Dust Collection at the Tablesaw

[Mark Duksta]

Hello all,

Next month I'll be buying a cyclone, most likely an Oneida. While I'm waiting I want to get started on building an overarm blade guard with dust collection.

Here's my question:

Do I run a 6" duct to the bottom of the saw (Griz 1023), and a 4" hose to the blade guard? Oneida's site says split the 6" into two 4" legs or use a 5" and 3" hose. What are some of you doing?

Bye the way, Oneida is revamping their web site. It's about time I could never find my way back to something I had seen there.

Mark D.

[Kyle Stiefel]

Mark,

I also have a Griz 1023. I run a woodsucker and have a 6" intake down below and then 4" to my Excalibur. I could have ran a 3" to the Excalibur because that is the diameter of the unit. To my knowledge you I could have ran a 3" to the Excalibur and it would do the same thing. The limiting factor I believe is the 3" of the Excalibur because that is where the restriction of the air flow.

Second thing is I find I get a significantly better job of dust removal through my overarm guard and I believe this is primarily because I run a zero clearance insert. With the DC you need adequate area for the air to be sucked through whatever equipment you have it hooked up to and the zero clearance decreases the volume which can come through. However I believe the pros of using the zeroclearance far outweigh the cons.

[John Motzi]

Mark,

I am running 6" pipe throughout. At the Table saw I have a 6x5x4" Wye. The 5" goes to the 5" port on the bottom of my saw (Inca 2200) and the 4" gets reduced to a 3" flex hose to the overhead blade guard. This was the configuration Oneida reccomended for my setup. Seems to work OK for me - I have one of those home made overhead guards based on the article by Gordon Sampson described in the Badger Pond section of Woodcentral.

John Motzi
Downingtown, PA

[Mark Duksta]

Thanks for your replies. Sounds like I can go with a 3" pipe for the blade guard. That will make construction a little easier.

Mark

[Steven Wilson]

My saw has a 5" port for the cabinet and a 3" port on the blade cover. I run a 6" main that has two 5" drops. One 5" drop goes to the saw cabinet, the other reduces from 5" to 4" then 4" flex hose and finally a 4" to 3" reducer to the port on the blade cover. That combination works fairly well. The Exaktor and Excalibur overarm guards are similar but use a 3" steel tube that then uses 2.5 or 3" flex to the guard and a reducer at the back to 4". You really don't need a lot of CFM at the exposed blade for it to be effective.

[John Hulett]

Hey folks!

I was going to start my own thread, but thought I might just tag on to this one. BTW: I just found SMC a few days ago, and I'm really getting a lot out of it!

On to my question: I have a Craftsman Contractor style TS that I got for free from a friend of mine (Great friend, huh?), and after building a few things to get my shop going have come to the conclusion that DC is a must. I've more-or-less settled on what I'm going to get, based on my budget (Delta 50-850), but now I'm not sure about how best to collect all of that dust from my TS.

As you can see from the pictures of the rear of the TS, there appears to be a sort of "half-tube" where DC connection might go towards the rear of the blade, but it doesn't seem like that would be very efficient.

As I said, I got the saw for free, and I didn't get any guard or splitter. It had a fence, but I've removed it in these pictues in preparation for a new one; ordered Incra TSLS - due in by Friday. Don't fret about the splitter - I plan to pick one up this weekend at a WW show - along with, potentially, the DC. I don't have any other stationary machines yet, but will be building a router station into the right side of the TS extension, so I don't have any immediate need for extensive pipe work for the DC.

Included for your viewing pleasure are photos of the first couple of projects: 1) mobile workbenches that double as outfeed tables, 2) upper cabinets (a feeble and incomplete (no doors or other shelves) first project), and 3) the "pantry" cabinets made from melamine.

- John

[Jay Albrandt]

Hey John,

Welcome to the Creek.

I used to have a similar saw. You can buy a dust collection bottom for that saw through Sears (at least you used to be able to). It has a standard 2" hole in it that could easily be enlarged with some standard HVAC fittings to handle a 4" or 6" hose. For the back of the saw, I just made a cover out of 1/8" lexan. It was a two piece unit split hortizontally, and I just cut and filed around the belt and other obstructions. It was held to the back with a couple of magnets.

I sealed the dust bottom to the cabinet with some polyurethane chaulk, and the air draw through the back of the saw and around the blade was adequate for good collection.

