I have a portable workbench/table that my CNC rests on. It has casters and is completely portable (except for the electrical cord). I was struggling to find a way to make a boom to support my vaccuum hose above the spindle/router that was able to reach all areas of the cutting surface without the hose stretching or kinking. The best design I found was to suspend it about 12-16" above the spindle/router. To do this and keep it portable means I could not mount anything to the ceiling or nearby walls. I like having a portable setup because I like to move the entire cnc to the center of the workshop while working with larger sheets of plywood and when I need easy access all around the CNC bed.
What I came up with is a very inexpensive and very effective solution for holding the dust collecting hose above the bed of the CNC in a portable setup. I use 3/4" EMT conduit as the support and 1/2" EMT conduit with three connectors for the 1/2" conduit as the actual boom. I also purchased some connectors from Maker Pipe and added a short piece of 1/2" EMT to hold the boom at the 90 degrees without sagging (see the pic). I attached the vaccuum hose using velcro straps. This setup works better than any other solution I have tried. The entire boom rotates as needed based on where the position of the spindle/router is. This happens because the 1/2" EMT is freely inserted the entire length into the 3/4" EMT support piece. There is a little slack given for the vacuum hose above the spindle/router to allow for Z-axis movement.
10’ EMT 1/2" ~$10 from Orange store
6’ EMT 3/4" ~$7 from Orange store
3 1/2" EMT connectors ~$3
1 EMT 1/2" swoop for 90 degree bend ~$3
2 adjustable connectors to support the boom at the 90 degree corner from Maker Pipe
