Dust Collector for Drilling - Accommodates Wide Drill Bits and 45 Degree Angle Drilling

These dust collectors reduce the quantity of drill dust that scatters, and allows for larger bits (1 ½" / 40 mm) and angled drilling from 45 to 90 degrees, while still capturing most of the drill dust.

Background: I recently downloaded and printed a few different types of drill dust collectors. I tried them out by drilling holes into a board. I found that the effectiveness varied from design to design. See the attached photo of a somewhat unscientific test competition that I did.

In particular, I noticed that one of the most popular designs on the Internet (a thin, flat, square with a catch bin at the bottom - there are countless spin-offs of this design) failed to trap a lot of particles that flew off to the side of the bin. However, the larger the model, the more it collected. In fairness to this design, it is likely that it would get the most use in a home environment, drilling holes through wall material (sheet rock, wall board, etc.). Sheet rock dust, in particular, is finer and tends to not travel and spread out as much as wood drill shavings. This design will capture a greater percentage of heavier, fine particles than it does wood particles that fly off the drill bit.

One dust collector design does exceptionally well at trapping the particles, and it also helps with keeping the drill bit straight. It is the winner of my test competition. However, it is limited to only drilling perpendicular holes, and to no bits larger than 12 mm; but in all fairness, it is not likely that one would be drilling larger than 12 mm holes in a location where creating drill dust would be a problem. One additional negative point is that this collector also uses up about 30 mm of the drill bit's length, thus making deep holes impossible without a longer drill bit. Nonetheless, it is still pretty cool, and I am keeping the one I printed in my cordless drill case. Check it out:

I came to the conclusion that a more enclosed, circular collector might be more effective than the bin style that I mentioned above. Also, leaving the collector open enough for larger bits and angled drilling, while also maintaining the ability to drill deeper holes, might achieve a happy medium. By the way, the front opening is wide enough to fit the drill chucks of most, if not all, hand drills, should one want to drill into a surface for the whole depth of the bit.

So this is what I came up with. See the attached photo for the results of my test (my design won 2nd Place at capturing dust). Note: I did not do an extensive search to see if there are other similar designs to what I came up with – I only did a quick search on Printables. If there is a similar design already created, I guess great minds (?) think alike. :)

There are 6 models depending on the following:

• Whether the model has the cutaway that allows for 45 degree angle drilling;

• Whether the model has finger tabs for holding the collector against the wall; and

• Right and left handed options (the hand which holds the adapter, not the drilling hand).

I like the tabbed design the best for most situations because I can rest my hand on the wall and firmly hold the collector in place with my thumb and index finger. However, it also works well just to hold the puck in a similar manner.

After drilling a hole, if there is any dust clinging to the wall surrounding the hole, simply slide down the collector and it will scrape off and collect the particles.