Overarm dust collection for sawstop with shopvac

[Aaron Liebling]

My current sole dust collection solution is a 5HP shop vac with 2" lines. It does a generally good job on my router table and existing contractor table saw. With the upgrade to a 3HP ICS, I'd like to improve dust collection - this will be a big win as i work in the basement which also contains my wife's jewelry studio (albeit with a door in between). I'll eventually go with a real dust collection and probably even air filtration system, but that's for the future.

For now, I simply want good dust collection on the new saw. My main uses for the table saw in rough order of precedence:

1. Lots of crosscutting on a sled.
2. Quite a bit of ripping relatively thin stock for furniture (usually less than 4")
3. Some panel trimming (main breakdown happens wit tracksaw)

I have always used zero clearance inserts until now and was planning on going with ZCI for the same on the new saw. This generally makes overarm dust collection even more important since there's not much getting in to the body of the saw.

Given those use cases and the shop vac, what do people suggest?

[Richard Coers]

You don't mention if you went with the Sawstop overhead dust collection. But buy that and just put a wye in the shop vac hose and park it under the side extension table. That'll provide plenty of suction for a table saw.

[Aaron Liebling]

I have purchased no dust collection solution yet - thus my question. Possible options i know of are the SS overarm, the SS floating, the shark, or making something custom hanging from the ceiling.

I'm inclined to the SS floating, but had concerns re: the 4" connecting in to my existing 2". Also how well it fits with my main use cases.

[Steve Wurster]

A ShopVac will work fine with the riving knife-mounted guard from SawStop that supports dust collection. I used that previously on a non-SawStop contractor's saw. You might be able to find a way to hook that up as an overhead mount so that you can use it when doing non-through cuts, although it might not work all that well in that situation. It also won't work when using a crosscut sled, since it will (probably) be in the way; instead for that situation you can look into making a sled that supports dust collection.

Your ShopVac probably won't work well with the full cantilevered floating-style setup that SawStop (and others) sell. You'll definitely need more CFM for those setups.

[Frank Pratt]

Your medium sized shop vac will do a great job with the standard dust collection guard, probably not with the bigger floating guard. What are you using for cabinet collection? You'll need more than a shop vac cause that is where most of the dust goes.

[Aaron Liebling]

Your medium sized shop vac will do a great job with the standard dust collection guard, probably not with the bigger floating guard. What are you using for cabinet collection? You'll need more than a shop vac cause that is where most of the dust goes.

Does most of the dust go in to the cabinet even when using zero clearance and/or sleds?

To be clear: my sole dust collection right now is the shop vac.

If part of the answer is: go get a real DC system, then that's valid.

The question then is, given my uses, what's the optimal dust collection mechanism and what's the minimum DC system I need for it.

Also: this is moderate hobbyist usage

[Andrew More]

I've had both the guard and a DIY floating guard. What I found is that for collecting dust off the saw blade the builtin version with the blade guard hooked to a shopvac is superior to the floating guard.

That having been said, you're still going to need something to collect the dust in the cabinet. Essentially as the blade cuts through the wood, the dust is held in the gullet and falls into the cabinet as a result of air turbulence.

Further it's very challenging to run a decent planer, jointer, or drum sander without a dust collector. If it's an issue of money, the Horrible Fright version is supposedly decent. Grizzly also has some cheap single stage collectors.

[Aaron Liebling]

I do a lot of my work neanderthal, so a DC system hasn't been a huge priority. With the existing contractor saw I've been using, we've just sort of lived with the dust. Obviously, it would be nice for that to change. I also have the dewalt lunch box planer which I don't use often and until now has been "ok" (but only ok) going to the shopvac (with a cyclone in between).

The blade guard version won't work for sleds, I assume. How much of a pain is it to remove when going back and forth between sleds and ripping? And it means I either need to rig some DC to my sled or live with no overtable dust collection when crosscutting. It feels like there's no optimal answer here.

