It just seems like if it's actually true that drilling a few small holes actually effects the make up air enough to somehow clean the cabinet out better then having them placed where they aren't covered up during use would be really helpful.
I have a PM200 but I'm thinking the shroud collector is similar. My hose that connects the shroud comes loose periodically, especially when I go from 90 to 45 degrees a lot. Check that if you haven't already....
Why do we worry if it keeps the INSIDE of the cabinet clean? BTW I cut holes in my fancy ZCI, didn't make too much difference in chip collection, maybe a little when doing a narrow rip.
I don't worry about the inside of the cabinet, at all. I was just using that as an example of how little dust this this is collecting. I need to get back to the shop and investigate some of the things mentioned in this thread
Hi Marc, what size is the hose inside the cabinet that goes to the dust shroud?
In my saw it's a 5 inch hose.
The other issue is that without over blade collection you'll miss a large amount of the dust, although it won't be inside the cabinet of course..........Regards, Rod.
Rod, It's a tiny hose. Maybe 2" to the blade shroud. Then there's the slot at the base to collect the other dust. I knew it wouldn't get all the dust without above the table collection (which is perpetually on the wish list, but always gets bumped) but I never dreamt that it would be worse than my old table saw. And it is far, far worse. Its as if not only does the blade guard not capture the dust, it keeps it close to the blade to be thrown back above the table and since the port is split for the blade shroud cabinet collection is even worse that just a regular port.
With the small hose to the blade shroud and probably only a total 4" opening in the back of the saw, it will be difficult to get enough air flow out of that saw to effectively keep the interior clean. Having never seen one of those saws, it likely needs the internal baffles changed to be more effective and needs a larger outlet port. A 6" port would flow over twice the air as the 4". The only drawback is probably having to do some surgery on the saw. Even that can probably be accomplished without cutting too much metal.
The back of that saw is unusual in that there are two holes. One square and one for the 2 inch hose. I just slapped a six-inch HVAC port over the combination of the two holes and that vastly improved the dust collection for me. You still have some dust left in the corners but it remains pretty clean In my saw. You can buy those six-inch HVAC ports at any borg and they have a flange and a seal on them. Then matchup the same holes for the old port and put it on with a piece of plywood. No surgery needed, very easy fix.
Okay finally had a chance to get back and investigate this a little further last night. Between the holiday and actually needing to work on a project I wasn't able to get back to it sooner.
There is no obstruction in the hose to the blade shroud. I just think the hose is too small, if it's more than 1.5" ID I'll eat my hat. That hose, I believe, is also the reason why collection is so poor from the bottom of the cabinet. It seems the hose may be a little too long and it is resting on the bottom of the cabinet almost directly in front of the slot for the remaining dust collection pickup. I can't imagine that having that in the way isn't majorly negatively impacting the secondary collection.
So my first order of business is to see how much I shorten the stock hose and still be able to raise/lower/tilt the blade. After that hopefully I can rig up a way to running a bigger hose to the shroud - that would have to help also I think!
Funny thing, crawling around and under machinery isn't as easy as it used to be!
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