I need advice on the best way to control dust from my table saw. I have a Delta single phase drum filter attached to a port that draws dust from the enclosed saw stand, but it isn’t doing the job. I also have a JDS ceiling filter, but my shop is covered in fine dust after even the smallest jobs. Thank you.
David S
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I recently purchased a new Unisaw and I found it difficult to get adequate dust collection until I sealed all air leaks using duct tape and foam pipe insulation. I placed duct tape over all small holes and cracks, and used the foam pipe insulation all the way around the the saw where the top meets the base. I even cut a piece of the insulation to fit the slot around the blade height wheel ( it can easily be removed when tilting the blade). Now my Reliant dust collector really is much more efficient, I can now really feel the air being drawn in around the table insert and blade.
Bob, Tupper Lake, NY
Good Morning !
I'm sure many will be stopping in to give you some great advice, nobody likes the dust. You mention it is a closed stand TS with a dust port,(thats where most of the dust will go) have you hooked up an overhead dust shroud? I found that having dust collection on the blade guard helped alot. If you do a search on overhead blade guards, many options will come up.
Personally I have the Penn state industries overhead guard, it does the job but I believe there is better out there. Excalibur, Exactor all make overhead guards with dust collection, There is another make called" the shark guard" that a lot of folks liked on another forum.
Hope this helps Eric
Dust collection with a contractors saw can be a real hassle since they really weren't designed for it.
Here are a couple of pictures of my saw stand which may help you. Mine isn't perfect, but it does a decent job.
I made a "plate" to cover most of the back of the saw and limit the amount of dust that escapes that way. It took quite a bit of trial and error to get it right, but the saw can travel thru it's full range of blade height and angle.
The collection box in the stand contains most of the debris and quite a bit of it gets pulled into the dust port. Depending on how heavily I'm using the saw, I periodically have to clean out the box. I either push the debris into the collection port - or just scoop it out. If I were starting over, I would put some baffles in the box to direct the debris closer to the port.
Finally, I use home-made zero clearance throat inserts. They really cut down on the dust that gets whipped around in the blade gullets.
To close the arced gap around the blade height wheel I made a pair of "lips" from a cheap 1 foot diameter bouncy ball I got for a couple bucks. I sliced 2 curving lips from the ball, and duct taped them along the top and the bottom of the arc. The lips stay fairly closed on the height wheel shaft when I tilt the blade. In addition to sealing up all the gaps I could, I put the saw on a rubber mat which made an acceptable seal at the bottom. I don't have dust problems even though I don't (yet) have dust collection through the blade guard.
Keep in mind that effective dust collection relies on air movement, not suction. You need about the same number of square inches of air intake as you have for an exhaust port. If your exhaust port is 4" it is about 12 square inches. You need an equivilent number of square inches of area for the air to get into the saw. In other words, sealing up all the air access spots will decrease the dust collection efficiency.
You should not even consider dust collection around the blade opening. After all, that area is completely blocked by the board that is being cut so no air or sawdust can be drawn into the saw box.
I have a 2hp Enco DC that connects to my Cabinet TS via 2 lengths of 4" flex hose. The saw is fitted with an Excaliber overarm guard. All stock openings in the cabinet are open except I covered the louvers in the motor cover w/ duct tape. I'd put the system 90-95% effective with the guard and probably 60-70% without. Make sure you have enough enough cfm and air flow.
John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
The more things change ...
We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
Petronious Arbiter, 210 BC
Zero tolerance inserts provide benefits but better dust collection is not one of them. Dust thrown on the TS top is somewhat controlled by an overhead DC/blade guard , not a zero tolerance throat insert. To iterate what has been stated, volume out is facilitated by air intake through the various openings on the saw. The trick is to deflect the dust down to the area where the air flow can capture the dust and chips and direct(but not choke down) the air intake to those areas most prone to throwing dust out of the saw before it can be captured.
Any chance you have a hole in your filter?
Howard Acheson has it right. The important thing is to have maximum and unrestricted air flow from the general area of cutting into your dust collector.
This means:
* use a low pressure high volume (LPHV) sucker with a wide pipe, not a high pressure low volume (HPLV) sucker with a titchy hose. The latter are for portable sanders, routers etc., not big dust-creators like table saws.
* Don't restrict the air intake to the sucker by over-enclosing the blade and dust collection area. My table saw has open space in the cabinet below the arbor et al but the 4 inch opening next to the blade and the connected pipe to the blade guard suck in 99.9% of the dust with the suck from my 1000 cubic metre per hour LPHV extractor.
* If you have an interconnected dust collection system with blast gates, don't leave any open to currently unused machines. Keep the pipes as bend-free as possible. Keep the joins air tight. You need as much as possible of the extractor's sucked air to pass the dust-creation point(s) of the running machine.
* Get a fine filter (1 micron or less) for your extractor, if possible. Get one with a very large surface area (eg a folded fan paper cartridge rather than a felt bag). Big filter area means less restriction to air flow. Keep dust build-up off the inside of the filter by hitting it with a soft object like a rolled up magazine, from time to time.
Some extractors are sold with 5 or even 25 micron filters, so they are effectively redistributing the fine dust all over your shed (shop) - and your lungs. Don't buy them or make sure they have a fine filter option.
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