Summa F1612 - Vacuum recomendation

[dvdcr]

Hello all!
My shop recently got a Summa F1612 and installation will happen in a few weeks. We are getting HF routing and plan to do a lot of routing with it. Summa recommended to get a shopvac from home depot or so, or if we wanted to get a top of the line vacuum, get the DM3 INDUSTRIAL VACUUM which is around $6000. That is a lot of money for a vacuum. Can anyone recommend a midrange vacuum? Or has any experience?

Another thing recommended was to have our printers at least 30' apart from the cutter. That will be very difficult because of our space. Will that really matter?

Thanks,

 

[FatCat]

We are running a Dewalt shop vac with ours, works great, no issues so far after nearly a year of use. (Although we honestly route more on our dedicated CNC)

If you plan on routing a lot, I would strongly suggest putting up a dust curtain of some kind. We bought a kit for our cnc table that came with tracks, curtains and everything pre-made to our specs. I am sure if your shop is smaller, you could make something out of a tarp or even sheets if necessary. I would also look into some kind of shop dust filter as very find sawdust floating around a shop would not be a good thing long-term for printers, laminators, etc.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Check out a CannaVac with a Dust Deputy 30Gal Steel Drum System. This is what we use on our MultiCam and the iEcho before it. It works awesome and you can get the whole system for under $900.

 

[ChrisN]

When we literally wore out our Shop Vac using it as a CNC vacuum, we replaced it with a Nilfisk Attix 50. It's a lot quieter than a standard Shop Vac, and it's a more "industrial" vacuum so it is more repairable as well.

I do wish it had more capacity, though. At 12 gallons, it's large for a shop vac, but small for a dust collector. It seems like I'm emptying it fairly regularly, so if you are doing a lot of routing, you may want to look at something with more capacity.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

When we literally wore out our Shop Vac using it as a CNC vacuum, we replaced it with a Nilfisk Attix 50. It's a lot quieter than a standard Shop Vac, and it's a more "industrial" vacuum so it is more repairable as well.

I do wish it had more capacity, though. At 12 gallons, it's large for a shop vac, but small for a dust collector. It seems like I'm emptying it fairly regularly, so if you are doing a lot of routing, you may want to look at something with more capacity.

Add a Dust Deputy system with a 20, 30, or 55 Gal drum system to it!

 

[dvdcr]

Check out a CannaVac with a Dust Deputy 30Gal Steel Drum System. This is what we use on our MultiCam and the iEcho before it. It works awesome and you can get the whole system for under $900.

Can you send me a link? Sorry but I have no experience with this. This would be our first cutter. Did a google search and I am getting very different results and not sure what I am looking for. Thanks!

 

[dvdcr]

We are running a Dewalt shop vac with ours, works great, no issues so far after nearly a year of use. (Although we honestly route more on our dedicated CNC)

If you plan on routing a lot, I would strongly suggest putting up a dust curtain of some kind. We bought a kit for our cnc table that came with tracks, curtains and everything pre-made to our specs. I am sure if your shop is smaller, you could make something out of a tarp or even sheets if necessary. I would also look into some kind of shop dust filter as very find sawdust floating around a shop would not be a good thing long-term for printers, laminators, etc.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm looking for a dust curtain now, very good idea....hopefully it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. All these expenses were not in our budget and were not told about it after we made a deal.

 

[CanuckSigns]

I'm curious what you are planning on routing with your summa? We have the 1612 with the standard router and it works fairly well for most things. however if you are doing a lot of routering, the 1612 is not the machine to do it with, a 4x8 or 5x10 cnc router is what you want.

The summa with the standard router is great for cutting most sign substrates (dibond, PVC, Acrylic etc) but you can't use any coolant so cutting aluminum etc. is out of the question, also the summa requires using a sacrificial foam mat when routering, the mat gets pretty chewed up and gets thrown away, if you are routering a lot this could get expensive!

I love our 1612 don;t get me wrong, but if I was routering with it all day I would pull my hair out!

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

So this isn't the Cana-Vac but it is similar in power: https://www.amazon.com/Powerful-Cen...jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

This is the dust deputy steel drum system: https://www.oneida-air.com/dust-dep...-conductive-dust-deputy-diy-cyclone-separator & https://www.oneida-air.com/55-gallon-steel-drum-kit-dust-deputy

You would just need to add your own piping as required.

