I recently installed a cyclone dust collector. I have it connected to my planer, jointer, tablesaw and bandsaw. It works perfectly on all but the tablesaw. The manufacturer sized the system for the machines I own.
The saw is a Jet left tilt Exacta saw. The enclosed base has a 4″ dust port. The collector manufacturer suggested a 5″ branch line with 5-4 reducer at the cabinet. When initially hooked up, I tested it by dropping a small block of wood through the open throat (saw not running) and the collector pulled it out of the air and through the system.
However, when sawing wood, I still get quite a bit of dust on top of the saw. I’ve sealed a bunch of openings in the base, but haven’t seen any improvement. I’ve looked at overarm guards, but they are priced out of my budget for now. Also, the existing setup leaves a small amount of dust in the base in the corners furtherest from the port, even though the base is sloped towards the port. So, I know the system is working, just not as efficient as I would like.
I was thinking of fabricating a hood to fit around the blade and connected it with a hose directly to the existing dust port. This seems like a lot of work, so I’d like to hear from others who have solved this problem.
Anybody have any advice?
Replies
JRockwoo
Is this sawdust being carried by the gullets in the saw blade and thrown out the front? Maybe you have blade up hihger than necessary? Just a guess. My saw will do that too.
It's pretty tough to collect everything from a table saw with a 4" duct at the bottom of a big rectangular box, full of holes. Even with a 10" from a powerful collector, there will still be some dust that accumulates in the corners and is blown out by the blade. The air flow will be like a vortex, moving in a circular fashion, dust in the corners is inevitable. The blade and it's gullets will fling dust, too.
The addition of collection on the blade guard can help. Normally a much smaller orifice is used on the blade guard and it only has so much air capacity. Some of us use a shop vac on the blade guard so you can utilize the suction power that a vac has, as opposed to a DC. Many of us also have ambient dust collection cabinets, to help with the fine airborne dust, generated by a variety of tools used in the shop.
To be honest, I think your expectations are beyond what is possible. I would look at the saw and try to close off air loss areas. You can chink some backer rod around the top where it meets the base, close off dust gates to other machines and run the largest duct possible to the saw. It's going to be very difficult to keep the cabinet spotless unless you never use it.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
J,
I think that Stan and Hammer are on target. As you can see in the after-market business, there are quite a few overhead blade guards that have a 2-1/2" dust collection port.
You might consider those types of overhead guards/ dust collection attachments. If you do, plan to attach the duct port higher up in the main collection duct. The smaller size flex duct makes for a lot of drag, so you'll need more suction power.
Bill
I'm going is a somewhat different direction. Dust collection is a function of air volume and speed (CFM) not suction. You need to have at least the same number of square inches of air intake area in your saw as the area of the exhaust port. If you have a 4" exhaust port, you need about 12 square inches of intake or you slow up the air flow reducing the efficiency of the dust collection. In other words, you may have sealed up the sawbox too tight.
As to the sawdust on top of the table, you cannot capture that unless you have an above the table component to your dust collection system.
Finally, the sawdust is coming off your blade at over 100 mph. It is impossible to change the direction until the sawdust has slowed down considerably. There will always be some dust that get thrown to areas of the sawbox where there is no air cross flow. Some will actually add holes near the bottom of the sawbox to create air flow to pick up the dust that settles there.
In dust collection in a tablesaw, the objective is to capture as much of the dust as you can before it escapes into the air. It's not to give you a completely clean sawbox.
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