Table Saw dust collection/from the top?

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Some of the retail systems I've seen use a hose that is less than 3" in diameter. I would be concerned with anything that small in diameter being used with a dust collection system. A dedicated vacuum...OK. Dust collector...nope.

Also, I have a small shop. When I need to swing boards around, the flex duct drops become a pesky interference. Hence, I went with a side swing arm. But, if you need a flex duct drop to the tablesaw anyway, I guess it wouldn't matter much.

The other issue with a small shop and an overhead mounted hood is that the tablesaw will become less mobile. I've found that in a small shop, keeping things mobile lets me do bigger tasks.

-Jeff

[John Harden]

Just re-visited this thread and saw my own post where I forgot to up-end the photos before posting!!! Ugh!!! Sorry about that.

In any event, IMHO the key is excellent dust collection below the table. About the only way to get this done well is with a shrouded blade that feeds directly to a large diameter hose. Mine has about a 5" hose that hooks directly to the shroud and I know many of the new cabinet saws use a similiar setup.

This setup will capture 90%+ of the dust generate by a cut. Very little remains above the table top, so you really don't need much CFM to the blade guard port. The main hose to the blade guard on mine is only a 2.5", which reduces down to about !.75" (its metric) to the guard. Still, it provides plenty of volume to get nearly all the remaining 10%.

Regards,

John

[Cameron Reddy]

Alan's stuff in impressive, to say the least.

That blade guard/broom is, ah, over the top.

[Callan Campbell]

I have the larger Brett Guard over-arm set-up on my Unisaw. It comes with a 2 inch hose pick-up built into the top section. Coupled with my factory 4 inch port my dust collection is very good except for the end of the cut when you get the blade exiting the wood. Then you end up with a small amount of 'wood spray', but it's very acceptable compared to when I just had a contractor saw and a bottomed mounted hose dust collection.

[David Hostetler]

Shark guard owner here... I run a shop vac hose to my shark guard. No big deal...

[Steve Clardy]

Alan's stuff in impressive, to say the least.

That blade guard/broom is, ah, over the top.

Yep. Very impressive.

I've considered making one for.......uum....several years now.

[Joe Cowan]

Shark guard owner here... I run a shop vac hose to my shark guard. No big deal...

I use my one shop vac on my miter saw and am too lazy to change it back and forth. I have done it when I am ripping alot of wood, but in the usual day to day type stuff, I am using both, and it gets time consuming to change them back and forth. I need the safety part as well. If I spend the time/money,running the drop down suction off a new DC system, maybe I will use the Shark Guard more often.

[George Lohnes]

No one commented on Alan's Dust collection system? That is the most serious amount of engineering I have ever seen dedicated solely to dust collection.

It is always humbling (and irritating) when people's actual shops are both better engineered and finer quality than anything that comes out of MY shop!

[Anthony Scott]

I recall seeing a pic where someone simply cut a hole in their clear blade gaurd and glued in a shop vac crevice tool. Then connected a hose to the crevice tool. Said it worked pretty good though you might have to create some baffles in your guard to direct the suction. It took some experimenting but it was cheap.

[Peter Aeschliman]

As they say, you ain't see nuthin' yet. Watch my video on American Woodworker Magazine web site:

http://videos.americanwoodworker.com...ust-Collection

It is a bit long but has a slide show of some features of my DC system and includes video of my auto-gates in action.

Wow. You must be

a) an engineer, and
b) retired with a lot of time to spend on your DC system!

That is truly incredible. I'm beyond impressed.

[Alan Schaffter]

Wow. You must be

a) an engineer, and
b) retired with a lot of time to spend on your DC system!

That is truly incredible. I'm beyond impressed.

Thanks. The DC and my other stuff like my adjustable height assembly table which was the subject of two articles in the Dec/Jan issue of AWW magazine, won the WoodCentral/Woodcraft "Americas Top Shop Contest"- The prize paid for the vises on my WW bench.

Now if I could only fix our two hp laptops! Mine suffered a malware attack, the other has Nvida chipset/motherboard problems. On my machine, Firefox keeps crashing, but somehow IE, which was also inop, just started working!

I spent a lot of time designing and building this, "my last," shop. After this it is into the home. I have an engineering background, I am retired (Naval Flight Officer), and put a lot of thought and time into my DC too. I also design things- I have licensed a new WW widget to a US manufacturer. It will hopefully be on the market later this year.

[Pete Janke]

I recall seeing a pic where someone simply cut a hole in their clear blade guard and glued in a shop vac crevice tool. Then connected a hose to the crevice tool. Said it worked pretty good though you might have to create some baffles in your guard to direct the suction. It took some experimenting but it was cheap.

Simple and effective. I have a a branch of my PVC dust collection system on the ceiling above where I roll my saw to when I'm using it. A 4" flex hose hangs down and connects to the blade guard. The trick is to have the hose just long enough to not push down on the guard. It is set to almost pull up on guard. I glued a piece of plastic at an angle at the front of the guard to contain the dust off the blade. The connector is a 4 X 2 1/4" reducer glued and calked onto the stock blade guard. I run a separate dust collection hose to the bottom of the saw.

[Deb Malloy]

Simple, straight forward design.

http://www.eaglelakewoodworking.com/...Collector.aspx