 

[dvdcr]

So this isn't the Cana-Vac but it is similar in power: https://www.amazon.com/Powerful-Cen...jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

This is the dust deputy steel drum system: https://www.oneida-air.com/dust-dep...-conductive-dust-deputy-diy-cyclone-separator & https://www.oneida-air.com/55-gallon-steel-drum-kit-dust-deputy

You would just need to add your own piping as required.

Thanks for the links! Will this be better though? https://www.oneida-air.com/contract...rial-dust-cobra-full-unit-hepa-2-stage-vacuum

 

[dvdcr]

I'm curious what you are planning on routing with your summa? We have the 1612 with the standard router and it works fairly well for most things. however if you are doing a lot of routering, the 1612 is not the machine to do it with, a 4x8 or 5x10 cnc router is what you want.

The summa with the standard router is great for cutting most sign substrates (dibond, PVC, Acrylic etc) but you can't use any coolant so cutting aluminum etc. is out of the question, also the summa requires using a sacrificial foam mat when routering, the mat gets pretty chewed up and gets thrown away, if you are routering a lot this could get expensive!

I love our 1612 don;t get me wrong, but if I was routing with it all day I would pull my hair out!

We will mostly cut e-flute, cardboard and kiss cutting with this machine. We will be making our own jigs for our printers using acrylic and Sintra. Another thing we will be routing is Styrofoam (in the future) and probably cutting boards, not sure if wood or plastic yet, it is just a future project we have in mind.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

I have mine through a dust stopper (on top of a 5gallon bucket) then into the biggest RIGID vacuum I could get. It has worked great so far. I use the bags in my vacuum too to make it cleaner.

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Thanks for the links! Will this be better though? https://www.oneida-air.com/contract...rial-dust-cobra-full-unit-hepa-2-stage-vacuum

Yes it would, but its 3x the price.

 

[ProColorGraphics]

I'm curious what you are planning on routing with your summa? We have the 1612 with the standard router and it works fairly well for most things. however if you are doing a lot of routering, the 1612 is not the machine to do it with, a 4x8 or 5x10 cnc router is what you want.

The summa with the standard router is great for cutting most sign substrates (dibond, PVC, Acrylic etc) but you can't use any coolant so cutting aluminum etc. is out of the question, also the summa requires using a sacrificial foam mat when routering, the mat gets pretty chewed up and gets thrown away, if you are routering a lot this could get expensive!

I love our 1612 don;t get me wrong, but if I was routering with it all day I would pull my hair out!

Check out this routing mat! I like it way better than the stock Summa one. It is slightly thinner, so you have to adjust the cut depth a little, but worth it. It is cleaner and the material will slide better on it as well.
https://superiorcarbide.com/aquiline-underlay

 

[CanuckSigns]

We will mostly cut e-flute, cardboard and kiss cutting with this machine. We will be making our own jigs for our printers using acrylic and Sintra. Another thing we will be routing is Styrofoam (in the future) and probably cutting boards, not sure if wood or plastic yet, it is just a future project we have in mind.

None of those things require the HF router, the standard Kress router would handle all of those with ease.

Also, I can't imagine how much dust and crap routing styrofoam would create!!

 

[dvdcr]

None of those things require the HF router, the standard Kress router would handle all of those with ease.

Also, I can't imagine how much dust and crap routing styrofoam would create!!

Yeah I think it is an overkill for what we are looking to do short term, but in the future my boss has some plans for it. Thanks for all the input!

 

[FatCat]

For any kind of foam I would strongly advise looking at the EOT knife instead of using the router - i would think that would make a huge mess!

 

[CanuckSigns]

Yeah I think it is an overkill for what we are looking to do short term, but in the future my boss has some plans for it. Thanks for all the input!

The beauty of the Summa F series is that it's all completly modular, meaning he can add on the HF router at any time if you find you need it, unless you are getting a smoking deal on the HF router i would hold off

 

[dvdcr]

For any kind of foam I would strongly advise looking at the EOT knife instead of using the router - i would think that would make a huge mess!

For foam POT knife was recommended and EOT for the e-flute. We are getting both.

 

[dvdcr]

The beauty of the Summa F series is that it's all completly modular, meaning he can add on the HF router at any time if you find you need it, unless you are getting a smoking deal on the HF router i would hold off

I think we are getting a good deal with the upgrade on router. It was my boss call, I didn't want to argue that lol