar drill? I've seen umpteen different schemes for extraction from pillar drills over the years, and this one looks as good as any.........but I've never got it. What need are they fulfilling? The one job that makes a mess is using a Forstner, and I've yet to see any extractor which could handle the resulting debris.

So, as always, whatever works for you is fine by me, but I wouldn't want wooworking newcomers to think that this is a necessity, or is solving a pressing problem (see what I did there? :lol: ).

 

[Dr.Al]

Does anyone take a vacuum hose along with them when they drill a hole with a hand-drill or a hand-held electric drill? So, what's the difference with a pillar drill? I've seen umpteen different schemes for extraction from pillar drills over the years, and this one looks as good as any.........but I've never got it. What need are they fulfilling? The one job that makes a mess is using a Forstner, and I've yet to see any extractor which could handle the resulting debris.

So, as always, whatever works for you is fine by me, but I wouldn't want wooworking newcomers to think that this is a necessity, or is solving a pressing problem (see what I did there? :lol: ).

I just accept that bits of wood and metal are going to get spread all over the bench under the pillar drill and just deal with it when I can be bothered

Given it's rarely dust (that's likely to end up in the lungs), I'm not too worried about dust extraction for drilling.

 

[Woodbloke]

Given it's rarely dust (that's likely to end up in the lungs), I'm not too worried about dust extraction for drilling.

It's the very fine dust from sanding that's the real danger, whereas stuff from the pillar drill tends to be bigger (unless you're using a drum sander on it) so an ordinary P2 mask is usually OK - Rob

 

[Doug]

Does anyone take a vacuum hose along with them when they drill a hole with a hand-drill or a hand-held electric drill?

Yes, I also have one of these



& it works brilliantly but ironically the one workshop tool I don’t bother with extraction for is the pillar drill as more often than not the chips fly that quickly that there isn’t enough suction to collect them.

 

[Weekend_Woodworker]

So following on from the questions about do you need it and how effective is the extraction I thought I would post some pictures, on the basis that everyone like pictures!

In response to Mike’s comment about it is not something that is needed, I would have to agree as I have managed this long without one. However it is nice to use and I think it is an improvement over what I had before.

So to test how good the extraction is I drilled some pairs of holes in the same material to the same depth first without extraction on and then with it on to see what a difference it makes. I started with the biggest Forster bit I had at 45mm then one at 20mm and then an ordinary 10mm drill bit.








I think what it shows is that it doesn’t get everything with the 45mm bit, it extracts virtually everything with the 20mm bit and gets everything on the 10mm bit. I am pretty pleased with that.

This is a picture of the drawer below my workbench with most of the drill bits laid out in it.


I do like the look of the attachment Doug posted for drilling in the house. I particularly like the way the vacuumed holds it to the wall as well as sucking up the dust from the hole. I might have to look at getting one of those.

 

[kirkpoore1]

That works better than I would have expected. Well done!

Kirk, who gets out the broom and dust pan...

 

[AJB Temple]

For me, the real point of vacuum whilst the tool is running, is to achieve a super clean cut (track saw), to avoid harmful dust or to avoid the job being obscured during a process (jigsaw lines anyone?). Large chips from a forstner bit don't worry me greatly. I can vacuum them up quickly afterwards. However, no harm at all in sucking them up the way you do. Nice set of illustrative pictures.

 

[AndyP]

It occurs to me that clamping the wood in some way by utilising the tracks would be a great addition .

 

[Jonathan]

[/quote]

Yes, I also have one of these



[& it works brilliantly but ironically the one workshop tool I don’t bother with extraction for is the pillar drill as more often than not the chips fly that quickly that there isn’t enough suction to collect them].[/quote]..............







I developed a similar system for dust collection when drilling into masonry....... Below the hole you are about to drill, stick a plastic bag to the wall with masking tape.....in the old days when I was working in Knightsbridge and Chelsea it was obligatory to use a Harrods bag. lol

Sent from my Redmi Note 9S using Tapatalk

 

[Dr.Al]

I developed a similar system for dust collection when drilling into masonry....... Below the hole you are about to drill, stick a plastic bag to the wall with masking tape.....in the old days when I was working in Knightsbridge and Chelsea it was obligatory to use a Harrods bag. lol

I tend to use an envelope in the same way: fold the flap back on itself, pull the envelope open a bit and then masking tape it to the wall under the hole-to-be. Most of the dust goes into the envelope. Slightly more environmentally friendly than a plastic bag :eusa-dance:

 

[Doug]

Yes, I also have one of these



[& it works brilliantly but ironically the one workshop tool I don’t bother with extraction for is the pillar drill as more often than not the chips fly that quickly that there isn’t enough suction to collect them].[/quote]..............




I developed a similar system for dust collection when drilling into masonry....... Below the hole you are about to drill, stick a plastic bag to the wall with masking tape.....in the old days when I was working in Knightsbridge and Chelsea it was obligatory to use a Harrods bag. lol

Sent from my Redmi Note 9S using Tapatalk[/quote]

Yeah if I’ve only a few holes to drill & can’t be bothered to fetch the vacuum from the van I find a plastic dustpan with the flexible rubber front strip is also excellent for collecting dust as the rubber strip seals nicely to the wall.

 

[Cabinetman]

Good pics thanks, that extraction worked a whole lot better than I was expecting. I set up my overhead extraction pipework with dropdowns to each m/c including the pillar drill but a 4” semi flexible tube near the job doesn’t work very well at all and so the blast gate has stayed shut for a long time. Yours does work I’m pleased to see.
The shape to the collection nozzle is brill btw.
I’ve used the stuck on envelope trick a lot but never thought to use a dustpan, thanks Doug.

 

[Weekend_Woodworker]

It occurs to me that clamping the wood in some way by utilising the tracks would be a great addition .

Yes Andy, it’s the aim of the T-track to be able to use it with some hold down clamps. The off cuts I was using for the photos are a bit small to use with the hold down clamps I have at the moment. I am not sure if it will be a problem when drilling normal bits of wood as opposed to those tiny bits, I guess time will tell.