Since I bought my Dewalt 12″ miter saw thi past summer I have used it quite a bit and love it. I’ve used it mostly outside my garage as the weather has been beautiful up until recently. I like working outdoors plus the dust generated from the saw goes airborn. Now that the weather has turned cold I’ve gone back indoors to use my saw. I have to cut a fair bit of MDF the next few days and I have a big problem with dust collection. I have a powerful shop vac hooked up to the dust collection on the back of my saw but it does little at collecting the dust. I can see in the window next to my saw a fair bit of dust floating around that the vac never got. I did see online a yellow, plastic type of gadget that mounts behing a miter saw and hooks up to a dust collection system. It’ll cost me over $200 to get it. Before I decide on buying it, I thought I’d ask any of you guys if you have ever had this same problem and what you did to collect the dust.
Yeah, I know-buy one of those big dust collection systems. First of all money is a bit tight for me this time of year plus, someone is waiting this week for that MDF pieces so I can’t wait too long to get it done.
Paul
Replies
Paul -
Dust collection for a miter saw is a real hassle and it's worse for a sliding miter saw. The opening in whatever "shield" you buy (or make) has to be large enough to allow full travel of your saw and still contain and collect the "spray" of sawdust created by every cut.
I've seen pictures of hoods that use two DC connections. A large (4") connection draws air through the hood into a DC, and a small (1.5") flexible hose replaces the saw dust bag and also ties into the DC system. I haven't actually used one of these, but they look like they would be the most effective.
Because of that large opening, I really doubt if a shop vac would ever work very well since they just don't pull enough air flow (cfm) to collect the dust. I'm sure that a shop vac will help, but I really doubt if it would be very effective.
I'm struggling with the same problem. I have a Makita LS1013 on a DeWalt portable stand and use it every day. I also have to clean up the mess almost every day. - lol Because of limited space, I'll probably have to make some kind of hood which I can tie to my 1100 cfm DC system. When/If I come up with something that works, I'll post a few pictures. For now, however, I'm stuck cleaning up a mess almost daily. - lol
thanks for the reply Dave. It's a nice day today up here in Canda where I live so I'm cutting my MDF pieces outdoors. when I get a chance as well I'll design my own "hood".
Paul
It seems that there is no such thing as good dust collection for a miter saw. About the best you can do is collect a little bit of it and contain the rest with a large shroud. I've seen people go so far as to hang a transparent plastic curtain from the edge of the shroud to keep dust from escaping out the front.
-Steve
Hi Paul,
I have the same saw - it does make dust!
After much experimentation, I've arrived at the following system, which is not perfect by any means.
I have a 2 bag dust collection system with a 4" hose and attached it to a 1 ft square dust hood that I found at woodcraft. Then I put a 45 degree plastic plumbing elbow on the exhaust of the saw to direct the spray into the hood as the saw swings.
While this gets most of the dust, it does not get it all. I don't think that there is a perfect system for the miter saw.
Good luck, and if you find something that gets it all, let us know.
Mike D
Paul,
I think you are referring to the Downdrafter. I have one hooked up to a 2 hp Oneida cyclone. It works very well. It collects virtually all of the fine dust. Some large dust specks hit the fence and bounce back onto the table. After a day of constant use you may have a cup or two of these crumbs. Not bad, say I.
My dust collector supplies it with over 400 cfm. I think if you are hooking it up to a shop vac your success (or not) will depend on how many cfm you can get out of the shop vac.
Ed
'Fraid you're fighting an uphill battle trying to use a vacuum. The most important thing to remember about this situation, though, is that it's the dust you cannot see that harms your health the most (as I always say, "Think oxygen bottle"). For sure, absolutely certain, you need to be wearing a mask (or preferrably a respirator) while you're cutting this MDF. That stuff is n-a-s-t-y with the amount of fine dust it produces in great quantity. You'll definitely need a dust collector in the long run to come close to controlling it.
Below is a picture of my first attempt at making a hood for my Bosch 12" CMS. It needs improvement (bigger for sure) to cover the miter cuts, and it would need even more design change to work with a sliding saw, but it's a start (more details can be seen here <click>):
View Image
I've seen Gary Katz using a "ChopShop" hood for his demos at trade shows. I bought one and find it pretty effective. One of the guys at the JLC show told me he uses it when working in inhabited houses along with a shop vac and very little dust escapes.
