Rube Goldberg spent the weekend!

[Randy Rizzo]

Spent the weekend working with Rube Goldberg! I've always had my contractor TS connected to a DC, the miter saw has been spewing stuff all over for the last 10 years, finally decided to do something about it. Made up a hood, some homemade blast gates, some 4" SD pipe and fittings and had at it. I was a little concerned my little 1HP DC would be up to the task, but I was pleasantly surprised. Even with both gates open! The gates can be operated from above via rods bench side, no stooping (important for us seniors) or having to waltz around the back of the machines. After gluing everything up I could already see where I could have done it differently. One more "T" fitting, and I could have added another gate to a floor sweep/clean out. Hindsight!

[Bill Space]

Looks great to me! Same color pipe and fittings as I have in my system...

I also found similar improvement when I put my system in. And I remain happy with it after about ten or more years. I am sure you will too...

Some stress air purification over dust collection, and who can argue that air purification is not a superior goal? I can't, but for me the the step between "nothing to something" seemed to be a larger step than the step between what I ended up with and perfection.

There is always room for improvement, but the 80/20 rule means something too. 80% of the benefit for 20% of the effort, or something like that.

You did good in my book! Well done!

Bill

[Lee Schierer]

I made a similar hood for my RAS many years ago. The back on mine was flat instead of curved and I had a slot all the way across the back right at bottom that had about the same square inches of opening as the size of my collection pipe. I was able to slit a piece of the pipe and form flanges that were screwed to the back and bottom so that I had a 3/4 pipe(as viewed from the end) all the way along the slot. This kept saw dust from accumulating in dead air zones away from the inlet.

[Brian W Smith]

Good one and thanks for taking the time to post pics.

Me thinks Rube makes the rounds at some point,to most shops.How long he spends there may be more in question.....doesn't look like he spent too much time at your place?

[Joe A Faulkner]

Looks like we have the same saw. My hood is connected to a 6" flex pipe, there is a 4" hole in the back of the hood that captures a good portion of the dust as it comes off the saw, and then a boot with slots at the bottom and a port to connect a flex hose to the saw. The majority of of the dust on straight cuts blows directly into the the 4" hole. On occasion, I pull the hose off the saw to clean out the floor of the dust hood or I'll use a small hand broom or paint brush to sweep dust to the boot. I can always cover the 4" hole to create more suction as the bottom of the boot. The back of the dust hood serves as storage for my F clamps. These pictures are fairly old. I've since added a face frame on the hood and more storage cubicles on top.

[Randy Rizzo]

Looks like we have the same saw. My hood is connected to a 6" flex pipe, there is a 4" hole in the back of the hood that captures a good portion of the dust as it comes off the saw, and then a boot with slots at the bottom and a port to connect a flex hose to the saw. The majority of of the dust on straight cuts blows directly into the the 4" hole. On occasion, I pull the hose off the saw to clean out the floor of the dust hood or I'll use a small hand broom or paint brush to sweep dust to the boot. I can always cover the 4" hole to create more suction as the bottom of the boot. The back of the dust hood serves as storage for my F clamps. These pictures are fairly old. I've since added a face frame on the hood and more storage cubicles on top.

Joe, how does the small hose attach to dust collection? I can't quite visualize from your description. I had a similar idea but wasn't sure how to accomplish it.