Do you think the Jet Filtered Air circulator is necessary for a garage setup where you can open the doors to get fresh air? If yes, why, and what size? I’ve seen these before in other videos and always said to myself I’d get one for my eventual shop… would love to save the money for now though!
Would you be able to provide a picture or diagram that explains further? I’m such a visual person, that would help immensely!
Very neat. I like that you have the shop exhaust vented outside… not a bad idea to do everything you can to get dust out.
Similar to mine. I have the upright biased slightly to the front rather than dead center on side since the sweepy is on the front of the router.
Looks like you do as well.
Yes, but not much to the front. I tried several spots and moved the gantry back and forth and side to until I found what seemed to be the best for the hose to reach everywhere with out getting in the way.
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I like the boom idea. Looks cool
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I already had it from before I decided to get the machine. I am not sure that the CNC is producing any fine particles as the dust collector is more than sufficient. It is more for when I am running other tools .
What I noticed here was that even though I have garage doors open all the time, the wind tends to blow the dust back into the garage even with the tools in the driveway. That, and I have read enough about fine dust explosions to scare me, even though it is very remote if not nonexistent
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I hear ya about the dust explosion, but I wouldn’t be as concerned about that as the effect on my lungs. I don’t wear a mask most of the time.
You don’t need one.
A) your shop seems spotless
B) judging from your icon it looks like your beard would filter everything 
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Good point, my beard is just over 8 inches long. 
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1- make the table
2- buy the machine. I will be ordering a 4x2 shortly.
3- Use the machine a bit and assess my cabinet needs.
4- wrap a cabinet around the machine.
Here is step 1 made of birch plywood. The 3 slots at the rear of the table open into a plenum connected with the dust collection system. The intent is to draw air in through vents low on the front of the enclosure, across the machine table collecting chips and dust, then down the drain holes to the vacuum. An enclosure is necessary to make the airflow scheme work.
The tentative cabinet plan is:
Front - Cabinet doors with acrylic or polycarb windows.
Rear- top half fixed, lower half will swing up to allow stock longer than 2 feet.
Sides and top- plywood, rigid, fixed.
Fixed panels of the enclosure will probably be lined with 3/4" foam.
The third picture is an enclosure I built for my current machine to contain dust and noise. In this cabinet, air is pulled out through the top behind a baffle that extends to about machine table height. It does a good job of catching all the fine dust, but does not work as well with chips.
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Y’all have some great ideas and are giving great inspiration. I need to get my table built and then I’ll build the enclosure around the CNC wants its here.
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I like this… Makes me want to see if I can make mine adjustable from the start just to make the fine tuning a bit easier.
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These step by step instructions are killer. Exactly how I needed to see it to focus my brain. Thank you for sharing! I’d love to see your build as it progresses!
One question: you’re doing rigid walls for the back (with fold up) and sides… I’ve seen a few people say that you need to be able to access all sides of the machine. How important is that?
I think that depends on how tall you are. I can’t reach from the front to the back or from side to side so I need access to be able to adjust clamps etc…
Also think about when you go to replace the wasteboard slats you need to be able to tighten all the screws. You may need to lift the enclosure off if you can’t reach far enough.
You might get away with not having access to the back with the 4x2, but with the 4x4 you will definitely want to have access from all sides.
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The SO5 is quite heavy. It would not be a good idea to move it around once planted. Making a lifting back is easy during construction and harder after it is built. So make a 4x4 accessible from all sides if at all possible. Of course that requires wheels on your base. Additionally if you want to tile 4x8 pieces the back has to be accessible for the pass through on tiling jobs, hence the wheels.
I had thought about a door that could open for maintenance, and a smaller slot that could open for tiling.
I was also thinking of making a double-walled enclosure for sound reduction… but that wouldn’t really be possible if I need access to all 4 sides, right? a double-walled door would just be REALLY heavy.
I thought I saw in the enclosure zoo thread there was a guy who was really good at designing enclosures for folks… I’ll need to check out and see if he can talk about my ideas.
i’m 5’7", and my elbow height when standing is 40.5 (measured it in a recent ergonomics class lol). But i figured it needs to be at the max, 35" so I can reach in and perform maintenance. Need to spend more time thinking about the height.