SawStop over blade vacuum pickup not good enough

[Aaron Rosenthal]

I'm using a 2hp cyclone style dust collector (not enough height for the big ClearVue) and for the moment, a 4" hose plugged into my SawStop PCS collector.
I got the over blade pickup for the SawStop, and the attachments to bring it to the 4" port on the bottom, but I tried the saw first time and the blade collection point is abysmal. Power at the 4" port si ok, but over the blade - nada.
I seem to remember that there was a better solution by substituting a "Y" between the port and the DC hose. Is this correct?
It seems a waste to spend all that money and yet need to hook up my shop vac and dust deputy to do the job.

[glenn bradley]

Interesting. I was sure the over arm design was going to be poor but, it does quite well for what it is. I attributed it to a good internal hood design(?). It does not do well for edge trim cuts; no hood really does that I have seen. Ripping a panel down the middle or a wide piece of hardwood stock does pretty well though. Mine certainly could be better and I plan to run a larger hose from a wye in the DC ducting. I'll report back on how that goes.

[Dan Rude]

I don't have the over arm dust collection. I do have the the blade guard with the dust collection port. I use a shopvac to pull the dust from it, performs quite well. Yesterday, though I covered the front side of the blade angle slot when I was using a sled, without the guard and that helped a lot. Dan

[David Publicover]

I changed the T connection to a Y and found an improvement. I’m quite satisfied with how it works with my 2hp generic cyclone on most cuts.

[Larry Frank]

Your 2 hp collector with a cyclone lis likely under powered for the application. I use a 5 hp DC and works OK.

[Alan Lightstone]

I made a dust collector skirt for mine, and it improved things significantly. I do have the larger version (The floating overhead arm), plus a 5HP cyclone, but dust collection still wasn't great. The skirt helped.

I wish SawStop would make one of these as an accessory. Hint, hint, hint...

[Rod Sheridan]

I have a 1.5HP Oneida with a 5” hose to the cabinet and a 2” hose to the overarm hood on my B3.

Coming off the 4” at the saw is problematic as 4” is too small for just the saw cabinet……Rod.

[Clark Hussey]

Sounds more like a dust collector issue, rather than a Sawstop issue. I hooked mine to my shop vac dust collector. Since my regular dust collector is too small to do it.

[Jack Frederick]

Alan, how about a couple pics of your set-up. I run a 1.5hp Grizzly DC. I have a 6x4x4 wye at the machine. 4”x10’ flex hose to the SS cabinet. My old Fein vac quit and I added the hose from the vac to the SS dust inlet over the blade. I have a 4x2 reducer on that side of the 6x4x4 wye. The male end of the vac hose is a press fit into the SS dust port. It works well other than on edge cuts.

[Ron Selzer]

On my personal 5hp ICS I gave up and piped my shop vac/dust deputy to the over blade collection and am happy with how it works NOW
At work in the HS shop 5hp ICS changed the over blade collection to its own port on the dust collection system, probably 15hp (not climbing up to the motor to check) Now with the new HS will have to see what works there. This was one of three machines new enough to move, all new machines now in shop.

[Frank Pratt]

I have the dust collection guard, but it's connected to an OH duct with a 2.5" flex. It works very well. The over arm bit would just be in the way for me because I have a router table at the end of the extension.

The particle counter shows that dust collection is virtually at 100% when using the guard. The exception to this is when cutting less than a kerf width off a board. Then dust squirts out past the side of the guard. This is common behavior, not just with the SawStop guard.

[George Yetka]

I would check to see if you have suction on the 2" hose. It may be obstructed. When I had the 2" overhead I got good suction as long as the blade height was adjusted so the guard was close to the board. I now have the 4" and was expecting better results. But you have to have it adjusted to just above the board. So once again im left only using it when im cutting larger panels.

[Ron Selzer]

I now have the 4" and was expecting better results. But you have to have it adjusted to just above the board. So once again im left only using it when im cutting larger panels.

Further expand please. I have not seen one in person and according to SawStop it is a floating guard so should be no adjustment necessary. This item is on my want list, not need list yet.
thanks
Ron

[Thomas Wilson]

I have the 4” floating over arm guard. I set the spring tension on the guard to press gently on the workpiece. It rides up and down as needed. I use the guard on almost every cut. There is a clamp on the guard that holds the guard up above the work so you can, for example, align the blade to the workpiece. That clamp should be released when cutting.

[Alan Lightstone]

Alan, how about a couple pics of your set-up. I run a 1.5hp Grizzly DC. I have a 6x4x4 wye at the machine. 4”x10’ flex hose to the SS cabinet. My old Fein vac quit and I added the hose from the vac to the SS dust inlet over the blade. I have a 4x2 reducer on that side of the 6x4x4 wye. The male end of the vac hose is a press fit into the SS dust port. It works well other than on edge cuts.

Not sure how much these will help, but here they are:
463244
463245
463246
6x4x4 wye from 5HP cyclone to both ICS and another 4x4x4 wye that connects to both the router table and the overhead floating arm.

The biggest issues were in attaching the brushes to the plastic on the SawStop dust collector. Still looking for a good solution there. I first tried two sided tape (didn't work), then duct tape (didn't work), the Sticky Ass Tape (worked better but still fell off eventually), and now contact cement with Sticky Ass Tape over it.

I'd love a better idea, or as I said, SawStop should offer this as an accessory.

[Jay Kepley]

I use a shop vac on my PCS blade guard. Works great. Much better than my dust collector. .

[Eric Cothern]

I have over arm and I thought I was not getting much power but at the hose end I was getting plenty of suction when I disconnected it using just my dust collector and even less with using a shop vac. I think it is there to get the super fine dust because if don't use it I can see a big difference in dust in my shop and mine has a nearly clear hose and you can see dust inside.