Sawstop blade guard dust collection

[Kelly Colin Mark]

I just bought a used Sawstop contractor's saw with the stock (no dust collection) guard. I have a very tiny space in my basement, and while I am working on building storage, right now it's pretty much filled. So right off the bat, there is no room for a conventional dust collector. I am guessing that hooking up my Festool vac to the under-table shroud will not very effective.

Since there is no dust port on the stock guard, I am considering purchasing their "Dust collection blade guard" which is an available upgrade. I had read an account of someone connecting a Festool vac to the dust collection on the blade guard. He claimed very good dust collection, though I can't remember whether he had something connected to the below-table shroud.

Has anyone else tried hooking up a shop-vac or Festool vac to the Sawstop guard with the dust port, perhaps without below table dust collection ? If so, what kind of results did you get ? The guard that has the dust port is about $150 but if it is any good at picking up dust, it would be worth it. I have a small house and young kids and am interested in minimizing absolutely as much dust as I can within my constraints.

Thanks !

[Wade Lippman]

I moved last year and sold all my tools. When I bought new ones I had to try my new sawstop before I had a dust collector.
With nothing attached the dust collection was better than it was on my Griz 1023 with a DC connected to both the base and the overhead guard.
Of course it threw dust out the back of the guard so it made a real mess, but it was effective.

So based on that limited experience, I would say that dust collection with just a vacuum connected to the guard would be good.
That is assuming the blade is shrouded like the current ones.

I expect that people will tell you the Shark Guard is just as good. They might be right, I haven't tried it.

[Keith Hankins]

The pickup will depend on your vac. but it will work. Here's a cool vid on a due's setup for his sawstop that I saw on youtube.

http://youtu.be/gf6b7ttPke4

[glenn bradley]

I have the PCS. I doubted the overarm's effectiveness as designed. I was pleasantly surprised that even with the very weak airflow from their "T" junction at the base collection point, the collection was quite good. I assume they did some reasonable study on the geometry of the guard's internal shape. Even a wimpy shop-vac will have much more suction than the stock setup so I would expect good success.

[Keith Hankins]

Ya, know when I look at it close, it almost looks like the folks at Festool designed it for them. Has a lot of similarities, to the designs on many of my festools.

[Mark Carlson]

I use the sawstop blade guard attached to a festool vac on a General 650 tablesaw. The sawstop guard is attached to a shark guard splitter. I also connect a 5 in hose to the base of the cabinet. I have 3 guards, the shark guard, a felder and the sawstop. Not sure why I own so many. The sawstop is my favorite and does the best job. The picture shows a 1 foot length of orange hose that then attaches to the 33mm festool hose.


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[Bob Falk]

I bought the Sawstop dust collection system but have decided to go with an Excaliber overarm system....if you are interested, I will sell it very reasonable. bob

[johnny means]

One thing to keep in mind is that, while the overhead guard will catch the dust that makes it above the table, most of the dust will drop into the cabinet. IME, the Sawstop design is particularly susceptible to problems from dust build up in the cabinet. Particularly the height and tilt adjustments. I have a little 1 hp Delta I use for my SS. It does a good job and has footprint similar to my Festool vac.

[John Petsche]

Great pic of guard setup

[Kelly Colin Mark]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. As it turns out, my tiny basement space is filled so I have to build storage or get rid of stuff before I can move the Sawstop in....I have a Festool vac but if I need a DC for the cabinet (was foolishly thinking I wouldn't), I don't know where it would go or where my wife would make me sleep.

Thanks everyone.

[Kelly Colin Mark]

A few days ago I finally finished clearing enough space to move the saw into my basement. It's tight, but it's in there. Today I bought the SS blade guard with the dust collection (part # TSG-DC) and hooked it up to my Festool vac with the medium size hose (I think the 38mm).

I *think* the dust collection is better than the stock guard, but I'm baffled. As I see it, dust is supposed to shoot forward in the guard where it then gets picked up near the front. After a few test cuts, there is dust on the inside of the guard, but nothing near the front, nor anything in the top channel, not even a speck. During a cut there is no visible dust passing through the channel. It seems to the eye as if nothing is going through. But I know there's air flow through the port because small offcuts will get sucked right up, and when the guard gets near the table you can feel the suction pull the guard down.

At first I thought perhaps the dust getting caught was fine enough to be invisible, until I realized that there is plenty of visible dust shooting up out of the riving knife clearance slot. I do have the riving knife installed. I've tried raising the blade up a lot and that doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

Is this all to be expected ? Is dust passing through the guard going so fast as to be invisible ?

I've seen claims of very good above-table dust extraction on SS saws - one, on the Festool Owner's Group in a thread with "nearly dustless extraction on a Sawstop" in the title, claims he gets 90% *total* (below and above table) dust extraction, but that was on one of their cabinet saws and I just have their contractors model.