TS Over Arm Dust Collection HOOD Ideas

[fred everett]

Designing over arm collection on my '02 Jet contractor's saw. Saw sits 8ft from a 1200 cfm collector/SSD cyclone vented outside. I played with different configs closing in the saw and lower collection is dialed in nicely..... moving on to the table collection. I don't want to interrupt the lower air stream so I plan to use a shop vac.

There's a number of store bought options, but I'm furloughed from work so they're out. I have everything needed laying around to do a shop made hood. This is one I find interesting....just wish he showed it being used.

What have you built for a hood?

Thanks!

[Jim Becker]

Years ago, I build a "more productive" hood for an older Delta Uniguard that didn't actually have dust collection capability. I used .25" Lexan and assembled the components using MEK solvent. (only use outside and still with PPE!) It was strong and easy to make. The hood is the easy part. Engineering your actual overarm setup is the crux of the project. Lots of folks have made them, however. There are some threads here to me memory and undoubtedly some videos on the 'Tube, too.

[fred everett]

Years ago, I build a "more productive" hood for an older Delta Uniguard that didn't actually have dust collection capability. I used .25" Lexan and assembled the components using MEK solvent. (only use outside and still with PPE!) It was strong and easy to make. The hood is the easy part. Engineering your actual overarm setup is the crux of the project. Lots of folks have made them, however. There are some threads here to me memory and undoubtedly some videos on the 'Tube, too.

Thanks Jim. Funny thing is I have the over arm complete....actually have a couple mock ups that work well. Unfortunately the hoods I've mocked up don't get the job done when.

I've looked at everything here and on the 'Tube and circled back to Jason Beam's design.....looks intriguing with the independent sides/ft/rr. Unfortunately he doesn't show it being used AND seems to be the only design out there like that.....normally when that happens it tells me the design is either brilliant, or it doesn't work.

[Jim Becker]

I unfortunately no longer can find the photos of the guard/collection head I built but it was pretty simple...a rectangular box with an open bottom that was long enough to do the job as well as accommodate one of those black 2.5" ports from a woodworking store. How you mount it to the arm is up to the attachment design for your over-arm setup but it's easy to create mounting points with the same clear Lexan and the solvent to suit. Balancing/counterbalancing is the other thing that needs done. There was someone in the last year or so that posted photos of what they did there. I unfortunately cannot remember who the community member was.

[Robert Engel]

Looks like a good design. There are scads of them out there also check Dan Pattison, Justin Depew and Atilla.

[fred everett]

I unfortunately no longer can find the photos of the guard/collection head I built but it was pretty simple...a rectangular box with an open bottom that was long enough to do the job as well as accommodate one of those black 2.5" ports from a woodworking store. How you mount it to the arm is up to the attachment design for your over-arm setup but it's easy to create mounting points with the same clear Lexan and the solvent to suit. Balancing/counterbalancing is the other thing that needs done. There was someone in the last year or so that posted photos of what they did there. I unfortunately cannot remember who the community member was.

The rectangular box/2.5" port is how I mocked it up but I was not happy with the amount of dust it picked up. I read around on those type designs and folks say "95% or better" is collected.....I was able to get maybe 75%. The counter bal/cantilever arm I mocked up works perfectly. I have the Lexan and 3/4" x 3/4" aluminum that I plan to use for the production build, but only enough to do one build.

[fred everett]

Looks like a good design. There are scads of them out there also check Dan Pattison, Justin Depew and Atilla.

Thanks for the links Robert.

Dan Pattison is very detailed and I like him, but it didn't work for me at all.

Justin's design is a leading contender. Using the air stream created by the blade makes sense vs. suction on the upper side of the hood. This is a macro level of the "catching it at the source" principle we use with our central collections systems vs ambient collection. Only reservation (maybe) is seeing the blade....I never stand in front of it away so maybe non-starter.

While I have not seen Atilla's exact design, I am considering a "moustache" concept build.

I want to try for an advanced design. I've given it a lot of thought but it's good to bounce thoughts/ideas with brains stronger than mine.

[Steve Eure]

I built one very similar to the one in the video. Have gotten mediocre results with it. It would still spray out the bottom of the lexan, so I installed a saw stache on it from FastCap. Improved the performance, but not enough for me to use it regularly. I tried dedicating my shop vac on it with a 2 1/2" port. Still not as great as I would have liked. The blade spinning faster than the vac can suck it up is the culprit, I suspect. I have not tried moving the port to a different location on the hood. That would be my next try, if I decide to continue with it.

[fred everett]

I built one very similar to the one in the video. Have gotten mediocre results with it. It would still spray out the bottom of the lexan, so I installed a saw stache on it from FastCap. Improved the performance, but not enough for me to use it regularly. I tried dedicating my shop vac on it with a 2 1/2" port. Still not as great as I would have liked. The blade spinning faster than the vac can suck it up is the culprit, I suspect. I have not tried moving the port to a different location on the hood. That would be my next try, if I decide to continue with it.

Many thanks Steve. You probably saved me the time and materials! It looks like I'm going with a box w/ a 360 moustache or the thinner design that utilizes a ramp and vac crevice tool.

[Jim Becker]

The farther it extends in front of the front of the blade, pardon the expression, the better the pickup. But there will always be material that escapes. Nature of the beast...

[fred everett]

The farther it extends in front of the front of the blade, pardon the expression, the better the pickup. But there will always be material that escapes. Nature of the beast...

I sketched out the Shop Notes version on 3/4" ply and glued it up. We'll see how good I can get it, but I agree material will escape.

[Andrew More]

I built my own, I've since gone to a shop vac attached to the SawStop blade guard attachment.

Two things I've learned from this:
First, make sure that you've got a design that isn't very wide. I had a build like the one in the video, and found it was limited by the width, which would leave me no place to run the push block through. My current design is about 4 1/2" since I had a 4" port, and I was coping the SawStop/Excaliber floating arm guard. If I re-do it, I'll put the port on the side, not the top, and reduce the width to 1-2".
Second, make sure that you can get it out of the way easily. I've yet to see a design that doesn't get in the way with extremely narrow cuts, so you need to make it so that it can be pushed out of the way, or removed entirely. If it's not easy you'll get annoyed with it, and remove it sooner or later.

I found this design to be pretty good. In particular I like his guard, very cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhEZEnu9Gak

[Bob Jones 5443]

Could this design from Lisa Starr be adapted to be used in the overhead hood?

https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....ss!&highlight=

[Steve Rozmiarek]

HAve you looked at the way Felder does theirs? It's the best design I've used, and could be adapted by a creative mind. I personally prefer the riving knife mounted Felder one usually, it's smaller. You could probably combine the two concepts and glean a few ideas. I just drop a vacuum hose t'd into my dust collector to my overhead guard.

[Jim Becker]

OTOH, the riving knife mounted guard/collector I have on my slider is not very worthy because it's too constrictive to air flow...so it almost never gets used. I plan for an overarm guard in my "next shop" where I can accommodate it. (can't do it right now because of that pesky stairway that overhangs my slider currently)