Dustboot Mounting to Z Plus

It seems that CNC manufacturers don’t give thought to the mounting of aftermarket dust boots, our own Carbide 3D included.

Faced with the problem of mounting my ancient Suckit to the Z Plus I contemplated a couple of different ideas for ‘static’ (doesn’t move with the router) mounting. PwnCNC’s idea looked good but I am not the owner of a 3D printer. Mind you, I could have milled the essential parts but that seemed too hard! Other ideas also seemed unsuitable.

The thought then occurred to me that provided they were strong enough I could use Neodymium magnets to attach two rails to the Z+ and this worked out very nicely. I had a length of 19mm (¾”) PVC solid square section. Although this stuff is a bit soft on the inside it has worked out successfully. To locate each rail I milled out a section on the back side of each PVC rail so that they locate to the top and the L & R side of the Z+ static plate - image below.

The above Pix also shows the two embedded disc magnets. I included additional pockets in the event I would need to add extra gripping power with one or two more magnets. As it turns out this proved unnecessary. I further milled a ‘track’ in the opposite side of the PVC rail with a keyhole bit.

I made two ‘L’ brackets pocketed out and fitted with block magnets to hold the boot itself. These incidentally are made from a bit of Rubber Wood I had available, they are only temporary, I intend remaking these in a more substantial timber now that I have ascertained the size of the brackets, length of the pockets and placement of the magnets.

Made some extra wide ‘wings’ for the boot proper from some scrap epoxy moulding, and fitted block magnets to these.

I used bits and pieces from the Suckit for this project mainly because the U.S. threads used in the Suckit are unavailable here in Australia. The finished prototype shown below.

How does it perform? Pretty good as it turns out. A very solid mount with the advantage that components can break-away in the event of a mishap. Hope this is of help others.

Neodymium magnets used in this project:
https://amfmagnets.com/neodymium-disc-12mm-x-5mm.html
https://amfmagnets.com/neodymium-block-12-5mm-x-6mm-x-3mm.html
for Australians - AMF Magnetics are also in our country.

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Well Done! I too have a Suckit and I’ve been contemplating an upgrade to a Z Plus, but the incompatibility has been holding me back. Thanks for the great idea!

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Great idea! And much simpler than the brackets & 3D-printed arms I made when I had the same problem to solve.

I also used magnets in my custom dust shoe, initially for the convenience of being able to install/remove the shoe in seconds, but later I realized the intrinsic “robustness” value of magnet-based attachment. I tend to use them more often now.

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Looks really good Patrick, I faced the same issue when I upgraded from stock Z to HDZ… I took the easy way out and went with the Pwncnc boot, now my expensive suckit sits in a drawer!

I think you’re onto a pretty good thing with your setup, but if you do change your mind I’m happy to print you a Pwncnc boot/arms at no expense, I have a 3d printer and printed mine and bought the hardware pack - it worked flawlessly

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Thanks for the kind offer Stuart. I’ll PM you about it.

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