Sawstop PCS Dust Collection Advice

[Josh Baldwin]

I advise ditching the splitter SawStop uses to feed the suction to the overarm and replacing it with a 4"x2.5" actual wye. That increased the performance of my setup noticeably. Other than that, Ive never complained about the PCS with the overarm. Connected to my V-3000 its been awesome!

Any chance you have any pics of your setup? Thanks

[Josh Baldwin]

Floating overarm guard/collection can be a great thing because it doesn't get in the way most of the time including for non-through cuts. I agree with the advise to hook up the guard independently from the saw port for the under-blade shroud so you have more control and provide more air flow. Dust collection isn't about "suction"...it's about air flow. The more you have, the better the collection.

So my best bet would be to drop the 6" duct from the ceiling and then at some point split it into 2 4" hoses, one running to the overarm and one to the saw port? Do I even need to use the overarm? Should I just connect one of the 4" hoses right to the actual blade guard? Just trying to make sure I'm thinking about this correctly. Thanks for the help.

[Frank Pratt]

I have the standard guard with a 2.5" flex dropped from an overhead duct to the guard. The only time any dust escapes is when cutting less than a kerf width from a board. Then, as others describe, it shoots out at about 100 miles an hour.

[Jim Dwight]

There is a guy on youtube, I mostly look at his site for Festool tips, particularly domino tips. Goes by half something or other, can't remember the name. But he has a "tricked out" sawstop and I am pretty sure he puts a dust chute with a magnetic base on it on the top of the saw to get the dust that shoots out when one side of the blade is exposed. I don't think I have airflow for another hose on my setup but could be an idea for those of you with big systems. I'm close to just taking my overarm off. It seems to be in the way more than it is useful. Sweeping the dust on the floor and then vacuuming it up works. But maybe I'll keep messing with it until I am happy (or happier at least). Dust in the air is also not good.

[Josh Baldwin]

Attachment 448734
Hi Josh,

I also have the ClearVue cyclone and find that the SawStop guard is quite good as long as the blade has wood on both sides of it. Trimming wood with the side of the blade exposed tends to spray dust out the side of the guard. I have a 4” hose dropped to the guard from above and a 6” hose to the base below.

Tom

P.S. Sorry for the sideways photo.

Hey Tom thanks for the pic. That's exactly what I was thinking about doing. Skipping the overarm pipe and just have it go right from the ceiling to the blade guard. So the blade guard has no problem holding the little wood converter floating in place? Do you have one blast gate for both hoses or are there 2 separate blast gates?

[Frank Pratt]

There is a guy on youtube, I mostly look at his site for Festool tips, particularly domino tips. Goes by half something or other, can't remember the name. But he has a "tricked out" sawstop and I am pretty sure he puts a dust chute with a magnetic base on it on the top of the saw to get the dust that shoots out when one side of the blade is exposed.

That's something that I've been mulling over & will do some day.

[Jim Becker]

So my best bet would be to drop the 6" duct from the ceiling and then at some point split it into 2 4" hoses, one running to the overarm and one to the saw port? Do I even need to use the overarm? Should I just connect one of the 4" hoses right to the actual blade guard? Just trying to make sure I'm thinking about this correctly. Thanks for the help.

In this specific situation, that would be a good solution, but I'd have gates so that the overarm can be turned off for those times when it's not going to be used for functional reasons. While a lot of folks eschew an overarm guard/collection, it can make a huge difference in dust collection performance as there is a lot of material that comes off the blade on top of the table that will never get caught by the under blade shroud. It becomes even more obvious when cutting things that are really "dusty", such as MDF.

[Ben Rivel]

Any chance you have any pics of your setup? Thanks

Sure do:



Thats a 5" reducer to a 4"x4"x2.5" wye and then a 2.5" to 1.25" reducer. All the black colored parts were bought from Rockler.

[Tom Willoughby]

Hey Tom thanks for the pic. That's exactly what I was thinking about doing. Skipping the overarm pipe and just have it go right from the ceiling to the blade guard. So the blade guard has no problem holding the little wood converter floating in place? Do you have one blast gate for both hoses or are there 2 separate blast gates?

Hi Josh,

The home made transition from the 4” pipe to the blade guard is a friction fit and it tight enough that it stays in place.

I have 2 separate blast gates: one for the overhead guard and one for the saw cabinet.

Tom

[Alan Lightstone]

I have a 90 degree wye on the limb to my overhead dust collector, which clearly is a no-no. I'd take a picture, but it would cause much head shaking.

You guys made me feel shame so I ordered the correct Nordfab 4"x4"x4" wye to use for my overhead arm. That run is shared with my router table, so I need the wye. I looked and it's a 6" main run split to a 4" flexible hose for the ICS, and the second split goes to the overhead arm with its own blast gate. So I also turn off that blast gate when the arm is not being used.

[Jim Dwight]

The youtuber I couldn't remember last night is "half inch shy". This should be a link to his "pimped out Sawstop" with many of the changes related to dust collection: ://www.youtubhttpse.com/watch?v=gf6b7ttPke4.

[Josh Baldwin]

The youtuber I couldn't remember last night is "half inch shy". This should be a link to his "pimped out Sawstop" with many of the changes related to dust collection: ://www.youtubhttpse.com/watch?v=gf6b7ttPke4.

Thanks for the info. Yea that guy put some serious work into that.

[Josh Baldwin]

Sure do:



Thats a 5" reducer to a 4"x4"x2.5" wye and then a 2.5" to 1.25" reducer. All the black colored parts were bought from Rockler.

Thanks for the pic, so you just have the normal smaller overarm collector? How well do you think it works with this setup?

[Ben Rivel]

Thanks for the pic, so you just have the normal smaller overarm collector? How well do you think it works with this setup?

I do, and I have had no complaints with the system connected to an Oneida V-3000 with 6" metal ducting throughout the system and about 7ft of 5" flex hose up to what you see in the picture. FWIW I have yet to see video of the larger floating arm performing better than my setup. But then the floating overarm is more convienent when you need to do non-through cuts. Thankfully I dont do those too often.

[derek labian]

Sure do:
Thats a 5" reducer to a 4"x4"x2.5" wye and then a 2.5" to 1.25" reducer. All the black colored parts were bought from Rockler.

Great tip! Thank you!