I have an old Craftsman 10 inch contractor tablesaw which I want to hook up to my PennState Dust collector 1250CMF. I have a large plastic 4" collector pan that will sit under the saw to collect dust. Do I need to block off air entry into the open back of the saw? I imagine it will not work unless I do. What say you?
Yup, and any other openings. This is what duct tape and that foam in a bottle was made for :-)
-Doug
You can partially block the back. On my Delta, I cut a piece of `1/4" plywood and made notches for the belt and motor bracket. It is leld on with a couple of screws and four rare earth magnets. The top couple of inches is open.
While you want to block off some of the openings, you still need air flow for the DC to suck anything through it.
I have been pondering the same problem for a year now, and have decided to do nothing. Table saw dust is heavy enough that it just falls to the floor without creating too much mess, so I don't think it is worth the effort. You will have to get the saw almost airtight to be effective, and even then 75% will be thrown forward by the blade. The only real solution is a over the blade hood, and I can't justify that.
I have a similar situation: a Ridgid contractor's saw and a Penn State DC. Blocking it off will make it more effective but what is really the cat's meow is to add an overhead guard. I've got Penn State's version but Excalibur makes one also. You would not believe how little gets away now. If I had done this earlier, I could have saved the money of an air cleaner (which is hanging from the ceiling and is seldom needed).
If you don't have a cyclone yet be sure to add one. For the relatively few bucks it costs, you'll save your impellor blades on the DC from wood chips.
I have a Delta CS, and the 2 HP Horrible frieght dust collector. I have tried it both ways using a 4" hose and decided there was not a noticable differance. A overarm collector in addition to the under the table collection would be best. Greg
On Sun 28 Nov 2004 08:13:55p, "Greg O" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com:
I have the same dc on a Griz 1022. The standard tablesaw dust hood i got with a kit was too small so I made a plate out of some scrap wall paneling that would accept it, ductaped the whole thing to the underside of the saw, and taped a flexible 4'' metal dryer hose to it and taped the other end to the saw frame. The DC hose fits over that. First I tried it without blocking off anything on the saw.
It worked so well I didn't bother blocking anything else off. There's a solid, feelable airflow into the saw from every opening. Above the zero clearance insert, there's some dust. Everything I read says I won't be able to suck it all in from the bottom. First project of spring will be an overarm guard with dust collection. Maybe then I'll also block off some of that big space at the motor. But like the guy said, if you block it ALL off, it won't suck.
But in my opinion just putting a dust collection hood underneath the saw will take care of 98% of your dust, as long as you've got something stronger than a shop vac on it. Then you can work on upping your effect. :-)
Try it and you may be surprised. No, you don't want the saw airtight. If it was, how would the DC get enough air to draw the dust? Yes, an over the blade hood would be nice too, but I only clean up under my saw maybe every two or three months now.
On my saw, much more than 2% of the dust is on the top of the saw, since I started using zero clearance inserts. In fact, I would say that 25-50% of the dust is above the table. I built a separate pickup to handle that.
Bob
I put the Ridgid dust collector on the bottom, which just closes the bottom of the saw cabinet, the back is wide open and it collects about 99% of the dust. Look on your floor and I bet you will notice that very little dust goes out the back now. Run the blade a tad high, I was taught years ago to have the teeth hitting the wood at about 45 degrees, and there is very little thrown forward of the top of the wood. If I set it to where the blade just clears the wood there is considerably more thrown forward.
aah, interesting point
some say to keep the blade "just above" the surface as a safety precaution; but this pt of view is interesting..
Does Ridgid make a dust collector specifically for the 3650 contractor saw? DId you get it from HD, or where?
It's just a generic plastic pan that should fit most any saw. At HD.
The shop teacher, high school, many, many years ago, insisted that having the blade high reduced kickbacks as his claim was the teeth were moving at a more downwards angle when they hit the wood, instead of trying to push the wood back at you. It's always worked for me.
On Mon 29 Nov 2004 12:04:25a, "Bob" wrote in news:JZyqd.6270$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net:
Wow. I guess I should have qualified it a bit. :-) But I really don't get much dust up there, except when I'm actually shaving less than a bladewidth off a piece.
Wonder what the difference is. Blade, maybe? I'm using a Forrest or a Freud. Or maybe I'm getting more suction off that HFDC than I thought.
On Sun 28 Nov 2004 09:44:50p, "Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in news:SWwqd.25471$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr19.news.prodigy.com:
What struck me most was that the dust cloud was gone. I was going to just get one of those canvas bag things when simultaneously I had an extra hundred bucks and Harbor Freight had that DC on sale. With the bag, I think there'd still be a hanging cloud of dust around the saw, but with the DC, it's just gone. I can feel the difference when I start a cut and forget to turn on the DC. Hey, what's all this dust... Oh. Walk over to DC. Click. There we go.
After the overarm guard, a long ranger might be nice...
Not sure I'd buy this argument for kickback. KB is when the wood binds at the rear of the blade and is lifted, turned slightly, and then projected out over the top of the blade. Whether it's high or low seems to me it's going to KB if the back end of the piece gets into the line of the blade. High, to me, might even be worse.
logic (not usually applied to my thoughts) would say that a higher blade that had more teeth moving downwards in front would also have more teeth moving UP in back, right?
sounds good to me ;-)
I can see the argument about having the blade 1/16" above the stock and more of the force being horizontal rather than vertical. Makes sense. The cutting would seem to be occuring at a different angle than if the blade was 1/2" or more above. I've seen WW show demos where they lift the blade a bit; to presumably get a better cut. Seems to me we have an interesting theory on our hands. Cut quality vs safety vs dust expelsion.
I *think* the logic is that, with the blade at just above the level of the wood, if you "hook" the wood on the back just a little - enough to lift it like 1/4" - the wood will lift into the horizontally-moving part of the blade, which will throw the wood at you. If the blade is all the way up, lifting the piece off the table a little bit won't cause a kickback.
I'm not saying I *buy* that, I'm just explaining the reasoning. :)
I always liked Kelly Mehler's line on it, which I mentioned the last time I participated in this thread, in May, 2002 - thread here:
Of course, that's kind of a cute answer for him, since if you're following his advice, you're using a splitter and a guard, and neither kickback nor touching your blade should be much of a risk for you. The most compelling answer I've heard for running the blade high is that it's supposed to run cooler. In the thread I reference above one poster claims that the instructions with his Forrest blade said to run it at full height - I don't recall that with mine, but it's been years since I read the instructions - if I ever did ;). I usually shoot for having the teeth completely clear the workpiece, but I certainly don't know better than anyone else - and probably worse than many.
-BAT
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