My 1940's Unisaw has no port door or motor cover. Help me make my shop dust free

[Tom Taylor123]

:rolleyes: MyUnisaw has no access door and no motor cover. Iam adding the Motor Cover and door. And wonder about a couple of things. Openlouvers in the door for makeup air if I add a 5” port. Should I add it at theright rear? Would a round thattransition to square or flat work best? I know I shouldn’t tighten the cabinetup so it seems to me getting a good circulation of air would be helpful. I planon putting a 4” Sharkguard over the blade. My target Cyclone is a Oneida-AirV-2000 wall mounted and not 10’ away but there would be a 3 of 90 degrees, take downs and blast gates up high and 7 feet total headroom a 90 and flex hose to the right side of the saw. The Unisaw will be my biggest air user and if it getsmoved about 10’ of flexible 5” and 5’ of 4”. What do you guys think of this? Am I thinking straight?The saw does get moved 90 degrees and into a larger space for sheet goodcutting. Any input would be helpful.

[David Kumm]

For effective collection with the old unisaw you will need to make some type of shroud that directs the dust into the port unless you have a big collector and lots of cfm. My Rockwell 12 had so much space between the top and the sides that they had to be blocked somewhat to help the air pull from the insert and needed about 1500 cfm or the dust just fell to the bottom of the base. Your collector will be light to handle both a 4" sharkguard and a bottom port without a shroud. I think there are some threads on OWWM.org about doing that. Dave

[Curt Harms]

I have a G1023 with motor cover. I have a piece of magnetic sign over the 'smile' where the blade elevation shaft runs and plugged some of the space between the cabinet and top with foam insulation. There's still no shortage of air into a 6" port. A shroud would be a great idea but seems like it'd be a not-simple undertaking. If you can restrict the air coming from places other than through the blade opening and around the top, you should get pretty good dust collection. I have some sawdust in the corners of the cabinet but not much.

[Ole Anderson]

I found the 4" hose to the Sharkguard a bit imposing so I went with the 3", seems like a big difference in appearance. Works well. Yea the magnetic sign over the "smile" works well for me too as I have no shroud over the blade on my G1023 either.

[Joseph Tarantino]

here's a little different take from my experience with a '72 unisaw refurb. it had a 3" X 4" cut out in the base that the saw cabinet sits on to which i attached a dust collection fitting. i fabricated a motor cover and installed a floor, in sections, into the bottom of the base. that floor really helped with the overall dust collection effort. i opted to let the dust fall to the floor and found that the air pulling across the floor, from the louvered dust clean out door on the front, was very effective at collecting almost all the saw dust that made it's way into the cabinet.

[David Kumm]

My mod on the Rockwell is similar to Joe's. Floor with a boot from the hardware store to fit the opening in the back and 2x2" foam stuck in the openings. Dave

[Tom Taylor123]

I found the 4" hose to the Sharkguard a bit imposing so I went with the 3", seems like a big difference in appearance. Works well. Yea the magnetic sign over the "smile" works well for me too as I have no shroud over the blade on my G1023 either.
I did start wanting a 3". I kept thinking why not use the blast gate. I do have 3" flex hose. May be 3" is the answer. I do have a 12 week wait time.

[Gary Radice]

I have a similar set up. I made an internal pan out of MSF that slopes to a port in the plinth. The photo shows it sloping to the rear but I have since rotated the plinth and pan 90 degrees to avoid a tight turn to where I have the duct. There is 5" duct on the base and 4" to the SharkGuard, connected to a ClearVue 1800. I left the louvers and other holes and gaps open but did cover the motor hole. Some dust does escape from the louvers in use. I haven't tried closing them up yet.250857250858250864

[Tom Taylor123]

Gary
I see what's happening. The round got square amd the ramps turned 90 degrees correct?
Tom

[fred klotz]

I have a late 70's Uni, which I bought used. Had the 4" dust port located on the right bottom, below the motor cover/access door. My marginal dust collection didn't do an adequate job with that set-up.

