Thread: Building better dust extraction

Originally Posted by Harry72

Cmon Mic and Bob whats this about a hairy skirt!!!

something along these lines or this around the bottom of the guard.

Originally Posted by Pops

Hi Mic,

Great setup. Thanks for posting, good reference info. The Bill P. site has me falling asleep when I start to plough throug it. Seeing another application on the forum is always helpful.

Will end up rereading all the forum member dust extraction threads when I am ready to do mine.

Keep us posted on performance when finished.

Cheers
Pops

Will do. thanks Pops

Here's some more photos of the finished ducting.
Attachment 167018
Here's the saw guard with the 4" duct and a polycarbonate window installed. I'm going to get a small LED light and screw it inside the guard to aid visibility.
Attachment 167017
This is the narrow saw shroud I am dealing with. The top guard works very well, but this side lets the team down, there is dust falling to the floor. ATM the 4" flex is squished down to just 5 square inches. I have worked out that a full 4" can be joined to the shroud so that's what it will be. Bigger than that won't fit.
Attachment 167019

Looking good Mic, I like the full size 4" port on the tablesaw guard.
I think I may upgrade mine to a bigger port and hose, mine is about 60mm now, and doesnt do much good.

On the dust skirts, I have used this stuff where I can on my machines. You can get it from highway truck parts suppliers. Like this Mob -Lelox Australia - Flexible Spray Suppressant for Trucks

I think I paid around $30 a meter when I got mine, not real cheap but it works well. Just tekscrew it through the plastic edging onto the edge of your shroud. Its flexable so will bend around corners etc.

My TS dust guard collector looks like this.

It's just a standard dust hood surrounded with an extension of polycarbonate.

The whole thing sits on the end of a standard dust picker arm like this.


The arm is attached by a SS cable to pulleys and a counterweight made from a 2L water filled plastic bottle that runs up and down against a wall.

Next on the list for attention is the dust shroud on the table saw. Here's a photo showing the tiny rectangular duct that joins to the shroud and which is smaller in area than a 3" diameter pipe. Lots of sawdust on the floor, and it's a pain to mash 4" flex onto it.
Attachment 168493
I have modelled it in Sketchup together with a length of 4" pipe to find the best way to merge the two, allowing for clearance within the cabinet. Once I have what looks like a suitable merge, I can use Sketchup to intersect the two and unfold the pipe so I can generate a paper pattern for the pipe cut. Then I will cut out some 100mm PVC pipe to test the arrangement and once happy, cut out and weld in the 4" steel pipe.
Attachment 168491Attachment 168492

I've done the intersection of the pipe with the dust shroud for one possible alignment an it's shown below with the shroud turned off.
Attachment 168629
And here's the unfolded pipe. I can make a paper pattern from this and transfer it to some 100mm test pipe and see how it looks before committing to the steel pipe.
Attachment 168630

Had some time today so I cut the old flange off the dust shroud (no turning back now!) and made a paper pattern for the cut to merge the pipe to the dust shroud. I cut the pvc pipe with the dremel, of course first up, cutting the mirror image of what I really needed, which is Murphy's law of course. Anyhoo, the second attempt produced a cut that merged very nicely with the dust shroud. I'll do a test tomorrow to see if it conflicts with anything within the saw cabinet and if not cut out the steel pipe and part of the shroud and weld it up. The opening on the right hand side will be closed up with metal cut out from the left hand side of the shroud. I think it's looking very well.

Originally Posted by mic-d

Next on the list for attention is the dust shroud on the table saw. Here's a photo showing the tiny rectangular duct that joins to the shroud and which is smaller in area than a 3" diameter pipe. Lots of sawdust on the floor, and it's a pain to mash 4" flex onto it.
Attachment 168493
I have modelled it in Sketchup together with a length of 4" pipe to find the best way to merge the two, allowing for clearance within the cabinet. Once I have what looks like a suitable merge, I can use Sketchup to intersect the two and unfold the pipe so I can generate a paper pattern for the pipe cut. Then I will cut out some 100mm PVC pipe to test the arrangement and once happy, cut out and weld in the 4" steel pipe.
Attachment 168491Attachment 168492

Hi mic, I take it then that Sketchup does transitions, square to rounds and the like?
It will be interesting to see how this mod goes.

