Sawstop blade guard dust collection

[Prashun Patel]

I'm trying to route the blade guard dust port to my dc. Does anyone have pix of their set up?

[Keith Albertson]

I'll try and take a picture today, and post it later. I bought an extension kit for my shopvac from HD, about 20 bucks. My dustcollector sits just to the right of my saw. I put blast gate right at the juction of the hose to my dust collector, so the main 4 inch hose goes to the floor and into the back of the machine, but a 2.5 inch hose goes to the blade guard.

Now, to combat the problem of the small hose laying on the saw extension cable, I put an eyehook in the ceiling and supended a bungie cord to it. The bungie cord lifts the hose up so wood can side under it and it doesn't get in the way. I can easily disconnect the 2.5 hose from the blade guard, and the bungie cord supports it out of the way.

May be a little "jury-rigged" but gets the job done cheaply, without a bunch of PVC pipe, etc.

Keith

[Peter Aeschliman]

Sorry, no pics off hand. But I can describe what I did.

I used one of those shopvac reducer fittings (click here). You should be able to find it at the hardware store. If you remove the white plastic tube that comes installed on your blade guard, this fitting has a diameter that fits snugly.

The nice thing about it is that it's easy to remove. It holds well when in use, but when you need to switch to your riving knife, you can pull it right out.

I connected it to my DC piping with a 2.5" flex hose, dropped from the ceiling.

There's one minor drawback, which is that you have to raise the blade a bit if you're going to position the rip fence close to the blade (say 1" or so). Otherwise, the fence hits the DC fitting.

[Alan Lightstone]

I haven't finalized my DC ducting yet, so in the mean time I hook my Festool DC hose up to the blade guard, and my shop DC to the base. Kind of a kludge, but the DC works quite well like that.

[Dave MacArthur]

Id love a pic of this overhead dc as I ace an ics without it and am trying to decide if I should buy anexcalibur or if this new dc can be retrofit decently. Didntsee anything on ss site.

[Prashun Patel]

Well, I finalized on my 'design': a $30 HD shopvac that fits the port with one wrap of duct tape. The shop vac sits under the right extension table.

I'm not impressed with the dust collection. It's not working well for me and I can't figure out why. Dust still spits out the front even with the above AND below dc's on. I don't get it.

My Sharkguard worked better for me on my last saw - even though I had to split the line to the below cab line. I think bkz that had a 4" port on the guard located closer to the front of the blade.

The Sawstop blade guard certainly looks sexier, though.

I respect their design and testing, so I'm scratching my head as to what I'm doing wrong.

[Peter Aeschliman]

huh.

I have mine set up on a 3hp DC with a 4" run under the table and a 2 1/2" run above. The only time I get dust above the table is when I'm trimming off the edge of a workpiece... meaning if the workpiece is not wider than the left side of the blade guard.

Other than that, it's perfect for me...

Are you running the same shopvac on both the underside of the table and on top? If so, I think you might need more CFM.

[Prashun Patel]

huh.

The only time I get dust above the table is when I'm trimming off the edge of a workpiece... meaning if the workpiece is not wider than the left side of the blade guard.

Other than that, it's perfect for me...

Are you running the same shopvac on both the underside of the table and on top? If so, I think you might need more CFM.

Peter. I am running a Delta 50-760 to 4" duct on the rear. It's about 6 feet from the unit. I doubt it's a CFM issue.

The problem DOES come most when I'm ripping an edge. I guess it's just par for the course. My Sharkguard was better at getting most of this.

Note to Sawstop for future guard iterations: Let the right/left cheeks of the guard swivel independently, so even when ripping an edge, the left side will contact the table completely...I like that about the Bosch 4100's guard...

[Peter Aeschliman]

gotcha. I thought you were saying you had line coming from your shopvac that you split in two and used for the entire saw (top and bottom).

Yeah the problem with the design is that it relies on the turbulence from the spinning blade and the shape of the dust collection channel to direct the dust forward and back. Since the channel is so small, it doesn't allow for much CFM.

Your 4" fitting on the shark guard allowed you to pull way more air, so it could more than make up for a potentially inferior design from an aerodynamics perspective by allowing for more CFM.

On the positive side, I suspect you can use your SS blade guard more often than the shark guard since it's so much narrower.

But I do share in your frustration about the dust when trimming an edge. I come from a different experience - I upgraded to my SS from a contractor saw with no DC above the table. So any DC above the table is better than what I had!

[Prashun Patel]

Here's a pic of my set-up. Quite easy and cheap, actually. The hose with that HD shop vac is a near perfect fit to the dust port. I might just tack a little support strut on the right of the fence to keep the hose above the max height of the blade.

As far as improving the dust collection...

The cheeks of the guard actually ARE independently movable, but only at the rear; they're hinged at the front which means the front of the left cheek gets pulled up with the nose. If I could route a slot in either the cheek (going up from the screw) or in the guard nose (going down from the screw) then the nose and cheek could truly move independently. I think I might just try that...

(edit)
Nope, that won't work, because the front of the nose curves down, preventing any vertical movement of the cheeks even without the constraining screws. BTW, the dc is wonderful on rip cuts where both sides extend beyond the cheeks.

[Alan Lightstone]

Ah, I see you're using the two vacuum setup also. It does work.

[Philip Rodriquez]

Id love a pic of this overhead dc as I ace an ics without it and am trying to decide if I should buy anexcalibur or if this new dc can be retrofit decently. Didntsee anything on ss site.

I have an ICS with an excalibur BG. It is one of the best tool purchases I've ever made. Search my posts and you'll find some old pics. Since then, I've added an Oneida V-3000.