I used magnetic sheets to cover the various openings, starting low. Used foam pipe insulation to fill the 'smile', but want to change to magnetic sheeting. I calculated the cross section area of 4" pipe, planning on leaving slightly more than that open for make up air. It turned out to be about what the gap between the table and cabinet.

This all helped a lot but I still had too much accumulation in the bottom of the cabinet, which is just a rectilinear box. Contemplated building the shroud, just briefly. I then eyeballed the movement of the motor belt assemble, found a piece of laminate (Formica) cut a piece that would flex in through the access door, creating a curved slope to the outlet. The slope starts high on the left. Since putting this piece in (it holds itself in place), the only time I need to clean out the cabinet is if a sliver gets across the outlet and begins to obstruct it. There is a bit of accumulation in the two right corners, but the laminate eliminated the two left corners, along with what were probably eddy currents in the air, which can't be good. (Ever watch and eddy in fast moving water? Collects a lot of crap.)

It seems basically you need air moving smoothly across the area where the dust is, before it settles.

[Tom Taylor123]

Fred
Keeping it simple. I like that. I had thought of air intakes to create a flow pattern at the bottom. With negative air dust would precipitate and the right air flow would capture the chips and dust all four corners.
Tom

[Gary Radice]

Gary
I see what's happening. The round got square amd the ramps turned 90 degrees correct?
Tom
Yes, the plinth on my late 70's vintage saw came with a rectangular port that was a little smaller than the cross-sectional area of a 5" duct, so I widened it and then fabbed a rectangular to round transition out of sheet metal. And rotated the plinth and ramps 90 degrees from the first pic.

[Ole Anderson]

I get some accumulation in the base of my cabinet, even with a 5" bottom connection with a bellmouth. Frankly I don't worry about it. Never see it unless I open the door to retrieve the arbor nut that I just dropped.

[Jerry Hillenburg]

Tom, you inspired me to post about my "My tablesaw island and it's dust collection setup". To see the post , go to http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?197444-My-tablesaw-island-and-it-s-dust-collection-setup

[Matt Meiser]

I think the real issue with the louvers isn't their existence but the fact that the openings face down. I think sawdust actually gets thrown out of them. I've got mine blocked off with tape.

[Kevin Jenness]

Tom,

I have a similar vintage Unisaw. I made a simple dust pickup by bending a piece of 26 gauge sheet metal into a u shape and screwing it at a right angle to the bottom of the vertical sheet metal blade surround at the operator end of the trunnion. At the back end of the pickup I screwed a 3/4" plywood donut with a 3" hole that accepts a 3" flexhose running out through a hole in the lower right side of the cabinet to my central dust collector. In conjunction with a shop built overhead guard, this picks up easily 90% of the dust. When I am busy in the shop, I have to clean out the saw base about once a month. The key to dust collection here is channeling the air flow off the blade into the dc before it disperses into the cabinet. This setup is crude but quite effective.

[Jim O'Dell]

Was this the saw that originally had the goose egg motor cover? If so, I think I remember someone making fiberglass replicas for them. I'll PM you the email address for the guy that used to build the fiberglass units. You might email him and see if he still does them.
A quick Google search on Delta Goose Egg cover showed some plastic ones on E-bay. One was a kit for a motor cover and a louvered square cover with vents for another opening in the cabinet. Not sure if this would work on your saw or not, but worth a look. You could probably find some of the spray paint for plastic that is close in color to the saw cabinet. Here is another plastic goose egg unit: http://www.bell-plastic.com/rockwell-unisaw-goose-egg-replacement-motor-cover.html Then there is a cast iron version here: http://stores.renovoparts.com/-strse-11/1454-Unisaw-Cast-Iron/Detail.bok Pretty steep price wise, especially if you don't care about it being original looking. Beyond that, build one out of 1/4" ply and a 1 x 2 frame. You can put louvers in the panel if you choose to. Jim.

[Rodney Anderson]

Just finished wiring in a Unisaw...the patent #'s date to 1934. anyone know of unisaw patent dates??

Rodney yendoranderson@gmail.com

[Rodney Anderson]

Here's more on that Unisaw...the ser.no. is 0488