I recently purchased a Craftsman RAS and a hd shop vac. After hooking up the vac hose to the exhaust port on the RAS I was quite disappointed to see all the sawdust flying out the front of the blade. Any ideas on how to contain the dust using the vac?
A RAS should toss very little sawdust out the front. Do you have your blade on backwards? The teeth should be pointing down on the leading edge of the blade so that they cut downward and force the wood being cut back towards the fence when you pull the carriage forward to cut.
To use the vac, just stick the hose end in the area on the blade guard meant to receive it. You may need an adapter depending on hole/hose sizes.
There should be a piece on the back of the guard that can adjust up or down for the thickness of the wood you are cutting. It acts as a scoop to direct the dust into the outlet of the guard.
It doesn't work very well, however. On mine, I put a collector behind the fence to catch what the guard misses.
What do you mean when you say that the sawdust flied out the front? Do you really mean out the back (that part away from you)?
I built a hood out of some thin plywood and connected my dust collector to the that. It helps quite a bit, but radial arm saws tend to throw sawdust everywhere.
At one time Craftsman made a plastic chute that was mounted on the rear table behind the blade. You fastened the 2-1/2" vac hose to it to suck the sawdust away as you cut. I have one along with an electrical box to start the vac when the RAS starts. I got that box from Woodcraft.
I have the Sears dust collector for the saw, which is a plastic hood that bolts to the rear of the table directly in the path of the flying sawdust. It can be swiveled around a bit to point at the blade when it is mitering. A shop vac plugs in right where the sawdust hits, it shoots straight down the hose. It works rather well, but I'm not sure if they still sell it. I have seen others that were homemade of sheet metal.
The dust port on the blade guard is mainly for ripping, when the blade guard extensions are slid down to prevent the wood from lifting and the anti-kickback pawls are dropped onto the wood, which forces the sawdust into the blade guard.
That's what I do. All I use is the fat floor nozzle that came with my wet/dry vac. Like this one:
I have a 6 X 10 X 4 inch deep box behind the blade on my RAS. it sits just beside and to the rear of the column. It sucks with only a 2" hose. I also collect sawdust from the output on the blade guard. Works pretty well, but the hose on the blade guard gets in the way now and then.
Pete Stanaitis
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