Sealing Table saw body for better dust control?

[Chris Bruno]

Has anybody embarked on an effort to seal some of the gaps around their table saw for better dust control?

I have a Craftsman 22124 that I bought just before Christmas. It was quite an improvement over my old Craftsman '100' (though, to be honest, that old saw was no slouch...I would put it up against many of today's contractor's saws). However, I expected better dust control, being a cabinet saw and having a dust collector port.

Granted, I'm only attaching it to my shop vac, which I know isn't nearly as good as a true DC, but I was hoping for better.

I was thinking of trying to really 'seal' it up, so that the shop vac could really create a negative pressure inside the cabinet and at least try to keep the majority of dust inside the cabinet, even if it doesn't make it to the vacuum... From the factory, theres significant gaps all around the housing:
- The motor access 'cover has a huge gaping hole at its top
- The table - cabinet mate has a lot of gaps
- The slots for the bevelling allowances
- The power cable grommet
- The tilted floor of the cabinet isn't a perfect seal at the cabinet.

I was thinking of trying to seal those areas up..maybe some weatherstipping foam pushed into the gaps between the table and base, a plywood extension on the motor cover, maybe bristle weatherstripping at the bevel slots.. that kind of stuff..

Has anybody done something like this? If so, how were your results?

Thanks,
-Chris

[Eric DeSilva]

I was looking at my TS (Unisaw) two nights ago and thinking the same thing. In my case, there is a huge cut-out for the saw tilting mechanism, since the blade lowering/raising handle has to travel at the same angle. I starting thinking about some flexible plastic sheet cut for 90 deg and 45 deg, the most common angles.

Plus, my saw seems to have a gazillion little mounting/adjustment holes for all sorts of stuff. I'm thinking of just plugging those with duct tape.

Anyway do this kind of treatment on their saw?

[Ed Labadie]

I sealed up the tilt slot with magnetic sign material. Since I don't tilt the blade very often, I just remove it when I do.
I also put a piece on the inside of the cleanout door to block that off, the other small holes were left open.
Just don't seal up the saw cabinet 100%, it needs some "make-up" air for the dust collector to work properly.

Ed

[glenn bradley]

Remember, air has to get in for the dust and air in the cabinet to get out. If the air cannot move at a sufficient velocity to keep the dust airborne it will fall to the bottom and leak out those two front corners ;-) Slowing the air speed is exactly how a cyclone drops the waste from the air stream, eh?

If you are getting waste material out the hand wheel slot or other locations you need more air movement, not less. I have run my 22124 with the motor door ajar (by accident) and dust control is fine. How large of a DC are you running?

[keith ouellette]

I just did this a few weeks ago and posted a thread about it. I found I received more pull through the throat plate after covering most of the open areas with tape. Before i was pulling all the air through the path of least resistance which was every where except the throat plate.

I was told by a few people that dust removal was about air flow and not suction. I say if the air isn't flowing through the place where the sawdust is made it doesn't matter.

It seems to have worked for me. I do have a 4" port and a 1200 cfm dust colector though

[Jim O'Dell]

My view in this is that you don't want to seal it all off. Actually, you want as much area of intake opening as you have DC intake opening. If it is sealed off, where is the air going to come from to move the dust? It would just become a big expensive blast gate. Dust control is all about moving air, not just suction, although a vacuum cleaner needs air intake to work also. So the idea is to try to match the air coming into the saw to that going out to maximize dust collection. Being able to "aim" that air flow past the area of the saw blade, or where the dust and chips are thrown by the saw blade, would be the best plan, and the hardest to accomplish. Some of the newer designed saws are coming with a blade shroud/dust shield to help with this. (PM 2000 for instance) Most of us won't be able to add this to our saws, but directing the incoming air flow pas the blade would be the next best thing to do. Jim.

[Eric DeSilva]

I think Chris was the original poster, but in my case, it isn't that there is dust coming out of the tilting port, its that I'd rather have the DC pulling more chips off the top of the table. In my case, I've got a JDS Cyclone, which is supposed to be 1100 CFM at 12" static pressure. Since I've just completed hooking things up, I'm not sure what I should be expecting as a good result, but I was certainly hoping that sufficient intake would occur that sawdust would be sucked into the base through the plate gaps, rather than ending up on the table. Is that unrealistic? Seems like it isn't particularly useful to the end goal of dust collection for the intake to be through the tilting port...

My experience w/DC is with my Festool tools hooked up to a CT22, which generates almost no dust.

[Rod Sheridan]

Unless you use an overhead guard with dust collection, you won't have a lot of sucess with collecting the dust that comes off the top of the blade.

The teeth that are exposed above the work, aren't in the throat plate airstream. You do need to create an air stream above the work, which is what an overhead guard with dust collection does.

Regards, Rod.

