Thread: I'm at a mental crossroads, I seek advice from the machinery masters!

Hi guys,

at the moment, I have a carbatec CTJ-650 contractor saw. After some wheeling and dealing (I'm a sales rep, HUGE help in price reductions!) I have a Biesemeyer style fence and the sliding table from the Leda MJ-2325A on the way for a grand total of $518. Obviously the intention is to equip the contractor saw with a much more accurate fence and sliding table functionallity.

This is where it gets interesting, 95% of what I do is MDF based, ie more dust than a firecracker in a bag of flour. Contractor saw = epic fail of dust collection, even with a DC hooked up to the 4" base port. My girlfriend's dad works in scrap metal, and is also a gun at metal fabrication work, ergo sifting through the scrap yard and pulling out a commercial cyclone unit (just needs a new motor, bead blast and some new paint) and fabbing me a suva style overhead gaurd with a dust extraction port.

Thinking ahead here, should this new dust setup still not be adequate at catching all the dust I make, what are my options? I know a cabinet saw would be a better solution, but I need a 3/4" dado capacity (so much faster on the TS than on the router, and I use dadoes a bit), ruling out the MJ-2325 and the TS-10HB. Any other ideas on saws that I could realistaclly afford (sub $2k) that can take a 3/4" dado stack? Or should I just go to town with expandy foam, duct tape and corflute to seal up any dust escape routes on what I have atm?

This is typical of me, I get half way through a plan then start to second guess it

Sorry for the length of the thesis, the cafine is yet to kick in this morning and that is the best I can describe it!