Will marble dust trash my router?

Question

I'm getting ready to tile a bathroom, and got an incredible deal on a short lot of marble tile. Problem is, there isn't any matching bullnose available so I'm going to have to cut the bullnose myself. I picked up a brazed diamond router bit for the job, but I'm a little concerned about how abrasive the dust is going to be and what it might do to my nice router. I would prefer to use a router table with a fence, which makes the dust accumulation in the router body much worse.

Is this going to significantly shorten the lifespan of the motor? I'd thought about picking up much less expensive router specifically for this job, but don't know if it would be worthwhile. Anyone done this before or have any thoughts?

Answer 1

Keep a small supply of water flowing over the area you are cutting. Yes it will be messy, yes you will need to be mindful where your cord is, but it can be done. When that proved too difficult to keep a cut wet and I had a bit that could be run dry, I set a box fan inches away from the cutting to immediately blow away the dust from me and my machine.

Of course the tile will be much smaller, but the idea is the same, set up a work space, have it close,

Answer 2

Stone dust will certainly shorten the lifespan of any power tool's internals, especially a router that runs at ultra-high speeds. ANYTHING you can do to avoid this is recommended. Even wrapping the body vents in rags or towels and only running for short periods of time will be better than nothing at all.