Thread: Table Saw Dust Collection Mods

I have 2 x 3" ports on my overhead guard and the results are quite good if you keep the guard reasonably close to the work.
If I'm edge trimming I block off one side of the guard with a block to improve air flow.
I run a sled quite a lot but mine onlyruns on the left side of the blade & the fence is cut down near the blade top allow the overhead guard to work as a guard.
I'm not keen on sleds made the way most of the us mags show because you have to remove your guard to use them. Not acceptable.

I have had the idea of fitting a couple of lengths of brush to the sides of the guard to help with the suction.

I had a major improvement replacing the most flexible duct with 4" pipe on my overhead the only flex is the two sections of 3 " about 450 long that go down to the guard.

I have managed a substantial reduction in dust "spray" from the top of the saw.

cheers

Harry,

Good thought on the fence mounted pickup, but sometimes the fence is a long way from the blade!

I have thought about a pickup in the back of my shirt and wearing long sleeves with open cuffs though!



P

I don't understand Midge...I mean I've looked and studied..and come to the conclusion...YOUR SHED SUCKS! so the thing should extract really well

Cheers (oneday..just oneday...I'm gunna..)

No, this is going somewhere! I reckon 1' flexible duct velcro strapped to your leading arm with the intake at the wrist...saves changing hoses as you change tools. How can I wire myself up for 240v, to save walking to the power point?

Come on, it's good...

Just not for table saws. Or any type of static machinery. But you get it.

I was modding the POS Tsaw of mine the other day to accept a connection from my new DC(originaly was 28mm now 102mm!)and I gots to thinkin about this problem of dust above the table, obivously some of the saw dust is trapped in the teeth of the blade as it rotates and when it hits the exposed blade area above the table it "flings off" so we need to draught the blade guard.

What if we could rid the of this dust before it gets to the top, I was thinking of blasting compressed air 90° across the teeth inside the cabinet so it can be draughted off by the DC in the normal manner.
This may even get rid of the need to draught the top guard and allow for use of jigs/Grr Rippers etc without making a mess?
Add it would also serve to cool the blade while doing long ripping cuts.

Has anyone heard of this before, or even tried it... ideas, comments?

What if we could rid the of this dust before it gets to the top, I was thinking of blasting compressed air 90° across the teeth inside the cabinet so it can be draughted off by the DC in the normal manner.
This may even get rid of the need to draught the top guard and allow for use of jigs/Grr Rippers etc without making a mess?

Interesting idea!

Maybe you could achieve the same result "passively" by using the suction from the DC to provide the airflow past the blade perpendicular to the teeth. You could put in a short piece of duct vented outside of the saw cabinet and ending at the teeth of the blade. seal up the cabinet so that all the airflow of the DC is drawn across the blade to clear the gullets of any trapped sawdust that might otherwise be flung out the top. The dust laden air is then sucked out of the cabinet at the normal dust port.

Yeah that might work, but I think with the compressed air it will be concertated to a very small area with much pressure, a DC wont create this kind of vacuum in such a small space to get the same pressure as comp'air would genarate.

Maybe an actual vacuum cleaner might do it tho? It would have to be very close to the blade to work, which would be a bit of a clearance problem with a tilting arbor.

With comp'air it would only need a small 3-6mm metal tube that could have a 90° bend near the blade. Possibly use automotive brake line tube.

The ideas of compressed air are all very interesting but it only deals with one of the many sources of above bench dust.

The majority of the dust will be forced down below the bench & thrust downward. Yes "some" will come arround & out the top. That will be joined by the exit wound dust from the blades second path (upward) thru the board.
In the case of edge trimming there will be a larde amount of balistic dust thrown away from the blade that isn't confined by the kerf.

The bigest reduction in above table dust I have found is dust extraction in the blade guard.
My current arrangement is a bruit force High airflow method, My old saw I just put a 32mm hole saw thru the top of the standard guard & glued in a piece of 32mm conduit onto which I hooked a standard vac.
This mod would work for most US style blade guards. Because the guard rides the work the capture is very good.
Its cheap & easy.
cheers

I get what you mean by edge trimming, but the idea is to rid dust while the guard is removed for cutting tennons and using stuff like the Grr Ripper system, so the blades kerf that contains the dust is enclosed by the wood being cut and the guard cant be used.
I noticed with my POS TS the only dust emitted is from the blade as it comes back through the wood, like you said.
If the dust was removed from the blade below the top and before it returns to the top surface, Im pretty sure there will be minimal dust in the guard in the 1st place... but we wont really know until its tested!
May give it a try tomorrow, see what happens.

Ok I did some experimenting today, grabed some S'steel 10mm tube to use as a air nozzle and made my blower gun fit into it(bit of a file).


First I put the air outlet at the front of the blade, it worked ok but still seemed to get some dust above the table and it tended to blow the dust out from the bottom of the front part of the saw(see full view photo's for some foam jammed in to stop this, this saw was never designed to take any draughting). Then I placed the air outlet at the rear of the blade about 5mm from the blades teeth and approx 2cm's down from the table top.


This worked very well! The next two photos are the saw cleaned off with a vacuum cleaner before any cutting.(all photos are of the saw/floor cleaned with vac before cutting!)



The next two photos are after cutting about a meters worth of wood with the air run at 30psi, I tried running it at a higher pressure 60psi but it didnt seem to make any differance.



Just for comparision I did a cut of only 150mm in length without any air(dusty still running)



So going by my results the air blowing across the blades teeth at 90° seems to remove a very good percentage of the dust from the blades kerf/teeth, obivously if the guard is fitted it we would get better results... but thats not the point of this.
The idea is to remove the dust while using a table saw with no guard attached, ie while cutting tennons or using a system like the GrrRipper's or even cutting down the height of a box shape frame.

A few suggestions that I can think of,
1. A small duct opposing the airoutlet, directing the airflow/dust downwards towards the DC outlet of the saw casing/base might help. The air pushes the dust in one direction if this is towards a gap in the saw's outer casing it will escape through it.
2. 30psi seems to be enough with a air tube of 7.5mm internal dia, going higher only works your compressor hard.
3. The air feed tube could be made to hang off the riving knife mount so it moves with the blade as the cutting height/tilt is adjusted, or some sort of bracket to a part that moves with the blade arbor assembly.
4. A flexable joint would be needed to allow adjustment/movement of arbor assembly.
5. If your a tricky cluey type you could rig up a solenoid to shut and open a air valve with the saws main start/stop switch, the rest of us could fit a manual valve on the saw.


Oh and heres me new dusty!

Only got 100mm pvc running to this saw ATM, my new saw(TSC10HB) should arrive in a few days... plus if I cut any more from the back of this cheap POS table saw there wont be any metal left and it would probably implode with this dusty sucking on it!

What can anyone say??? :eek:

Well done!! Even with the photos I'm still sceptical though!

I think I'll go and have a Bex and a good lie down......

Cheers,

P

(Really cool!)