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This is an ingenious idea that is useful in even well-equipped shops.
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Dust Sucker & More
Innovative thinking strikes again
Text & Photos by Tom Hintz
A few years ago I noticed the Stots Saw Aidtm, a safety push handle for the table saw, in a woodworking store. The design and obvious quality made it a must have addition to the days purchase. Once in the shop, the Saw Aidtm instantly became my favorite push device at the table saw because it works as advertised.
Richard Stottmann, the man behind the Stots Company, has a knack for conceiving product ideas that actually work under real-world shop conditions, often better than anticipated. Upon hearing about the Dust Sucker & Moretm, the fact it is one of Stottmann's ideas -and the catchy name - meant we had to try it out.
Initial Impressions
The Dust Sucker & Moretm is a little heavier than it looks because the thick-walled body is precisely cast from glass-filled resin where many manufacturers would save money by using thin molded plastic. Even the hinged, clear plastic cover is thicker than expected. The design, materials and workmanship are first rate throughout, factors that appear to be standard on Stots products.
As a Dust Collector
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The steps on the hose port accommodate most shop-vac hoses.
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As the name suggests, the primary function of the Dust Sucker & Moretm is to collect wood dust generated primarily by hand-held tools such as sanders and routers. For this task, the Dust Sucker & Moretm is ingenious and very effective.
Set the flat-bottomed Dust Sucker & Moretm in the path of the dust, plug a 2 ¼" or 2 ½" vacuum hose onto the top-mounted, dual-sized port and one of the more frustrating dust collection problems is solved. Think about the horsetail-shaped plume of dust the router fires across the shop when cutting dados or large grooves. The first time you put the Dust Sucker & Moretm in that path you will wonder why no one thought of this before.
The 8"-wide by 3"-tall V-shaped opening is more than adequate to capture the majority of dust ejected by most hand held tools. Despite the generous size of the dust chute, the overall dimensions of the Dust Sucker & More remain small enough for it to be placed in an effective position on most work tables.
It is not hard to imagine an adjustable-height stand on which the Dust Sucker & Moretm could be mounted to allow placing it at the edge of larger work pieces or small tables.
FulcrumEdgetm
The starting pin is a great safety device on router tables, preventing many dangerous kickbacks. Unfortunately, not everyone has a router table equipped with a starting pin and encountering off-the-table situations where a safety pin could make a task safer is not uncommon. Stottmann obviously thought of this and invented the patented FulcrumEdgetm, built into the right front corner of the Dust Sucker & Moretm.
The Dust Sucker & Moretm has through holes in all four corners that allow securing it to the work surface or into jigs. When the front edge is aligned just behind the bearing on edge-treating router bits, the FulcrumEdgetm can be used as a starter pin, allowing the work piece to be eased into the bit under control. At the same time, effective dust control is automatically located exactly where it is needed.
Storage
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The covered storage bay has holes for virtually any router bit shank size and lots of them!
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A smaller but irritating problem is keeping extra bits, wrenches, collets and other related tools handy when doing many routing jobs. The Dust Sucker & Moretm has that covered as well.
A large, full-width, lidded bay has holes covering the bottom sized to accept 1/8", ¼", 3/8", 8mm and ½" shafts. The bit compartment is covered by a clear plastic lid that while easy to open, stays closed when it should so high-dollar bits remain protected.
Four smaller open compartments across the front of the Dust Sucker & Moretm provide storage for things like wrenches, pencils and other items that might be needed during the job.
While the storage space is handy, it serves another purpose as well. While the Dust Sucker & Moretm is itself substantial, the additional weight in the storage compartments mean it resists moving during use even more.
Versatility
While the Dust Sucker & Moretm is very useful by itself, Stots also provides free plans on their web site for building it into router fences and dedicated benchtop router tables. Once you start using the Dust Sucker & Moretm I suspect additional uses, or ways to use it, will become evident.
In The Shop
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The arrow points to blurred streaks that are actually dust particles speeding by the lens. Between the router throwing them and the Dust Sucker & More inhaling from the other end, they vanish almost instantly!
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Using the Dust Sucker & Moretm is ridiculously simple. If you can tell which way the majority of the dust is going, placing the Dust Sucker & Moretm in that path, connecting and turning the vacuum on are the most complicated parts of using it.
I wondered how effective the Dust Sucker & Moretm would be when connected to a shop-type vac so I tried my 6 HP canister vac first. Virtually all of the dust that entered the V-shaped cavity was evacuated. To compare, I also tried my 1 HP dust collector (DC), the hose sized down from 4" to 2 ¼" with even better results, though only slightly so.
The design of the dust chute is very efficient making the Dust Sucker & Moretm effective with a wide range of vacuums found in the average woodworking shop.
Conclusions
Richard Stottmann has designed another winner with the Dust Sucker & Moretm. Regardless of how fancy your dust collection system is, if you use hand-held power tools, the Dust Sucker & Moretm will help keep your shop cleaner. It also appears to reduce the airborne dust by capturing more of what used to spray across the shop.
If you have not used Stots products in the past, the utility of the Dust Sucker & Moretm is a very good reason to start. If safety at the table saw is important, check out the Saw Aidtm also. (See our review of the Saw Aidtm)
Visit the Stots web site!
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