I was recently gifted a Bosch miter saw and I would like to improve the dust collection. I have the plumbing figured out, but need a vac. Shop vac didn’t work well (no surprise), so looking for a simple alternative. My regular dust collector is at the other end of the garage, so not very practical. Thanks-rocky
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Replies
I have my hooked up to a Fein shop vac with a dust deputy separator. The saw is plugged into the vacuum, so that when i pull the trigger to start the saw, the vacuum instantly turns on and runs a few seconds after I turn the saw off.
It works pretty well. I don't think any dust collector is great with a miter saw, unless you build a large shroud to catch the dust that the vacuum misses.
I'm sure there are other, potentially better solutions, but this works pretty well.
I have had great success with dust collection on my Bosch saw. I added a ‘skirt’ made from a piece of old inner tube (any flexible material like a cut from a gallon milk jug would work) attached with double stick tape to lower the ‘scoop’ built into the saw. I’m connected to the shop dust collector and it’s almost 100% effective. This added scoop would also help your shop vac capture nearly all of the dust!
A Rousseau 5000 hood is helpful.
Ditto, The effective dust collection. I've found for a miter saw.
There is a YouTube channel I watch from time to time called ShopNation. The individual has spent a great deal of time working on dust collection for miter saws. Here is the link (I have no affiliation or relation to this business)
https://shopnationstore.com/collections/miter-saw-dust-collection
Joe, that’s where I got my idea to extend a feature built into the saw to optimize how it worked and did so at almost no cost. The saw was already hooked up to a central system so this made sense to try it!
Cool!
With mitre saws, you need to take into account the ability of wood dust to travel in n-dimensional space to every point in your workshop simultaneously. When someone works out a decent theory of quantum gravity, we might see once with decent dust collection. In the meanwhile the advice to watch Shop Nation is the best you will get.
The key is trapping the dust in the subspace layer.
LOL. 4D dust collection incoming.
Ill be here for it too.
No problem. Most woodshops are black holes -- the dust will be sucked into every part of them.
I built an enclosure for my Bosch compound miter saw from ½” ply. It’s big and it’s heavy. It won’t allow me to cut 45° angles because the mouth is too narrow to allow me to swing the saw to that limit but 99% of the cuts I do with it are 90° (who knew?). It wasn’t a design flaw, I wanted to minimize the opening to reduce the risk of dust escaping.
I have a 1.5 hp dust collector with a number of inline 4” ports, each with a blast gate. I created a port to the rear side of the plywood box.
I’d say it gets close to 95% of the sawdust, most of the balance stays within the box, either on the saw itself or on the table within the enclosure.
In 10 years or so I don’t think I’ve ever removed the box. I love Bosch and I really like my dust collector box.
Post a pic?
Photos of my dust shroud including 4” connection port. I use the top to store odd jigs. As noted I rarely cut other than 90° on the saw unless I’m doing a lot of trim, so the shroud stays in place nearly all the time. It’s a pain to remove but definitely do-able.
Hello,
Was browsing recent posts and came across your photos. I just made a post - I’m planning to make an auxiliary fence similar to what you have here (although I don’t have space to make a full dust box like you did). Did adding the zero clearance fence prevent dust from getting back to the vacuum port? I’ve got a decent dust extractor hooked up in back and am getting one of those ShopNation dust chute add-ons but don’t know if the fence will keep the dust from reaching the chute in the first place
That’s a good question. The purpose of the fence was to improve the cut by minimizing tear-out but I’ve never actually thought about how it might impede dust extraction.
It doesn’t seem to. I do get some minor residual dust on the metal base in front of the fence after several cuts but the vast majority of the airborne dust seems to get drawn in the extractor or settle inside the box. It would be easy to experiment. The fence just has a couple bolts on each side. Not sure I’ve ever taken it off since I installed it a decade or so ago.
Thank you, I appreciate the reply! I will go ahead and purchase the materials I need for the fence and try it out. If it doesn’t work well I’ll move the fences over a few inches to create an opening and put the tape measure on the bottom plate.
As an aside - I find the blast gates on the dust extraction branches don’t work 100%. Not generally a problem but I did find putting a plastic cottage cheese container on the downside to stop errant air flow through the gates works like a charm.
For example I put one in the 4” metal collar inside the box when I’m not using the chop saw and I can notice the difference at the other ports.
Eat the cottage cheese first.
I just take mine outside. Very cheap saw, works very well for home projects, not a precision tool, but then again there are no 90 degree joints in this house. I have a miter trimmer for precision joints.
You can drill a hole/s in the sub fence to allow for better flow, The sawdust wants to go towards the back and that's where the suction is, let it go the way it wants.
With a ZC fence, the sawdust is effectively blocked and if the suction from above is inadequate, it has nowhere to go.