[Lee Schierer]

As others have said, you need to let some air in so that the vacuum system can pull air out. Sealing the largest holes will help keep dust from shooting out onto the floor. You can cover adjustment slots with magnetic vent covers that you can buy at either of the Borgs. They come 2 or 3 to a package and are about 8 x 16. They cut easily with scissors and can be places on curved surfaces. The magnetic strength is fairly low so yo may nee to wipe off the sawdust when you pull it off to get it to stick wehn you put is back in place.

[Larry Fox]

I recently put some aluminum duct tape along the seam where the funnled floor meets the cabinet on my uni as I found that I was getting a lot of dust under the cabinet from that. Otherwise, mostly open with the exception being a piece of duct tape sealing the hole where the factory guard attached from the back.

[Chris Bruno]

As the original poster, I'll just clarify that because I'm using only a shop vac, I don't have a lot of air flow to begin with... so the shop vac hooked up to the table saw seems a bit useless with all the large gaps.

Thus, my thought was by restricting the open gaps, the shop vac might have enough pull to keep a negative pressure inside the table.

I'll try some duct tape tonight and see if it makes a material difference and then report back...

Though after reading all the posts about the HF 2HP dust collector and Wynn filters, I'm kind of thinking I should just go in that direction. :-)

-Chris

[Mike Goetzke]

As the original poster, I'll just clarify that because I'm using only a shop vac, I don't have a lot of air flow to begin with... so the shop vac hooked up to the table saw seems a bit useless with all the large gaps.

Thus, my thought was by restricting the open gaps, the shop vac might have enough pull to keep a negative pressure inside the table.

I'll try some duct tape tonight and see if it makes a material difference and then report back...

Though after reading all the posts about the HF 2HP dust collector and Wynn filters, I'm kind of thinking I should just go in that direction. :-)

-Chris

Chris - I think the cabinet style saws are designed to use a DC and not a vacuum. I had a Ryobi BT3K for many years. The blade is almost totally enclosed so a shop vac with a 2-1/4" hose worked great. I later added a SharkGuard for the top side dust and upgraded to a canister style DC. I had a 22124 for about a year before I got a great deal on a Uni. I went through the same thing as you are - trying to block all those openings. Didn't make much of a difference for me. One thing I did notice was the Uni seemed to be cleaner. I somewhat think it is due to the nice smooth metal painted surface inside the Uni. As I recall the 22124 was plastic. I also have a Sharkguard on my Uni.

Mike

[keith ouellette]

My view in this is that you don't want to seal it all off. Actually, you want as much area of intake opening as you have DC intake opening. If it is sealed off, where is the air going to come from to move the dust? It would just become a big expensive blast gate. Dust control is all about moving air, not just suction, although a vacuum cleaner needs air intake to work also. So the idea is to try to match the air coming into the saw to that going out to maximize dust collection. Being able to "aim" that air flow past the area of the saw blade, or where the dust and chips are thrown by the saw blade, would be the best plan, and the hardest to accomplish. Some of the newer designed saws are coming with a blade shroud/dust shield to help with this. (PM 2000 for instance) Most of us won't be able to add this to our saws, but directing the incoming air flow pas the blade would be the next best thing to do. Jim.

I agree with this totally. I did not seal off all of my saw. I still have a space between the cabinet and the table. It allows for plenty of air flow.

[Wayne Cannon]

Chris,

After using a traditional dust collector for years and switching to a cyclone, I would definitely recommend considering the cyclone -- if only for the dust-free and easy emptying. I'm even considering Oneida's mini-cyclone Dust Deputy for my Shop Vac.

Wood Magazine published plans for building your own cyclone collector that was quite simple to make.

--Wayne

[glenn bradley]

I think Chris was the original poster, but in my case, it isn't that there is dust coming out of the tilting port, its that I'd rather have the DC pulling more chips off the top of the table. In my case, I've got a JDS Cyclone, which is supposed to be 1100 CFM at 12" static pressure. Since I've just completed hooking things up, I'm not sure what I should be expecting as a good result, but I was certainly hoping that sufficient intake would occur that sawdust would be sucked into the base through the plate gaps, rather than ending up on the table. Is that unrealistic? Seems like it isn't particularly useful to the end goal of dust collection for the intake to be through the tilting port...

My experience w/DC is with my Festool tools hooked up to a CT22, which generates almost no dust.

As Rod said; chips from the blade exiting the cut on the bottom side of your material are literally thrown into the cabinet so they are not much trouble. If the chips on the top side are bothering you, an overarm is the cure. I use my overarm on all cuts where it is possible and it definitely makes a difference. Using your Festool experience as an example; the blade is shrouded so the capture is much better. True also with a good overarm.

[Steven Wilson]

Chris, a shopvac doesn't have the CFM to do much good on a cabinet saw. American style cabinet saws in general have very anemic dust collection capabilites. If you want decent cabinet collection you need to route your dust collection system up to the saw blade (not necessarily easy to do). In addition you need to use a collection hood above the saw. The overarm guards like the Exaktor do a good job of that. Since you end up collecting from two 4" ports you'll need at least a 6" drop to the tablesaw and one of the 1200CFM machines (i.e. 2HP 220V or better).