I like the idea of one of the posters to use a downdraft. I can see setting the downdraft table behind the saw with the ChopShop hood channeling dust down to it.
http://www.toolsofthetrade.net/industry-news.asp?sectionID=1509&articleID=536535
That's pretty cool! Could have used it when we were installing our hardwood floor this summer......forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I read about that $200 system and the reviews were pretty good. But the reviewers were carpenters that were at job sites. So it had to be portable.
Yours doesn't have to be that portable so you might be able to just make one. But you still need a dust collection system that pulls some decent CFM.
Portability is a big deal for site carpenters. And it is their work so plunking down $ for tools makes them more $. Not so for most of us.
well popawheelie suggested thatPortability is a big deal for site carpenters. And it is their work so plunking down $ for tools makes them more $. Not so for most of us.****************Howso? being one of them thar financially flamboyant site carpenters I do so aim for portability in tools when I ain't busy throwing cash into the wind...., but I also aim for value....the original poster was talking shop-vacs, and while I have about 4 of these suckers in different sizes, up to the ?6hp size, they don't hold a candle , in application around the shop, to the 200 buck simple single bad Delta sucker that I move around the shop or cobble out to sites for serious dust sucking or driving a dust vent. .My little shop sucker costs me less than the biggest shop vac I use, and moreover costs me less to maintain. (I dunno what yu pay for HEPA filters/bags, but a shop vac for efficient dust collection is in this fellas mind, really x-penisve to maintain; and moreover not effective in shop dust collection. It just doesn't move nuf air. Wash a hepa filter in one of the shop-vacs and it takes two or three days to dry out. Want to maintain functionality/efficiency, you gotta have two filters at 35ish bucks a pop for hepa filters. Bags, well they is 5 bucks a pop. Shop vacs is not really operationally cheap compared to a reasonable shop dust collector. Morover, anyone who uses shop vacs as a suckitational device on a regular basis has a good idea on how reliable they are. Ya, they suck, but when they stop sucking, the reality is that they still suck when it comes to repair. They suck, and then they suck.....Relaibility ain't a big factor in their design/mfg/ or maintainability in my experience. Mitre saw stuff being the issue at hand, I've cobbled up on site a funnel out of cor-plast to mount behind the mitre saw and attached it to little 200 buck delta floor-type dust sucker and it controlled the dust, but I've also use hand-saw type mitre boxes where dust woulda been a real issue. Both are/were effective methodologies in dust control. In fact that little unit gets trundled around the shop from TS to BS to belt sander, drill press, router table, And hey, being on site, I gotta consider tidy-up time too, so iffen my "Dust" collection p.o.'s the "Customer" I lose, but if it takes me as long to clean up as it does to do the job I lose too. Ergo, efficient and cheap dust collection on site is MY aim, and if the methodologies I use are as effecient and inexpensive as I can make them, why wouldn't it be almost as cheap and efficient for others? Duh.Eric in Cowtown
You seem upset by my post. I didn't mean to upset anyone. In my post I was trying to show that he could make something that would work in his shop and didn't need to be as portable as the one for $ 200.
What exactly is wrong with that point and why are you so upset. If your not upset and are just responding I can't tell. If people on the forum post vitriolic responses to well intentioned posts it shuts down good open discussions.
Here is my solution for dust kick-up from a RAS. I suspect that it might work for a SCMS or chop saw. When I first built it, it was about 60% effective when used with a Penn State 1.5 HP DC. When I went to an Oneida Dust Gorilla success jumped to 95%+! Dust will fly up 8" or so - but then be pulled right down and through the louvers.
I note, with Pride, the new top for the RAS table. After 50 years the old one was pretty scabby. Woodpeckers had a special on 1", Phenolic coated FinPly - great stuff. I also popped for a pair of their chop saw guides.
Note: The 2 attached files are identical. Don't open the first as I forgot to "downsize" it. Sorry.
Frosty
"I sometimes think we consider the good fortune of the early bird and overlook the bad fortune of the early worm." FDR - 1922
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