Pressure foot test, success?

CNC Machines Shapeoko
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@MarkDGaal had a post about an idea for a dust shoe that sent me down a rabbit trail. I ended up finding out about pressure feet and especially about ones by AXYZ
I do a good bit of V-carving in 1/4" birch ply, and I figured this pressure foot thing would really help to keep the material nice and flat without using tape and superglue. My design is a combination of an ordinary pressure foot, and the ones from AZYZ.

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I didn’t want to add a bunch of extra bracketing to the machine and designed it to slip over the router body. This first iteration was a fail for the dust shoe, the bolts and springs I used are too long, so I ran out of room.
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I also did not think about the bolts hitting the router mount. https://photos.app.goo.gl/qi1ukbN3mfZbziwz8
The pressure foot itself is a winner!!! https://photos.app.goo.gl/2Njm11TbVf6WLRaSA
I’m printing a thin smooth plate to attach to the pressure foot mechanism right now. I’ll call this a success for what I really wanted it to do. I didn’t really need the dust shoe.

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@themillertree That pressure foot idea would help me with some thin plexi that I’ve been cutting using the tape method to hold it down.

I was pondering a vacuum table design, but you might have a better idea than that.

I’m wondering if you can use the zeroing block from C3D?

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Are you talking about the touch probe? If so, the smooth plate that is attached with magnets could be thicker. That way the bit would be exposed for the probe, then you could put the plate on. I think that would work?

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very cool, i am hoping to tackle one myself at some point. was going to give it a go with linear bearings i have laying around

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FYI- magnets are a fail. I’m just going to modify the bottom plate with the tapped holes to have a loft down to a smooth bottom circle.

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Oh well… The stock Z is just not strong enough for these springs.

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Wow, this is rad and crazily I was just thinking about something like this after I ran into my first issues with the sweepy. Namely, I was thinking of having the whole sweepy ride on posts with springs vs. a fixed position. I was envisioned some ramps at the perimeter so it could ride up and over small features/walls vs. crashing into them.

Did you abandon this project?

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I haven’t messed with it anymore. I either need to invest in an upgraded Z-axis, or try lighter springs. I just don’t think lighter springs will have enough pressure to hold down the workpiece like I wanted.

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Ah, I misunderstood the goal. I thought the coolest part of this was a dust extractor with flexible height. With my sweepy having caused belt skips with hardly any interference, I’m not surprised that a stock z won’t work for your aims. Still a cool concept and thanks for sharing!

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If you are interested in this concept, you may be interested in that one:

But it’s still easier to go for a standard fixed-Z-height dust shoe.

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