Rockler took this void in good dust collection solutions to task about six years ago when it developed the first Dust Right® product — a handle that could friction-fit into a machine’s dust port and connect to a 4-in. dust hose. It made switching a hose between several machines as easy as “plug and play.” And the success of that handle has since bloomed into a line of some 40 different Dust Right products.

“Although eliminating dust in the shop makes perfect sense from a health/safety perspective, to be honest, the reason we developed this line has more to do with keeping your shop clean,” says Steve Krohmer, Rockler’s vice president of product development and wholesale. “We’ve found that if it isn’t easy, fast and effective, most woodworkers will simply skip the dust collection stage and deal with the resulting mess.”

Six years ago, even Rockler’s own in-house woodworking shop needed better dust management solutions than what was available at the time. And that’s when the “Eureka!” moment hit.

“The idea for the original Dust Right Handle came from watching the guys disconnecting a 4-in. hose from a machine and trying to use it to clean up the floor,” Krohmer recalls. “We thought, if you had a handle and wand, you could use your dust collector for cleanup just as easily as a shop vac.”

If you haven’t seen it on Rockler’s website this holiday season, that floor sweeping system has just been enhanced. Now, the updated Quick-Fit Floor Sweep rolls on the floor for more convenience. Rockler has added rubber wheels beneath the sweep, which should help cause less wear and tear on both your shop floor and the sweep itself. And, if you’ve considered the system before but have been concerned about the possibility of vacuuming a random nail or screw into your dust collector, Rockler will have a solution for that in a couple of months.

“We are going to be offering a magnetic bar insert that can be snapped into the front of the sweep,” says Dan Wenning, director of product development. “No more sucking up screws and hardware hidden in dust piles and making their way into the impeller of your dust collector. Now they will be collected safely on this magnetic bar as you clean.”

This fall, Rockler launched a new Dust Right accessory to make workbench cleanup easier, too. Called the Bench Sweep, it amounts to a plastic trough that funnels into a 2-1/2-in. port on the bottom, for connecting to a shop vacuum hose or an adapter and a 4-in. dust collector hose.

The problem with bench cleanup is that, typically, we grab a brush or use our hand to sweep dust and shavings from the workbench onto the floor. Wenning points out that while a quick sweep clears the bench, it just relocates the mess to the floor without really cleaning anything. And often what falls to the floor becomes a pile right where you need to stand to continue working.

“With the Bench Sweep attached to the side of your bench, you can whisk the debris into the trough and the mess is gone — not relocated,” Wenning says.

There’s a hinged lid on top of the trough to act as a backstop when sweeping debris into the trough. It’s one of Wenning’s favorite features of the design. There’s also a removable grate that can large debris from falling down inside. The port on the bottom comes with a cap, too, so if you’d prefer not to connect the Bench Sweep to a vacuum, you can fill it, lift off the trough (it has keyhole fittings for mounting screws) and dump it into a trash can instead.

The port on the bottom was purposefully designed, Wenning points out. “The 2-1/2-in. dust port can have a hose attached to the outside with a hose clamp, or you can insert a standard shop vacuum hose inside the port for a friction fit.”

Another industry-first dust collection challenge that Rockler’s product development team has solved in recent years is the often-frustrating task of connecting portable power tools to a vacuum or dust extractor.

“For some reason, there isn’t just one standard (dust port) size on portable power tools,” Krohmer says. “It seems like every tool has its own unique fitting, and some aren’t even round. So, in our Universal Small Port Hose Kit, we developed a hose fitting that is super flexible and can stretch over a range of diameters and sizes.”

Just two of these flexible fittings, contained in the kit, accommodate about 90 percent of the portable power tools on the market, Krohmer says. Those, coupled with a flexible stretch hose, have made the Universal Small Port Hose Kit the company’s best-selling Dust Right product.

