Yep there are some things a shop vac is better at.

In many cases you will starve a DC with a small sander, the old style
Delta band saw port, a single 2 inch router fence port.

You probably won't starve it if you have fence and cabinet makeup.

On 12/21/2010 8:49 AM, RonB wrote:
On Dec 19, 3:59 pm, wrote:
I'm midway to finishing my router table and I'm contemplating the placement
of the Dust Collection connector hose. I've noticed most tables have the
hose attached to the rear of the table (behind the router) but saw a limited
few which had the attachment on the bottom (under the router), thus, making
me wonder if one has the advantage over the other. Part of my thought leans
towards the bottom placement due to the gravity effect. The other part
thinks it may not make a difference with a powerful DC system. Therefore,
what's the consensus amongst the group?

Thanks

I have a router table built into my cabinet saw, with a large,
adjustable fence that attaches to the saw fence. The dust collection
port is a 6" compartment that slants from above the blade to behind
the blade. A vacuum attachment is installed on the slanted piece. It
works well, but obviously some of the stuff gets out the bottom. I
believe it partially depends on how the bit fits with the table
insert. Large bits like radius or ogee seem best. Small diameter
bits seem to be less effective. At any rate it keeps at least 1/2 or
more of the chips off of the floor. Large molding runs, with a big
bit probably put 2/3 - 3/4 of the stuff in the vacuum.

Take a look at last month's Fine Woodworking. They featured an table
saw router table that had a interesting dust collection system. Dual
port with one on the fence and one built into a collection box beneath
the table. The lower one collected from a dust or vacuum system and
used to routers collection too. Kinda complicated but it looked like
it might work well. Made me think I might redo mine some day.

BTW, in spite of having dust collection now, I plan to keep using my
shop vac.

RonB