best way to attach new blastgate box to unisaw

[Bob Cooper]

I should have taken a picture before sending this but i'm away from the house and thought i'd fire off a question. I've finally getting the dust collection put together -- clearvue, 6" metal pipe, ... -- and i build a box out of 3/4" plywood to transition to the Unisaw. It will cover the stock hole and have a 4" exhaust for the connection to a just ordered shark guard.

So here's my question. What's the best way to attach this box to the unisaw? I know a picture would do wonders here but imagine a box (12x12x6 deep) with sides wider than the box -- i.e. if i was connecting this box to wood then i could just put a couple wood screws in and it would hold fine. But i'm not sure if i pre-drill and put some metal screws in if it'll hold well.

If i could easily get inside i'd bolt it but i'm not sure how much access it have.

i will send picture soon

[Jamie Buxton]

Sheet metal screws do work. Some of the stuff I have hanging on my Unisaw is held by sheet metal screws.

Also, it isn't horribly difficult to reach inside the base through the access port on the front. You can reach in to thread a nut on to a bolt whose head is on the outside. If you use a nut and bolt, you'll need to put wrenches on the inside and the outside simultaneously; a helper might be useful.

[Phil Thien]

What Jamie said. Or, you could use shoulder screws (search McMaster.com for "shoulder screws"). You should be able to attach these with a nut on the inside of the saw, and then put slots into your DC box so it can slip over the shoulder screws and allow gravity to keep it down.

[Tom M King]

This is my portable, jobsite saw. It's not too pretty, but DC works great with a 3hp double bagger (Woodtek 3 hp comes on wheels, and was the largest I could find that would roll through regular doorways). The intake is a wooden box with a slide in 12x12 furnace filter over the motor. Since it's on a mobile base, the saw base sits on top of a piece of Masonite to close up the bottom. The elbow in front has never gotten in the way. The Exactor overarm works really well. Tee'd out duct goes to jointer. Outfeed table is a lightweight, clamp-on.

[Bob Cooper]

Thanks all for the replies. Once I got home I saw that I could take the side panel off the unisaw and use a couple carriage bolts + a good slathering of silicone and I thins will hold well. The 4" pipe off to the side will be for dust collection via the shark guard in a few months. Lee valley will deliver my blast gates early next week.

Also so attached is a picture showing the dust connection to the jointer -- no blast gate here yet either. In this one I reused the 4 screws that held the original plastic piece in place. The metal transition piece already had adhesive neoprene. I just added a couple screws.