Powermatic 66 - Dust collection Improvements?

I recently bought a powermatic 66 from 1984 and I dont think anyone is surpised about how poor the dust collection is on it.

I looked inside and see just a hope that it sucks the dust off the floor. I tried a search for mods to improve it but found very little. Has anyone done anything ? Internal baffles? Ducts etc ?

Attachment 287498
I saw this image on Amazon. It looks like at one point they made a duct version that goes up and wraps around the blade area. Has anyone done anything similar?

My other thought was a bigger duct but I dont think that fixes the problem. It would probably decrease the velocity which I don't see helping

Cheers
~Jonathan

Are you sure that picture is of a 66? My guess is that is a Powermatic 2000. Enlarging the dust port to 5" or 6" seems to help, as long as you have a large enough dust collector. Of corse you need the optional motor cover,too.


John

I put shark guard on mine and enlarged the port to six inches. It works pretty well. For most cuts I only open six inch gate a little to keep the top velocity in the four inch pipe high.

Nelson

I agree with John, that looks like a PM2000. This is a nut I really wanted to crack and worked at it for quite a while. I tried to create a set up like that, but the issue is that the center trunnion travels to right up against the cabinet side when at 45 degrees. I could set up what you see in the picture above when at 90 degrees by using an in-wall stack boot from the home center. but it could only tilt about half way before hitting the cabinet side and I wanted full function. I finally went with what others on OWWM settled on which is to put a cardboard liner in the bottom tilting toward the hole (I had already put plywood in the bottom). This seems to be OK but you will still need to do some vacuuming through the dust door if you want it totally clean.

The other half of the equation, which is probably more important if you are trying to protect your lungs, is above the blade dust collection. For that (and other reasons) I got a shark guard.

I first made a 1/4" plywood floor that sits on top of the base, which took some fussing around. I then cut a 6" hole in the side opposite the motor as close to the floor as possible and fabricated a male sleeve to accept a 6" hose. I blocked off the rear 4" port. I then cut slots on the opposite side to allow an floor sweep effect. I now only get collection in the corners. A Shark Guard or other above blade apparatus completes a very effective set up. It took me some time and angst to decide to carve up the steel cabinet, but it was worth it.

You need an inlet port for make up air at least as big as the extraction port. If air cannot get in you cannot extract air and you need a lot of air speed across the cabinet to grab the dust before it settles to the floor. I think Alan Shaffter's over blade collection kills the shark guard in performance as the fine dust is trapped by a barrier that allows incoming air to pass through. Do a search on this site for pics.

I bought a late 80's PM66 about a year ago and spent about $40 and 2 hrs of my time that made a big improvement. I picked up an air register box and a foil sided fiberglass insulation board. Made a simple frame to support the register and cut 4 pieces of the insulation board to form a funnel inside the saw. My saw didn't have a motor cover so I added one of those along with a zero clearance insert and now get about 80-85% of the sawdust.

Attachment 287716Not a 66, but an old Unisaw, that we use for a "portable" table saw, has been made to work pretty good. I built a wooden box over the motor that has a slide in 12x12" furnace filter for an intake, and closed all the various small openings with tape. Blue masking tape over the tilt slot for the height handwheel gets changed as needed easily. A piece of Masonite to cover the bottom on the moble base closes that up. With an Exactor arm, it works really well.

Yes, the intake port is the key to extracting dust from any cabinet and band saws are worse than cabinet saws in this regard.

Kevin... thank you for your idea... tried to do something like that by funneling it using plywood to emulate the slanted bottom on newer 66's... not much help...

Will definitely put your mod in when I get time...

Also, made a plastic blade guard with dust hose on it for above the blade and that works great... especially on ripping, etc...

A motor cover is mandatory..