Toilet flange dust collection!

[Jason White]

I'm sure I'm not the only guy to ever think of this, but it occurred to me that a 4" PVC closet flange screwed inside a plywood box would make a great dust collection port for my radial arm saw.

I glued a short piece of 4" PVC to the flange, then used 3" rubber plumbing couplings from the home center along with a 2-1/2" Y-fitting from Woodcraft. The rest you can see in the pictures.

I'm residing the house with fiber cement and needed some uber-efficient dust collection. The fittings, combined with my cheapo Delta dust collector (which I nabbed for $40 on clearance at Lowe's) works pretty well. I figure it captures about 85-90% of the dust. I'm not coughing after working all day, so it must be good enough.

JW

[Brad Townsend]

Very clever! I'm assuming you bought a new one for this?:D

[Matt Meiser]

I don't koww-looks pretty crappy to me

Sorry, couldn't resist. :) actually, I did the same on the lower door of my bandsaw.

[John Keeton]

Can we safely assume that you came up with this spark of brilliance while on the "throne?" Apparently, you and Matt share the same method of meditation!

Actually, it does seem to make a good application.

[John Stevens]

Jason, Matt (or anyone who's done this)--

Clever idea. Will a 4" DC hose hook right up?

Regards,

John

[Jay Yoder]

Great idea! i have been looking for an idea for dust collection for my RAS!

[Bruce Wrenn]

If you use a 4 X 3 closet flange, the four inch hose will slip right over it. So does schedule 20 / 35 sewer pipe. This idea has been around at least ten years in my shop, and I'm sure I wasn't the first to come up with it. But it is a tip worth repeating.

[Lon LeBlanc]

Jason,

Looks like you are....er....flushed with success! :D

Lon

[Gary Lange]

I like the dust collection solution you have built on the back of that RAS. They need that or you end up with sawdust all over the place.

[Jason White]

No, I had to buy an adapter at Woodcraft that gets me from 4" PVC to 4" flex to 2-1/2" flex reducer.

The dust collection on the radial arm saw is great. However, the saw itself has proved to be less than ideal for cutting 6-1/4" siding boards (fiber cement), so I got rid of the RAS and picked up a cheap 10" sliding miter saw from Sears. Works much better than the RAS in this case and I can still use the same dust collection setup.

I'm planning to put my radial arm saw as a dedicated dado station.

JW


Jason, Matt (or anyone who's done this)--

Clever idea. Will a 4" DC hose hook right up?

Regards,

John

[John Eaton]

I don't think you have enough hose going to the guard (j/k).

-- John

[Ben Franz]

Slightly off-topic - I've installed a fair amount of fiber cement siding over the years and I gave up cutting after the first job - the dust is a killer and carbide blades dull really fast. I bought a set of power shears from Snapper that work well for the most part. I use a jigsaw with carbide blade for curves. Siding contractors use power guillotine shears for production work.

[John Eaton]

For occasional cutting we used to put a regular carbide blade on backwards to make cuts - the last time I helped a friend do some siding he bought a special blade and it worked pretty well. Dust was awful.

-- John

[Robert Fordham]

If you were to round over the PVC with a router you could increase the efficiency of the collector.

[Scott Wigginton]

Great configuration and creative use on parts, I'm planning on making a similar dust shroud using the roof-flashing (http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=200311-138-11940) which has a tapered transition (for a whopping $5)


I fear you are losing a lot of your efficiency with that Wye connector (even tho it is working great for you!). Dropping from 4" to 2" before it splits is a hit in CFM, then splitting a 2" in two directions is a hit, and then going back to a 4" on the backside kills velocity. My first thought was to wonder how much more CFM you'd be pulling with 4-4-2 Wye.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

And you can seal the connection with Bowl Wax to keep the theme going.