Cheap dust collection for Table saw

[hazmat]

Do those bags they sell to go under a contracter's saw work?

Alternatively, the saw came with a 4" dust port on the bottom. Will adapting this to my shop vac do me any good?

The back of the saw is pretty open.

I'd love to get a dust collector set up in the shop, but know that it's going to be a while b4 that happens.

[pajoube]

I have had the best luck just placing an open top box under the saw. Will not get it all but most.
PJ

[AndyF]

Your shop vac will do an OK job. If you don't get enough suction to collect the dust with the opening on the back, just close in part of it. I used to use a shop vac on my Delta Contractors saw, which also has an open back, and as long as the blade was sharp and I never had any dust problems.

[wingnut]

Shop vacs certainly work better than nuthin' .... just remember that suction requires a flow of air from somewhere ... so don't make the mistakes some have and try to completely enclose the saw!

[pbenven]

Craftsman has relatively inexpensive system that makes use of a Shop-Vac here.

[gobbler]

The chips and shavings are pretty easy to catch with a box or bag underneath your saw, but what you really need to collect is the fine dust. The only way to collect that is with a dust collector and air scrubber. The fine dust gets everywhere, a real problem if your shop is in the basement as mine is. I have a small PSI Dust Collector and air scrubber. I move the dust collector from my table saw to my planner and jointer. The air scrubber is on all the time that I’m in the shop. I would like to have a larger system, but this has worked well for me. The dust collector I have has 5 micron bags, but there is still a fair amount of suspended dust that the air scrubber collects.

The PSI units are well built at a fair price. There are other manufacturers, Jet and Delta to name a few, so shop around.

My wife is much happier now. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Jim

[Hank]

I liked the idea of just a box underneath. Most will fall in that.

Even a cabinet saw, like a Unisaw, is necessarily open where the motor tilts, and the motor's exhaust churns stuff up when it is tilted.

Some dust, esp when ripping, is going to come back right on you, but most table saw dust is fairly coarse, compared to sanding dust. Some woods make finer dust (redwood, horrible, you talk about something that will invade your lungs).

Our shop had a full sawdust collection system, going to a big hopper outside, but we never used it on the smaller table saws (Unisaws).

For protection, I tried several methods and finally settled on a full plastic face shield that flipped up, sort of like a welders helmet, but very much lighter, supplemented sometimes by a dust mask.

[hazmat]

Jim,

<font color="blue">The chips and shavings are pretty easy to catch with a box or bag underneath your saw, but what you really need to collect is the fine dust </font color>

You hit the nail on the head. For the occasional use, I'm happy to sweep up the floor. It's the fine dust that was making the wife &amp; I cough.

I guess I'll try to find a 4" to 2" vac hose adapter &amp; wear the dust mask to start with.

Now I know why Dust Collection is such a hot topic in woodworking.

[beenthere]

Cheap dust collection is what I do. I use a box window fan in my shop (or wherever I am creating dust) and put a 20"x20" furnace filter on the intake side of the fan. It is cheap, but it is also amazing how much of the fine dust in the air that it picks up. I have thought about the ones that mount at the ceiling ($250), but they are stationary and I would have to bring all my dusty work to that area or do without dust collection.

Otherwise, I use a box under my table saw to collect the heavy sawdust, and have my vacuum hose connected at the top of the box, to assist collecting the fines.

[GaryM]

I have a SEARS contractor saw and added their dust collector, which is really a hopper that attaches under the saw. The hopper has a 4" outlet for a dust collector or shop vac.

I use a shop vac with one of the Goretex Clean Stream filters. The filter can be removed and most of the dust can be knocked right off. It's not as good as a real cyclonic dust collector, but for the money it works well.

I have it plumbed with the SEARS kit mentioned previously. I plug the shop vac into an outlet controlled with a X-10 remote. That allows me to control the vac from which ever tool I'm using.

I also have a JD-Tech ceiling mounted scrubber. It removes most of the airborne dust. The scrubber's wired to an outlet with a mechanical timer. I can set the timer and the filter will continue to run for several hours after I've left the shop. That way I don't have to remember to turn it off.