This year, Rockler has released two new auxiliary ports that now make it possible to attach Kreg pocket-hole jigs to shop vacs, as well as Triton’s orange power tool line. They’re sold separately from the Universal Small Port Hose Kit as an auxiliary kit (Auxiliary Hose Ports, item 56613) for $14.99.

While shop cleanup will never be as fun as building a project, Dust Right products can help us deal with the mess more quickly and easily — often right at the source where it’s made. That means less coughing, nose-blowing, sweeping and fuss.

“Given an effective way to connect either a dust collector or shop vac to their tools, woodworkers are more than willing to use it to eliminate or reduce the amount of cleanup they have at the end of their project,” Krohmer says. “And if there’s a little (or a lot) less dust in the air, and in their lungs, all the better.”

Click on these links to learn more about the new Quick-Fit Floor Sweep, Dust Right Bench Sweep or the Universal Small Port Hose Kit.

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Rockler offers Freud’s Four-piece Precision Shear Serrated Edge Forstner Bit Set (item 56641) for $41.47.

The post Freud Four-piece Precision Shear^™ Serrated Edge Forstner Bit Set appeared first on Woodworking | Blog | Videos | Plans | How To.

Morakniv’s Carving Kit (item M-12634) is available now and sells for $35.

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Tim Inman: Put these two things on top of your list of considerations: Cupping grain direction and width of the boards. It is often recommended to reverse the grain cupping direction from board to board to minimize the overall warping or curving tendency of the wood. More importantly, though, for stability, is to make sure your boards are no more than about 4 inches wide. This will maximize the stability effects of a glue-up. Narrower is better.

Chris Marshall: The issue of alternating the growth rings on panels is one of those often-debated topics. I’ve done it both ways — alternating the way the growth rings face or just letting the look of the face grain take priority over everything. Honestly, either approach has worked fine for me, so I tend to prioritize the look of the face grain over growth ring direction. But, I do try to keep the width of each board in a panel fairly narrow to minimize any tendency to cup.

Next on your list of considerations is the adhesive you choose for gluing those boards together. Remember, if you’re gluing up a cutting board or a panel for an outdoor project, use a waterproof adhesive. A waterproof PVA glue such as Titebond III, polyurethane glue or epoxy are all good choices. For indoor projects that aren’t exposed to the elements or regular water exposure, any wood glue will do.

Many woodworkers are fans of using biscuits, floating tenons, splines or dowels to reinforce edge-glued butt joints. I can see the virtue of doing that when you are gluing up really huge panels, like a dining table top. In those situations, biscuits or the like can aid in alignment so boards won’t slip out of position when you clamp them tight. But, alignment aids aren’t essential for joint strength — a good glue joint is all you really need. And on smaller panels, glue alone is all I ever use.

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-Todd, TNT’s Little Things

See the Gallery Below:

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“I am in the same predicament, having sold my house end of April. Living in a dinky one-bedroom M.I.L. apartment, and have had no access to a woodshop or my gear (all in storage, costing over two-thirds what my apartment costs). The light at the end of the tunnel for me, this time, is not an oncoming locomotive, but rather a new house on which I placed an offer just last week, in Ocean Shores, Washington. I can afford it and there is enough land around the house to build a bona fide woodshop, but for the time being, the two-car garage will serve nicely. The downside is that I won’t be moving there until May or June, as I’ll be renting it back to the current owners until they find their new place. In the meantime, however, come March, I will be starting construction on the woodshop, built to MY specifications. Excuse me while I wipe the drool off my keyboard.” – Byron “Barn” Canfield

“I don’t know whether to say congratulations or my condolences on the sale of your home. Here’s to getting you back into a shop really soon!” – Tony Gruttadauro

“I live just north of Chattanooga in the town of Walden. My shop is your shop, so if you like you can come here and have complete run of my 4,000 square foot, well-equipped shop. You might even have access to the lumber library.
We have an empty nest and you can stay here with us. The shop is right behind the house. Can’t promise the snow.” – Farrell Eaves

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