Seems like dust collection is a particularly hot topic right now. As some of you know from yesterday, I purchased one of the new Jet cannister-type dc’s. I put it together last night and I have no regrets. The fit and finish is great, everything went together well and tight. The cannister looks like it will be fantastic. The lower bag is held in with a snap-in ring – much easier that the clamp set-up and you can just tie the bag up and dispose of it if you like. Also, it’s not half as noisy as I feared – much quieter than my Craftsman shop vac. I will try to keep you guys posted on its performance as time goes on.
Anyway, now I’m looking for advice on how to use it for my contractor’s style table saw. It’s a Sears model and I don’t see any accesory for it on their website. What are my options? My planer, bandsaw, and router table all have ports. Now I just need to figure out how to attach to my table saw, hand power tools, miter saw, etc. Any ideas are welcomed. Also, I was wondering if I could build a downdraft sanding table with a port for the dc. Would that work?
Thanks!
Replies
I have a Rockwell contractor's TS and have found that DC for it has been a never ending battle. When I first got it, I just swept up the dust under it at the end of the day. That soon hatched my idea for a rolling tablesaw cabinet. I took the saw off the legs and built a cabinet to accomodate a 52" Bies fence. Under the saw itself I have peice of plywood dadoed into the cabinet sides that slopes down to the back where I have 4" hookup. That worked ok but still I had dust flying out the back of the saw. Then I built a 1/4" MDF DC hood directly under the saw blade. I attached it to the carriage that tilts the blade. It catches about 80% of the dust that the blade throws down. The rest falls down and gets sucked up by the lower port. I taped cardboard over as much as the back as I could so now my main source of dust is from the top of the TS. Still not perfect.
My router table has a Jessum Router lift in it with a chamber under it with a DC hookup. I made an MDF insert for the top with 1/4" holes drilled in it in a grid. Out comes the Router lift the insert I made gives me a downdraft table.
I had a Rigid contractors saw and they had an accessory of a dust catcher with a 4" port to hook the DC onto. It seems like it was about $40 and it caught a lot of dust. The craftsman is a very similar configuration(I think at least some models of them are both made by Emerson). It's not hard to find a HD near you and go look at it.
They were also showing a "saw diaper" at the recent WW show (in Denver) that was made out of canvas & I think it hooked up to a DC.
I hope I can answer both of your questions.
1. Jet makes a contractors saw cap that fits beneath the majority of the contractors saws. Its just a large square piece of plastic that is tapered towards the center with a 4" dust port. You could probably make one.
2. Down draft tables are not normally of the design that is conducive to use with a DC. But.... I don' t see why you couldn't do essentially the same thing with a DC. That should stir some arguements but what the heck, if you try it and it doesn't work what are you out.. I'd say go for it.
The big problem with contractor's saws is all the open space in back of the saw where the motor hangs out (assuming yours is of that basic design). We've had two or three threads where people have asked for ideas to close this space off as much as possible. One of the mags awhile back had a design that accomodated the movement of the motor and connecting bars as they move during angle setting. I've seen others that were much easier to design, but had to be removed when shifting the blade to anything other than 90 degrees.
Another possibility is to use heavy plastic to make a shroud of some sort to encompass the motor and the whole back.
A small tip for use of the Jet bottom plate mentioned above. It doesn't fit real tightly within even the Jet saw -- don't know how it will fit your Craftsman, but in addition to providing a plywood spacer to fill in where the adapter wasn't, I also used magnetic strips to hold the adapter in place within the tablesaw. Otherwise, it moves around with vibration and spaces develop which allow the dust to fall out.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
CAMPBELLDUST
I got a highly modified Ryobi BT 3000. Fortunately it has a dust schroud under the blade and carriage mechanism with a dust port. Built a maple base I mounted saw on for added weight and to catch the dust that got past the shroud and dropped down into the cabinet. Put a door on the front that allows access to guts and vacuuming. Have a sliding drawer at the top of the cabinet that just pulls out and you vacuum out the drawer. Put a small porto frig in the base of the cabinet (another story, another day) he...
Eliminates about 90% of sawdust. Now, what about the openings at the rear of the saw where sawdust escapes. My motor is enclosed as a cabinet saw, but you should be able to build a box and add a jointer dust hood with a built on port for the DC. ( pt# 192626 Highland Hardware 800-241-6748). I don't know how your contractor is set up in the rear, but you should be able to enclose most. Anything that doesn't get covered.....Duct tape.. It's cheap and works. If you move the angle of blade from 90% which I'm guessing isn't that often, pull it off and garbage it. When you move it back to 90%, slap more duct tape in place.
Just a few thoughts that might hit an open spot on your saws characteristics. If none apply, diregard but still keep duct tape on hand. If you can't fix something with duct tape, it probaly can't be fixed..grin<>
Good luck and keep thinking, Hopefully, a suitable answer will appear..
sarge..jt
Thanks for the good ideas. I wonder if I could just build a box that would bolt to the back of the saw, completely enclosing the motor and pulleys and still allowing for the tilt. I'll have to look closer. If that would work I could then add a plate with a port under the blade and essentially have a cabinet style box and collection. I'll let you know what I come up with (if it's any good).
Of course I could always use this as an excuse to start saving for that Grizzly 1023 I've been wanting! :)
The DC issue on a contractor's saw is what pushed me into a cabinet saw when I needed to replace my critically damaged Craftsman saw. I figured the time i would spend making a fixture to collect the dust was well worth the extra few hundred bucks I spent on my cabinet saw.
I made a downdraft table to use with my DC, works great. I also have an air cleaner overhead of my bench to catch what the DDT doesn't. How well the table will work would depend on your DC. I have a Delta 50-850 with Oneida bags, very little dust floating around when I sand.
Craig
Craig,
Can you give me some more details on the down draft table? I am very interested in building one. I have the Jet 1100 with the pleated cannister filter - just purchased two days ago. I also have an overhead air cleaner just over my current sanding area.
What I had in mind was to build a medium size basic table, with the top being maybe a 6"x 3' x 4' or so box. In the bottom center I would attach the dc hose. The top sheet would be plywood with 1/4" holes drilled every, I don't know, 4" or so.
How does this compare with what you made?
What you need in a sanding table is high volume air flow. In the bottom of your 3'x4' table you might put a 24" box fan with an air filter on the intake side of the fan. The box fan doesn't make much noise and pulls a lot of air. You can rig it so that the filter can be changed or cleaned when needed. I use this setup when I do sheet rock and can't open a window. its amazing how much dust this simple rig can take out of the air.
For the table top, you might consider 1/8th or 1/4" masonite peg board with 1/4" holes.
I'll try to send you some pics later this evening or tomorrow, I made a 24x42 x 6 that is hinged to the back of my bench and drops down so I can use my bench as an outfeed. I used a 14" TS dust collection port in the bottom, and followed the WWJ table layout for the holes using 3/4" holes every 2".
The bench area gives me added support for case goods, and the DDT can flip up if I need extra support for my bench.
Here's a couple of photo's, I tried to reduce their size and maintain the image. My bench and downdraft table are waiting for me to get a chance to put the finish on- maybe after the 1st of the year. I hope this helps with your design. I left the top removable & reversible.
Most of the time I am doing case goods, if I am doing something smaller I cover up part of the table to increase the airflow around my work. The aircleaner is mounted over the bench.
Thanks for the pics Craig. That is almost exactly what I had in my mind's eye. I'm glad to know it is successful. My only worry is that I am only stopping 2 micron and greater dust. I do have an overhead air cleaner that gets the 1 micron, but I'd like to send the dust away before it gets to my face - at least as much as possible. I hopeful that my system will get most of it.
It works great for me. My DC is less than 10' away from my table, don't have hardly any dust floating around. I have a Jet AFS1000 overhead. If you are going to put your DC in a closet, I'd suggest good filters on the vents to prevent the fine dust from getting back in the room.
Falling under the category "learn from others' mistakes" be sure, when you build your dust collection box, that it clears the motor when the blade is tilted to 45 degrees. Running into a solid, unmoveable surface with the motor is a sure way to throw the whole darn thing out of alignment.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
A $2.00 fix has worked for years for me to plug up the back of the saw. I just got a piece of 2" foam rubber fit to the opening and cut out where the belt goes. If it rubs a little, it's ok. It installed in a about 5 minutes and it stops most of the dust. Good luck.
Campbelldust, I have a delta Contractors saw and faced the same dc problem.
I built a dc port by installing a 3/4 piece of plywood table between the saw and stand. I cut a 14" dust colllect hood into the plywood below the area of the blace. The 14" size pretty much opened the same amount of area currently below the saw. I then caulked and screwed the hood into the open. It works like a charm and with a 1 hp dc system, it pulls the saw dust from the corners of the saw and stand.
There are 12 and 14" ducts available from most supply sstores. And so as not to just have a piece of plywood between the saw and stand, I made in into more of a table with one drawer, an area to hold my fence and miter guage.
Try this URL for a comprehensize solution http://home.pacbell.net/jdismuk/sawdust.html
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