What are the best designs for collecting dust for the radial arm saw? I dont want to take up too much room behind the saw. Does anyone know of a design that has a low profile. Pictures would be nice.
Thank you, Lou
Edited 3/30/2007 7:12 am ET by loucarabasi
Replies
Sorry I don't have a photo right now. I made a shallow box about 8" x 12" x 2"; DC fitting slips into a hole in the top; the open fron consists of a series of 45 degree slats to catch the throwback sawdust. I was losing some dust so I put an aluminum wing on the side which slips behind the RAS post.
Hope this helps.
Frosty
Dear Lou,
The nice thing about a RAS is that it radiates out from a central point, therefore the DC can be fairly compact. Oneida provided me with an outlet that is rectangular, approx. 2" x 6", mounted vertically. You may be able to get away with a simple 4" round, with a 5HP unit like yours.
Best,
John
John, How did you know i have the 5 horse from oneida? I did see the boot that oneida had. was not sure if it was any good. I just ordered the unit from oneida. Man I cant wait till that sucker arrives.
Thanks for the info, Lou
My saw is up against the wall. I cut a piece of scrap and watched to see where most of the dust hit the wall and marked it with pencil. I then built a little box with a dust collection fitting that lined up so that the impact site and the open end of the dust colector pipe was in the same place. It is 4 inches deep and maybe 12 inches wide.
Frank
Dear Lou,
We discussed it on another thread.Best,John
j, Where is other thread?
-Lou
This one:35188.1John
Lou,
I'm attaching some photos of my set up. As you can see in Radial Dust 3.jpg, it's not 100% effective, but much better than nothing. And, it doesn't extend beyond the back of the saw. I've seen postings here on Knots that show solutions with collection both at the back of the blade, like mine, and at the chute on the blade guard. That would seem to be most effective. One of these days I'll get around to hooking something up to my guard, but for now, I live with the dust -- I can usually cough up a fully finished bird house at the end of the day.
Mike
I found a (nearly) clear plastic tupperwareish box that would fit vertically between the wall and the back edge of my table. I cut a hole and mounted a fitting for my shop vac in the bottom rear. I installed a curved deflector from the back bottom to the front top to bounce the chips down toward the hole. Without that deflector much would simply bounce back out of the box. It works amazingly well. If I've got the vacuum on I get maybe 2% of an aggressive cut bouncing back. With it off I get perhaps 40% unpleasant.
Mine is plywood, and when the saw is parked in the back position, the blade is in the shroud. The front edge is all of the way out to the front edge of the fence, and all of the way up to just under the motor. This only leaves about 2" of clearance above the fence, but I think it is better there, than putting it farther back as someone else posted.
If you look at the dust coming out of the cut behind the blade when the saw is fully out in front of the fence, the dust is going to hit the fence and go up rather than all stay in the kerf. this has a better chance of catching that dust than putting it back behind the blade in the parked position.
I don't have a photo in my files, but I can take one and send it to you if you have trouble visualizing this.
The only problem with this design would be if you used a dado, or smaller blade occasionally, you can't lower the blade, because the motor would hang on it. Mine has a 16" blade, with 30" of cut-off capacity, and I decided when I set it up that I would never change it from cutting square, so that is not an issue for me.
Putting it together with screws is a good idea, because sometimes little strips tend to pile up, and jamb at the first elbow, so you need to be able to clean that out easily.
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