Enlarging dust port on table saw?

[Dennis Aspö]

Building my own DC later with a 5.5hp 3ph motor I got so it's gonna be a doozy! I could probably goto 7" lines but they are so bulky.

[Jim Andrew]

Dennis, if you use an impeller that uses that horsepower, you probably need to go with 8 or 10" pipe. Last time I read Bill Pentz site, he was recommending buying an impeller from a guy building 15.5" impellers. Or you can buy one from Clearview. They use a special hub that keeps the impeller from coming off the motor.

[Dennis Aspö]

I'm gonna see about building my own impeller, and I'll probably scale it so it will be more suited for a 6-7" system, which means the motor will run easily and not get overloaded. I could use a smaller motor I suppose but I got this real cheap and it works so why not.

If I put 10" pipe in my garage I'd probably hit my head or something, and none of my machines could make use of such large diameters so what would be the point?

[Jim Andrew]

The problem with building your own impeller is balancing it. The bigger the impeller the harder it is. Let us know how it works out.

[Jeremy Treibs]

I have the Jet XActa Deluxe cabinet saw. The 4" port at the rear was not sufficient for me. Instead of cutting into the main cabinet I opted to add another 4" suction point (using lavatory flange and rubber for a gasket) on the angled portion of the hinged motor cover. My thought process was that if I didn't want/need/like the extra hole I could always just replace the door. This seemed cheaper to me than replacing the cabinet itself and seemed like a less expensive fix if I goofed up in cutting the hole.. I honestly couldn't think of a reason I would ever NOT want the extra suction point.... but I left the option open. As stated above, having 2 x 4" suction points almost ads as much cross section as 1 x 6". Additionally, the use of a second suction at an opposite location seems to collect the extra "fallings" that the back one wouldn't.

Additionally, watching videos on youtube showing people plug up all of the holes in their cabinet saws make me cringe. If you want to keep dust from exiting the "make up air" areas of a cabinet saw, instead of plugging them, I recommend putting something like Scott foam over the holes. The holes in this type of foam help prevent exiting dust but will not impede in air intake/heat exhaust.