RAS dust collection complete!

[Paul Schaefer]

I finally got dust collection set up for my DeWalt MBF radial arm saw. Thanks to everyone who gave me suggestions in an earlier thread. Hopefully the pics will help others who are taking on a similar project.

The collector is a ClearVue. The picture was taken after cutting a 2x6, and as you can see, there's nothing on the table. It's a significant improvement over the HF 2hp dust collector and 'big mouth' plastic collector mounted behind the saw. I'm hoping that the setup is doing a similarly good job on collecting the hard-to-see fine particles.

[Tom M King]

I like it a lot. I always said that anything less than 3hp is wishful thinking.

[Paul Schaefer]

Tom, the much bigger fan and motor obviously makes a heck of a lot of difference, but I think having collection on the fence and on the blade guard also is crucial

[Tom M King]

I'm sure it does, no question.

[jack duren]

The problem with your fence is you need a void between the fence and the table. That’s were dust gets trapped and has to be cleared…

[Paul Schaefer]

Jack, ou can't see it from the picture, but there is a gap between the sacrificial top and the fence. Dust drops in there and gets sucked out through the holes in the fence. My old DC setup on the RAS didn't have that, and it was a pain in the butt, having to sweep along the fence every cut or two. This setup is pretty slick.

[jack duren]

Seems like one line of 1/4 would have been enough.

[Paul Schaefer]

I guess that depends on the objective. If all I wanted to do was get rid of the debris that gathers at that gathers at the base of the fence, then...maybe a row of 1/4" holes would work?

But my whole family is sensitive to airborne contaminants and my shop is in an attached garage. My objective is to keep as much fine dust out of the air as possible. So I have a big collector that moves a lot of air, and I designed the fence to allow for maximum air movement. I'm rarely sawing anything more than ~2" thick, so I get strong airflow across the top of the workpiece. That, combined with the (sadly undersized) collection on the safety shroud maximizes the dust collection I get at the point of creation.

[jack duren]

A lot of 1/4 holes will still have voids in between. Voids is where dust gets trapped.

I need to do something on mine and feel that it should be pulling from underneath, rather than from behind. I feel this way because gravity is your friend and anytime to remove the board off the back fence it drops..

I ran into a similar problem with my router table. You get as much as you can off the fence, but a majority drops in the cabinet. Never fails pulling it from,the back always doesn’t have 100% elimination, but a DC from the bottom it’s gone.