Pete

Originally Posted by pjt

Hi mic, I take it then that Sketchup does transitions, square to rounds and the like?
It will be interesting to see how this mod goes.

Pete

Hi Pete,
Not sure about that. One of the sketchup gurus may know.

The first test pipe clashed with the side of the cabinet in the 45º position, so I remodelled in a different possie and made a new test pipe which fits much better. I just have to cut in one bend to clear something else and it should be OK. The trouble is I'm dealing with limited space due to there being all the paraphanalia for a spindle moulder in the cabinet too.

Hi Mic,
The way you describe the modeling of the guard and the pipe and unfolding the pipe so as to make a template is pretty much what I would describe as a transition, your transition is the pipe that happens to go from an odd shaped guard to a round pipe hence my question, I have drawn up my transitions (mainly for my dust extraction) the old fashioned way, at a drawing board with pencil and paper, it might be time to get into Sketchup if it can do transitions.
What sort of breed is your machine?

Pete

Originally Posted by pjt

Hi Mic,
The way you describe the modeling of the guard and the pipe and unfolding the pipe so as to make a template is pretty much what I would describe as a transition, your transition is the pipe that happens to go from an odd shaped guard to a round pipe hence my question, I have drawn up my transitions (mainly for my dust extraction) the old fashioned way, at a drawing board with pencil and paper, it might be time to get into Sketchup if it can do transitions.
What sort of breed is your machine?

Pete

Hi Pete,
My Dusty is a Powermatic 75 with pleated filters. Sketchup can certainly do cutouts in pipes for Y-joints and the like so on that alone it is useful. If the transition is made from a flat piece of sheet then yes SU can be used to unfold it for a pattern just like I have done. My answer was cautious because I don't know if transtions are made from a flat piece of sheet of if they need to be 'mashed' a little to work or even have darts of sheet stitched in to make them. If so, I don't know how the unfolding part would work when those distortions means it doesn't actually come from a flat sheet. clear as mud?

EDIT. Hi Pete, Sorry I did not have a real good think about transitions before, but if you just make them as a square-based pyramid and intersect the round pipe, you're definitely able to do that. and the transition doesnt even have to be straight, you could do a bend too.

Originally Posted by mic-d

Hi Pete,
My Dusty is a Powermatic 75 with pleated filters. Sketchup can certainly do cutouts in pipes for Y-joints and the like so on that alone it is useful. If the transition is made from a flat piece of sheet then yes SU can be used to unfold it for a pattern just like I have done. My answer was cautious because I don't know if transtions are made from a flat piece of sheet of if they need to be 'mashed' a little to work or even have darts of sheet stitched in to make them. If so, I don't know how the unfolding part would work when those distortions means it doesn't actually come from a flat sheet. clear as mud?

EDIT. Hi Pete, Sorry I did not have a real good think about transitions before, but if you just make them as a square-based pyramid and intersect the round pipe, you're definitely able to do that. and the transition doesnt even have to be straight, you could do a bend too.

Yep Y joints, Tee, square to round, round to round (different Dia) (on center or offset) cone to pipe, all these sort of joints from one shape to another are called transitions, and you wouldn't usually put any sort of dart in them (thin wall thickness anyway) would be all rolled or formed from flat sheet

Pete
ahhh What breed is your saw?

Originally Posted by pjt

Yep Y joints, Tee, square to round, round to round (different Dia) (on center or offset) cone to pipe, all these sort of joints from one shape to another are called transitions, and you wouldn't usually put any sort of dart in them (thin wall thickness anyway) would be all rolled or formed from flat sheet

Pete
ahhh What breed is your saw?

Doh! It's a Luna w59 combination machine - 10" Jointer/thicknesser, horizontal mortise borer, spindle molder and saw.

If you can make it out of a flat sheet you can do it easily in SU! better get learning!