table saw with 2.5 inch or 4 inch dust port?

[pzi]

I gear up my new workshop and plan to buy new table saw and 1200CFM dust collector. I see reasonable Ridgid 10" saw TS3650 but it has only 2.5 inch dust port. The next table saw that I consider is Powermatic 64A with 4 inch dust port for double the cost of Ridgid. I have no experience with dust collectors beside my shopvac that did not work very well with any of my tools and I end up working outside of the house. Does 4 inch port in table saw make a very big difference comparing with

2.5 inch when using powerful dust collector like Delta 50-760?

-Peter Denver, Colorado

[bridgerfafc]

it kinda depends on how efficient the saw is at directing the dust onto the chute. for instance, I have a ryobi bt thingie that has the shopvac size dustport that collects surprisingly pretty much all of the dust. I also have a powermatic cabinet saw that fills up with dust even with a

4" hose on a full size DC. I don't know either of the saws you are looking at, but don't assume that a bigger hose is necessarily better.

[C & E]

I have the Ridgid 3650 and thought/ read how much better the 4" house would be. So, I removed the blade shroud with the small outlet, layed plywood on the underside of the saw cabined and plumbed in the 4" line. What I discovered was that the corners of the plywood deck were thick with dust. There wasn't any more or less laying about but it was building up fast inside the cabinet. I restored the shroud and plumbed the port to the bottom, left side of the cabinet so that I could easily connect and disconnect my shop vac as needed without having to reach up into the cab. The smaller port works just fine.

[pzi]

That is what I thought. The Ridgd 3650 looks like a well designed machine. The dust collection is bracing the blade from the bottom and should be quite efficient as you say. How do you like the 36 inch rip capacity? Is this big enough or do you find yourself limited by it? I have a big cabinet making project planned and so far I see that none of the standard kitchen or garage cabinets have dimensions bigger the

35 inch in any direction. Thanks in advance for your advice.

-Peter

C & E wrote: