Dust collection in a Jet cabinet saw

[Fred Voorhees]

I know this has been talked about in the past here on the forum, but I am ready to do something about it myself. While I love and cherish my Jet cabinete saw...I would truly like to see better dust collection with it. Basically, it only captures sawdust off of the blade within a shround. Lots of dust gets down inside the cabinet and has nowhere to go. I have occasionally taken the blade off and blown compressed air down inside which forces it up into the shroud and into the collection system..but there must be a better way. Has anyone actually cut a 4" hole into the back of the cabinet so that they could mount a collection line to it to directly get to the dust inside the cabinet? Has anyone tried this or any other method that was successful at getting the massive amounts of dust from inside? Let's here 'em.

[Chris Parks]

Not a Jet but I cut a 6" hole in my cabinet saw. In fact you need two holes, one to extract from and one to supply the air so the extracted air is replaced. I let the original port do the air replacement.

[Bruce Darrow]

Also not a Jet, but I also cut a 6" hole. I did in the right side of the cabinet, as close to the (shop made) floor as possible, and cut slots in the opposite side to allow a sweep of air across the floor, and sealed off the 4" port in the rear. This works extremely well; just some small piles that accumulate in the corners.

I really wrestled with the desirability of altering my PM cabinet - aesthetics, resell value, etc., but I'm glad I took the plunge.

[Chris Parks]

Bruce, that sounds like a good idea, were the slots at floor level? Now where did I put that grinder!

[Fred Voorhees]

Not a Jet but I cut a 6" hole in my cabinet saw. In fact you need two holes, one to extract from and one to supply the air so the extracted air is replaced. I let the original port do the air replacement.

I wouldn't think that there would be a need for a second hole to "replace" the air that was being taken from the cabinet insides since there are so many places that air could already be coming in from.

[Chris Parks]

That is something that you would need to find out. It may be that blocking a lot of those places and directing the air as Bruce did with strategically placed holes or slots as he did will make for a better result. I have given some thought to putting a mini camera inside mine to see what is going on.

[Bruce Darrow]

Chris,

I have actually done this 1 1/2 times.....6" modification on both my personal saw and the saw at work, cut the slots on the work saw (tried it there first, heh heh) and have yet to do the same at home. The slots at work work so well, it's only a matter of time 'til I modify my own in the same way.

They are both PM 66's, different ages. I had to cut out the ramped factory floor on the work saw - big PIA - to allow for the 6" mod as well as to enable a flat, 1/4" shop made floor - this sits on the lip between the cabinet sides and the slightly larger cabinet "foot", and had to be split in two and taped at the cut line to allow it to fit into the cabinet. In other words, it hinges. My saw (older) came to me with no factory floor - just that ineffective 4" port at the rear, sitting 3 - 4" above the shop floor.......

The bottom of both the 6" suction and the make up air slot(s) should be as close to the replacement floor as possible to best enable the air sweep effect. It also made a huge difference to block off all other practical areas where air can infiltrate the cabinet. I used pieces of foam pipe insulation, sheet magnet pieces and foam backing rod, where it worked best. All fairly cheap.

The last, and maybe the best improvement came after I noticed the 1/4" floor floating up when the DC was turned on, and I stuffed backer rod between the base and the floor. The saw is sitting on leveling shims, and there was major leakage occurring here.

I have also used this sweep effect with great success on both my router table cabinets. There are various ways to achieve it, but it WORKS!

Good luck!

Bruce

[Joseph Tarantino]

Also not a Jet (god, i'll never make that mistake again!), but i used a 3.5" x 4.5" square hole cut into the bottom of my unisaw base and adapted a 4" DC fitting. it works very well, except, of course, for horizontal surfaces and corners. i too object to hacking up tools ( the opening i used was alrady there when the saw came to me) for non-OEM purposes, but using that opening works quite well. it is opposite the DC door that is in the front of this '70s vintage unisaw and i attribute it's good performance to the air it draws across the floor i fabricated for the saw from the louvers in the DC door which is directly opposite the DC fitting.

[Jim Becker]

Fred, when I had my cabinet saw, I put in some sloped surfaces that helped "encourage" the dust and chips to head toward the collection port. It really worked to keep stuff out of the corners by not providing a level surface for material to collect as well as reducing the interior volume of the cabinet. That combined with over-head collection really took care of most of the debris. As you might remember, my cabinet saw was very similar to yours... ;)

[Chris Parks]

If breathing slots were put in each corner then the dust would not accumulate there. I really don't think that accumulation in the corners and lower parts of the cabinet is an issue as it will reach a point where it remains static.