Dust collection on a belt drive table saw

Enclose bottom of contractor's saw and add Dust Collection.

View attachment 65524View attachment 65525I have an old Craftsman TS. Here is how Glenn fixed it for me. The particle board is held in place with Velcro. That makes for easy removal to make tilted blade cuts or to fish something out of the cavity.

Sorry it is an old pic. But it shows what you want to know.

I enclosed the base with 1/4 inch thick plywood. You can see a corner of it in the second pic. The DC take-off is made from plumbing parts. The flange on the TS is a toilet bowl flange. The do-hingie attached to the flex hose is called a SPA. It is also a plumbing part. It has a bulge on the end that went into the flex. I hacksawed that part off so it would fit in the DC hose. This makes a great quick disconnect if you want one. Ask if you need more pics or other details.

Enjoy,

Jim
 
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That is a good idea, something I thought of after asking the question is to build a box over the back end to cover the motor and belt drive that way I would have collection all the time and not have to remove anything to make a angle cut. What do you think of that idea?
 
You could do that or do what I did in the picture that Darren posted of the back of my table saw. I don't have to remove anything to raise or lower the blade or to even tilt it. I can post more pics when I get home tonight if you want to see all the mods I did.
 
Alan that would be appreciated, as I am still tossing around the idea of the box for awhile before actually building it. Right now I can see no draw backs.
 
Here they are Robert.

I first made a card board template for the back of the saw by taking a few measurements as I tilted the saw and raised and lowered the blade.
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Once I knew everything cleared I then transferred that to a piece of metal or you could also use a piece of 1/4" ply.
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I then inserted a piece of 1/8' Masonite between the body of the saw and the legs and fastened a 6" ninety degree fitting to connect to my dust collection system.
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When I made a mobile base for mine I improved the connection by making the pieces angle down to collect the dust better. The last thing you want to do is totally enclose the saw as the dust collector will be starved for air.
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Hi,

Alan that is a neat plenum and it is all tapered down to the air exit point. I did a thread on my saw, because of this thread. I think that the main advantages of mine are that it is simpler to make and it is rugged. I think the main advantages of yours is that the walls of the plenum are sloped towards the air exit port.

In practice I am pretty sure that yours empties the plenum almost completely. Mine does not. There are a couple cups full of sawdust that remain in the plenum. The sawdust fills in the cracks and rounds the corners. The great majority of my plenum stays empty.

Your back plate allows for tilting the blade with the plate in position. My back plate needs to be removed for bevel cuts. This leaves my back wide open; it still removes the great majority of the dust. So it boils down that I prefer my simpler plenum and I prefer your more versatile back plate. I am going to make a new back for mine as soon as Glenn and I get my shop's North Wall skinned and French Cleated (I doubt if that is a word).

My back plate is held in position with two rectangles of Velcro. So it is quick and easy to remove (but that is just one more darned thing to do). Your back plate lets in more air than mine. That could easily be a better thing, mine may be too restrictive. I will know when I make one like yours for my saw.

Thanks for the info.

Enjoy,

JimB

p.s. I forgot, my thread is "Craftsman Inexpensive prep for dust collection." It was dumb idea but I made the new thread because I had a bunch of pics. I ended up using only 7 of them.
 
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Before I made the mobile base for my saw I to had a simple enclosure for the bottom and had some dust collect in the front corners. I figured if I'm going thru the trouble to make a mobil base why not improve where the duct work connects.

It is rather simple. Once I cut the hole I drew me a level line under it and drew a diagonal line from the back corners of the saw till it just skimmed the hole for the duct work and intersected the level line. From that I got the angle my 3/4" mounting pieces needed to be cut too along with two known dimensions to lay out and cut the side pieces of the angled dust collection enclosure. From that it was a snap to layout the middle bottom piece. The tape you see is there to act as a clamp till the glue dried and the whole assembly can be removed in one piece if need be.

It's a good thing you started another thread cause some times this info can easily get lost.
 
I am considering even more seriously building a box to cover the back of the saw and that would enclose the motor and belt drive. Just last night I found a article someone posted on another forum about dust collection on a contractor TS and they built a box over the back like I have been thinking about doing, among other things. If anyone is interested I can post the article it is in .pdf format.
 
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