Good Luck!

Jay

[Terry Hatfield]

John,

I ran 6" to the cabinet of my Griz and 4" to my home made overhead guard. If you put each leg on a seperate gate you can regulate the flow however you want/need.

<IMG SRC="http://www.terryhatfield.com/ts7.JPG">

There are more pics of the setup on my site in the "Shop Tour".

Terry

[Jim Dunn]

Is that a Delta brand cabinet? Just kidding. I too have the Craftsman saw much like yours and I bought a dust collection "funnel" from Sears to fit onto the bottom of it. Costs like $30.00 and has a 3" connection for a vacume. I don't think Sears thought we'd ever be trying to connect any thing to it but their wet or dry vac's. That said, I haven't made many cuts on the saw since I hooked my Jet vacume to it, but it seems to operate very nicely. Good luck,

Jim

[Jeff Sudmeier]

I also have a craftsman table saw. The little dust port actually does a pretty decent job of collecting the dust. I was very supprised! I do want to enclose the bottom of my saw for better collection, but it is working okay now, with the DC connected to the shop vac port.

[Mark Duksta]

John,

I ran 6" to the cabinet of my Griz and 4" to my home made overhead guard. If you put each leg on a seperate gate you can regulate the flow however you want/need.

Terry

Terry,

By regulating the air flow do you mean having one or both gates all the way open? I guessing you don't mean partially opening the gates.

Did you build the the plastic part that actually covers the blade on you guard?

Mark

[Bill Arnold]

... I just found SMC a few days ago, and I'm really getting a lot out of it! ... On to my question: I have a Craftsman Contractor style TS ... but now I'm not sure about how best to collect all of that dust from my TS. ... John

John,

Welcome to SMC -- it's a great place to learn and exchange ideas.

I had a Craftsman contractor saw for several years until I upgraded to a cabinet saw. I built a rolling storage cabinet that incorporated dust collection. Below are a photo of the unit and a front view of the inside of the cabinet. It made for a heck of a nice assembly and utilized otherwise wasted space for storage.

[John Hulett]

Bill,

That's an interesting concept I hadn't considered before; it's similar to some of the router table plans I've seen. Did you do anything to cover the rear of the saw? On mine, the motor hangs out of the back, along with the belt, etc. Since you said you had this saw, I suppose it's not possible for you to take a picture of the back? Anybody else?

Thanks,
John

[Terry Hatfield]

Terry,

By regulating the air flow do you mean having one or both gates all the way open? I guessing you don't mean partially opening the gates.

Did you build the the plastic part that actually covers the blade on you guard?

Mark

Mark,

I do mean partially opening one gate or the other or closing one or the other. You just have many more options if each leg is on a seperate gate. You can see the two gates better in this pic.....

<IMG SRC="http://www.terryhatfield.com/ts1.JPG">

Let me use a couple examples of why you would want to do this....

Dado cut. The overarm will not be needed so you can leave that gate closed to direct the maximum amount of flow to just the cabinet.

The same can be said for the opposite situation. Barely trimming the edge of a panel or board where you are only cutting 1/16" or so. That is the hardest for any overarm guard to collect because the chips go everywhere in that situation. You can have only the overarm open to direct more flow to the hood and little or none to the cabinet. I adjust as needed for each particular cut.

Basically, you can fine tune the setup to the situation if you have a gate for each.

The hood was made by a friend of mine...from another forum as they say. He was thinking of mass marketing but that didn't work out for him. Great product though. It's Lexan and designed specifically for the Wood Magazine over arm guard plan like mine.

<IMG SRC="http://www.terryhatfield.com/ts6.JPG">

Terry

[Bill Arnold]

Bill, That's an interesting concept I hadn't considered before; it's similar to some of the router table plans I've seen. Did you do anything to cover the rear of the saw? On mine, the motor hangs out of the back, along with the belt, etc. Since you said you had this saw, I suppose it's not possible for you to take a picture of the back? Anybody else? Thanks, John

John,

I covered the back of the saw with a piece of 1/4" ply with cutouts to allow full movement of the motor and bracket. It was a bit tedious to measure, cut, measure some more, cut some more and then tweak it after I mounted the ply, but it was worth it.

I checked my files and do not have a photo of the rear of the saw.

Regards,