[Steve Wurster]

I do a lot of my work neanderthal, so a DC system hasn't been a huge priority. With the existing contractor saw I've been using, we've just sort of lived with the dust. Obviously, it would be nice for that to change. I also have the dewalt lunch box planer which I don't use often and until now has been "ok" (but only ok) going to the shopvac (with a cyclone in between).

The blade guard version won't work for sleds, I assume. How much of a pain is it to remove when going back and forth between sleds and ripping? And it means I either need to rig some DC to my sled or live with no overtable dust collection when crosscutting. It feels like there's no optimal answer here.

The blade guard version is designed to bolt to the riving knife, so for a contractor's saw that might mean you have to remove the entire splitter assembly when doing sled-based cuts or non-thru cuts. That's what I did when I had that on my old contractor's saw. You might be used to doing that already, unless your contractor's saw is fancier than mine was and has an actual riving knife that goes up and down with the blade. That scenario is not optimal for the knife-based version, and even on the SawStop itself I believe you're just supposed to remove the entire guard and knife assembly each time.

For sleds you might want to consider building one where there is a clear piece on top (front-to-back) with a dust port that hooks up to your overhead-based line, and maybe those "saw stache" things on either side to corral the dust. With that you can use the same line and just switch back and forth between the sled and the guard-based version. There are examples on this forum where people have done things like that.

For regular ripping the guard version works great, as long as you're not just making a skim cut. Those skim cuts always shoot off a lot of dust to the side, and that guard won't pick that up at all. That's pretty typical of any skim cut though, regardless of overhead collection. It doesn't work as well for cross cuts when you are using a backer board, at least not when the backer lifts the guard up above the piece. In that scenario the dust coming off the blade simply goes between the piece and the guard.

[Frank Pratt]

Does most of the dust go in to the cabinet even when using zero clearance and/or sleds?

To be clear: my sole dust collection right now is the shop vac.

If part of the answer is: go get a real DC system, then that's valid.

The question then is, given my uses, what's the optimal dust collection mechanism and what's the minimum DC system I need for it.

Also: this is moderate hobbyist usage

I estimate that at least 95% of the dust goes down into the cabinet. The shroud below the blade in a SawStop (and some other makes as well) is very good a capturing that dust, but the need substantial airflow to do so. You will have better net dust capture if you connect the vac to just the cabinet port.

You really should work towards getting a proper dust collection system. It matters not whether it's a production shop or a hobby shop, dust is dust & it's bad for you to breath. Until you do, be sure to wear a good respirator while sawing & for at least 1/2 an hour after shutting the machine off. I recommend also using an air quality meter so you know when the air is clean enough to take off the respirator. There is an inexpensive one on Bangood that's less than $30 & works very well.

[Aaron Liebling]

For the short term I'll attach the vac to the cabinet. I'll also go ahead and order a true DC system. I only ever run one tool, so I may go for something like the oneida bulldog. The clearvue 1800 looks great but is ~800 more. I do hear everyone say "go bigger than you think you need", but I really do only use one tool at a time and mainly just the table saw (router table gets little use). Is there another player I should be aware of? I definitely want cyclone and as good a filter as possible.

Assuming I get a real DC, is the blade guard attached version still the winner? Or the floating or the shark or something else?

[Frank Pratt]

Assuming I get a real DC, is the blade guard attached version still the winner? Or the floating or the shark or something else?

The blade guard collector is very good, as long as you don't use the SawStop arm to connect it to the cabinet port. There just isn't enough airflow for it to work well. I dropped a 2-1/2" flex from an overhead duct to the guard and it has plenty of airflow.

[Aaron Liebling]

Also I'm sure this has been beaten to death, but I already have a cyclone (used with the shopvac). Should I just get a non-cyclone single stage system and continue to use my existing cyclone?

[Charles Coolidge]

Same here I use one machine at a time. I ordered the SS floating over arm today and the 5hp ICS. The 1941cfm cyclone dust collector arrived yesterday.

[Aaron Liebling]

What dust collector did you get, Charles? I confess that there are so many different variations that I'm having a hard time figuring out an optimal solution without wasting money.