Thread: table saw dust direction.

The new Carbatec cabinet saw has a small perspex dust collection container that surrounds the underside of the blade and is connected via a hose to the external extraction point. There should be no dust going into the actual cabinet.

your kidding me. really? far out thats worth remembering.
Oh course machine manufacturers and dust collection efficiency are an oxymoron, if Iam not mistaken

Originally Posted by TassieRob

The new Carbatec cabinet saw has a small perspex dust collection container that surrounds the underside of the blade and is connected via a hose to the external extraction point. There should be no dust going into the actual cabinet.

This doesn't sound like a good idea. Any slivers of wood hat can fall through the blade slot will quickly clog up the container. I had a similar plastic shroud on my contractor saw and it was one of the most clog prone arrangements I have ever seen on a saw. I suffered with it for about 3 months and ended up being on of first things I removed from that saw.

A container like that doesn't allow a machine to breath so not enough air gets into the area around the blade to draw off the fine dust. One common result of this means more of teh fine dust starts to be dragged up onto the top of the table by the blade acting as an impeller and we all know how useless most OH blade guard extraction is on consumer level saws. It's mostly invisible of course so most folks wouldn't even know its there.

Originally Posted by BobL

This doesn't sound like a good idea. Any slivers of wood hat can fall through the blade slot will quickly clog up the container.

A zero clearance insert will take care of that problem though my saw sucks bigger bits straight through the internal tube into a debris trap I put into the system.

When I owned one of the Carbatec saws it seemed to collect from below the blade pretty well as standard. The blade guard was however very cumbersome to the point I didn't use it, so maybe a floating type arrangement or other solution would be in order for safety and dust collection.

Originally Posted by BobL

This doesn't sound like a good idea. Any slivers of wood hat can fall through the blade slot will quickly clog up the container.

Yes, that was also my experience.

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

A zero clearance insert will take care of that problem though my saw sucks bigger bits straight through the internal tube into a debris trap I put into the system.

Chris can you clarify this, how you made it? where is it positioned etc etc pics would be appreciated to.

So can I bring this back to one of my questions.

for instance lets say a cabinet saw faces north south, the position of blade. If one was to open up the dust port that is one the bottom EAST side, than the suctioning is working across the flow of the blade speed air direction. Lets say we then open up a large air vent on the west side around the motor, this would improve flow but its still fighting the blade velocity.

So then why not close off the dust port of EAST side, open up a new one on base of NORTH side and a air vent on SOUTH side above the height winding handle.
Or am I dreaming too much and its not worth the effort.

This is of course that I am prepared to butcher a brand new cabinet and bugga up any warranty IF I went ahead with these ideas.

Originally Posted by Tonyz

for instance lets say a cabinet saw faces north south, the position of blade. If one was to open up the dust port that is one the bottom EAST side, than the suctioning is working across the flow of the blade speed air direction. Lets say we then open up a large air vent on the west side around the motor, this would improve flow but its still fighting the blade velocity.

That is what we did with the table saw at our Men's Shed. We opened up the port to 6" + BM and blocked off some of the existing vents on the same side nearest the port so as not to have the intake air going in and straight out again. Also put a matching air intake on opposite side to port... that's just a cardboard flap in the photo below that opens up when the DE is going.

I'm not sure that it would make much difference which direction the cross ventilation is going. Very little dust comes back up again from inside the cabinet and any that did would get picked up with the above table port. What gets flung around by the blade above the table is another matter.

IMG_20220202_112439.jpg IMG_20220202_112457.jpg