Dust Collection with Contractor's Saw

[Ralph Barhorst]

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to seal up the rear end of a Contractor's saw so that the blade can be tilted without breaking the seal? I am not getting very good collection since the motor hangs out of the rear. I am also getting dust coming out of the front slot where the tilt guage is located but I thing that it will not be a problem once I seal up the back.

[Bob Nazro]

Here is what I did on my contractor saw. I will look and see if I have any better picsures, but basicly it's 1/4" ply with a cutout section to let the motor tilt and a sliding door that is closed when the blade is at 90 degrees and pulled open when the blade is tilted. It worked great after sealing all of the other openings in the saw.



BobN sends..

[John Miliunas]

Ralph, I wish I could remember where I saw it but, I saw where a guy actually built an entire box around the whole assembly! Made it large enough for the saw to go the full 45° range. He had also gotten rid of the stock leg assy. and went with more of a cabinet style under the saw. Also, depending on the oooomph of your DC, completely sealing everything up, including the bevel scale on the front of the saw, may not be a good idea. The suction depends on some airflow coming into the enclosure in order to work and often, the slot for the blade is not enough.

[Ralph Barhorst]

Thanks Bob and John,

I will make something similar to Bob's plywood cover and not do anything on the front bevel guage. Hopefully, with the holes around the belt and the other areas, I will get better dust collection.

Ralph

[John Gregory]

With out an over head guard with dust collection, I am not sure you will see much collection on the top of the saw table. With ZCI there is no place for dust to go really

[Aaron Montgomery]

http://home.pacbell.net/jdismuk/sawdust.html

[Bill Roland]

I Found this a while back but haven't got LOML to make it yet.

[Howard Acheson]

Ralph, good dust collection is all about air flow speed, not suction. What this means is that you must have as many square inches of air intake area as you have for exhaust area. A 4" diameter DC hose or duct is about 12 sq.inches. So, you need to have about 12 sq.inches of intake. You don't want to completely seal up the sawbox or you will have no air flow. Also, it's impossible to change the direction of the dust particles which are moving at over 100 mph coming off the blade. You can slightly redirect them after they have slowed down. The dust excaping from the front slot will continue as the blade is throwing the dust directly in that area.

[Charlie Plesums]

I put a solid bottom with a 4 inch dust collection port in my previous contractor saw bottom, and at first closed the back pretty tightly. Dust collection was better when I had to partially open the back to tilt the blade. So I put some good size holes in the back, and took the back off completely when I tilted the blade, and got pretty good collection. Bottom line - be sure you have ample openings to give a good airflow volume.

I had no problem collecting with a zero clearance insert except when I was taking a thin trim off the edge of a board, where there was no kerf to guide the sawdust under the table.

[Frank Hagan]

Here's my solution, made out of 1/8" hardboard and stick on magnetic tape. Works well (you can see the dust created by my sanding this past weekend right behind this table saw ... yikes! I really need a DC but there's no way to fit one in my shop.)

[Howard Barlow]

Well, I know it isn't an idea for everyone, but I stuck the 4" hose inside the open back of my Delta cont. saw. The other end was hooked up to a Jet 1200 DC. I had an additional pick-up on the blade guard. I took a 2x4 (more or less) floor attachment from a shop vac and glued it to the side of the guard. Of course, I had cut the side out of the guard. I got prolly 95% of the dust with that set-up.

[Maurice Ungaro]

Ralph,
For the slot on the front of the saw, I use some over sized refridgerator magnets. I recently saw something at an office supply place - 8 x 11 magnetic sheet for printing! You can cut this stuff to fit.

[Ralph Barhorst]

Thanks for all of the ideas.

Ralph

[John Hulett]

Here's a thread where the same topic was discussed:

http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=16423

I ended up using large, thin magnets - similar to advertising a business on your car door. The magnets are easily repositioned (even in the front) as the blade is tilted as well.

- John

[jack christensen]

Hi Ralph;
Here's how I did it. A weekend's work but well worth it. I probably catch 90% of the dust from my saw.
Hope the pictures turn out, this is my first try.
I also rigged up a simple little baffle to direct the dust to the guard's collecter when I trim the edge of a board (1/8" or less). I'll take a picture if your interested.

Cheers
JC