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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
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.
- After I ask a stranger if I can pet their dog and they say yes, I like to respond, "I'll keep that in mind" and walk off
- It's above my pay grade. Mongo only pawn in game of life.
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.
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.
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