Table Saw Top dust collection: What are you doing?

[Thomas Colson]

While the HF collector is very good at harvesting dust from the 2" port on my delta 36725, I'm still getting covered in saw dust standing behind it. Googling "Overhead Table Saw Dust Collection" result in hundreds of photos of contraptions, ranging from holding a 4" hose over the blade with string to complex precision engineered doo-hickeys made in 8 weekends with stainless steel machine screws and 100$ per foot inch thick plexiglass. Covered my table with saw dust last night, holding the 4" hose over the table got about 75% of it. What, if anything, are you doing, that could be replicated in an hour or 2, to keep dust off you while standing behind the saw all day? I'm really not a fan of removing the two plastic finger guards that go up and down on either side of the blade and I blow my shop out at the end of the day with the leaf blower. Would suspending something like the powertec big gulp dust hood a couple inches over the blade get most, or some, of what's ending up in my face?

[Steve Eure]

Thomas, I have the same saw and have always had problems. I tried making an overhead system that didn't work well with my HF DC. I ended up taking the 2 1/2 dust port out completely, enclosing the bottom and most of the holes with magnetic sign materila and cardboard and then installing a TS dust collection funnel from Grizzly to put under the saw blade and motor assembly. I had to fabricate around it to make it seat in place. It is not perfect, but it is a far cry from what delta put on it. Now I don't get near as much on top of the saw even while not using the overhead system. If I use a zero clearance plate, it is not as efficient. With the standard plate with a wider opening, it does pretty good.
This is the hood I put under the saw and enclosed in to form a type of cabinet.
https://www.grizzly.com/products/Woo...14-x-14-/W1005
As stated before, it's still not 100%, but I probably collect around 90-95% of the dust and chips.

[Thomas Colson]

That's a good idea!

[Jay Kepley]

I have a Sawstop with the blade guard which has a dust collection port. I use a shop vac for the blade guard dust collection. The shop vac moves air faster, even though it has less volume than a dust collector. This approach has worked well for me.

[Orlando Gonzalez]

Same as Jay. I have a Grizzly TS with a Shark Guard blade guard. I run the dust collector to the 4" port and a shop vac to the blade guard. Also works well for me.

[Matt Day]

Shark Guard for sure. I looked into many many options, and having flex come down from my DC line to a shark guard works best. I use a 3” hose, because a 4” hose is big enough where it interferes with cutting small pieces - it blocks a push stick for instance.

[glenn bradley]

I would get an adequate 4" or better yet a 6" port on the tablesaw's base and then reassess you table top requirements. You could also hook a powerful shop vac to the small factory port (which seems to be the intention) and see if that does a better job. High pressure, low CFM shop vacs are made for different things than low pressure, high CFM dust collectors. Both gather spoil but, in different ways. throttling a high CFM collector down to below 4" makes them pretty sub-optimal.

There are plenty of times when a vacuum makes more sense even though one may have a centralized DC in the shop. Miter saw, drill press, smaller machines and powered hand tools can all benefit from the high pressure of a properly sized hose on a vacuum versus a throttled down low pressure dust collector. My drill press collection is better than my dad's for an "empirical data" example. I run a 6.5 HP (yeah, I know) rated shop vac through a dust deputy with a 2-1/2" hose at the collection point, he runs a 2HP single stage blower that vents outside with a 4" collection point. Much more spoil gets away from his collection point than does mine.

If after enlarging your collection point for your DC or switching to a high pressure vac via the 2+ inch factory port you still get too much spoil up top, look at the operations that fail the most. For crosscuts and joinery work there has to be a path from the table top to the cabinet to allow collection. I run ZCI's for safety and so, collect up top. If you run the stock throat plate or have a ZCI with collection holes / slots cut into it you may not need an upper collection point. I focus on the times you may NOT need upper collection because, in fact, they are a bit of a nuisance. That doesn't stop me from using one when it benefits me. I just want it easy to disengage.

For non-through cuts, everything should get collected below. For panel cuts and other long rips with large pieces on either side of the blade, spoil up top can be an issue. If you do these sorts of cuts more than other tablesaw work, an over arm is for you. Shark Guards get top marks from many folks and can be somewhat customized. Penn State Ind. used to sell one and I ran one of theirs for years. You may be able to find one of theirs on the used market. there are also a myriad of YouTube's and trade rag articles on making your own. I currently run the one that came with my Saw Stop PCS but, will be modifying it for a larger hose (I will be enlarging the cabinet collection point as well) during my current shop build out.

[Andrew Hughes]

I use fans for the dust above the table.
One to push and one pulls the dust away far far away.

[William Hodge]

I use a shop vac as a central vac, and put a crevice tool around the tips of the top of the blade. The crevice tool is screwed to a stock feeder, between the wheels. When I don't use the feeder, I mount the crevice tool on a plywood arm that bolts through the left side of the table.

Under the saw I have the usual big connections to a dust collector.

Shop vacs, with high static pressure, work best at capturing the spray off the top of the blade.

[Frank Pratt]

I have a SawStop with a 6" duct to the cabinet & a 2.5" flex dropped from an overhead duct to the blade guard. It works very well. The only issue being when cutting less than a kerf width off a board, dust will squirt out from the side of the guard. I haven't taken the time to figure out how to fix that.

[Bruce King]

A box fan nearby blowing the debris away with a ceiling mounted air cleaner. Also wear a mask.

[Scott Bernstein]

After using various shop vacs over the years I finally broke down and purchased a 5hp cyclone dust collector, with 16" impeller. This thing is way overkill for my garage hobby shop but I really love it, it just pulls so hard and so much volume that I have seen a huge difference in how much I have to clean up and the particle counts in the workshop. From my main 6" duct I have a 4" flex hose connected to the port on my cabinet of my SawStop PCS and another 4" flex hose connected to the floating overarm dust guard. This is the larger one with the giant steel pipe cantilevered off the right side of the table, not the smaller guard that attaches to the riving knife. It works amazing. Before that I had been using the Shark Guard, which worked pretty well also. The disadvantage of the Shark Guard, and other guards like it, is that you can't use it with non-through cuts. The floating overarm can be used cutting dadoes etc... Obviously with cutting dadoes and rabbets most of the dust is collected downward, into the cabinet, but the floating overarm guard can still be there for safety reasons.

[Jim Dwight]

I use a home made over the blade dust collector that has a 3 inch hose branched from the 5 inch line to my PCS. The DC is the HF 2hp. It works OK except when the blade is exposed, I am only trimming a little of the end. I am thinking of adding a piece of plexi I can drop down for these cuts. My biggest complaint with it is not that it doesn't work but that I cannot use it for ripping thin pieces (it's too wide) or for when I am using a sled. Mine pivots to get out of the way but is still in the way sometimes. It is also a bit of a hassle to raise and lower the collection piece for different thicknesses of wood.

[Alan Lightstone]

I'm looking to put a dust skirt around the SawStop overhead dust collector. Does anyone know the source for one? Like the ones on CNC machines, or my panel saw.

[Frank Pratt]

I'm looking to put a dust skirt around the SawStop overhead dust collector. Does anyone know the source for one? Like the ones on CNC machines, or my panel saw.

I've heard it referred to as moustache brush, if that helps.