Tablesaw Dust

I have a Steel City Table Saw that has a 4 inch dust port - It is hooked to a Jet Dust Devil with a 4 inch connection which can be changed to 6 a inch connection.

My question is if I convert the 4 inch at the saw to the 6 inch will at the Dust Devil will this help eliminate the dust from the blade? Gawd i hope i explained this correctly.

Jiggs Elphison
 
It sounds like you are talking about the size of the DC connection below the table. I assume the Jet is some sort of DC. Usually, to get all the dust on top of the table, you need to have a pickup there as well as under the table, so I would answer your question no. Even with collection above the table, when you trim an edge without a cutoff, much of the dust will likely escape sideways.
 
Jason nailed it. You'll never get everything from the top by just sucking on the bottom. Some type of overarm collection is also necessary.

And Don, the venturi effect wouldn't have any bearing in this case, as far as I understand. Even if you do get the venturi at the hose fitting (which I'm not sure about, with a sudden reduction in size instead of a tapered one), it would be local to the hose, and not within the cabinet itself.
 
Jigs you can get yourself one of these Shark Guards. They provide facility to hook up your dc to and add protection over the blade. I dont have one and for the record have nothing to do with the company, just like the look and have read good things.
 
First off, You can't contain ALL the dust from a TS. Air flow is the key issue, :thumb:

You have to have enough air flowing past the blade and all its wonderment, to carry the dust to the suction tube be it 4" or 6" $" is plenty to carry enough dust to fulfill your needs. Back in our school shops we had giant DC and built in system to handle whatever we threw at it. the Planer had a 8" duct, the joiner had a 6" duct and the saws had 4" ducts. volumes of air passed through the system, the key was the air movement keep the air moving and it will carry the dust. With a small system as most of us have (I have a 2 hp DC) the volume of air is limited, so you have to contain the flow. 4" should be enough. Often we constrict the air flow trying to direct where it consentrates. A zero clearance Throat plate will constrict air flow and cause dust to carry through and expell on top and out of the reach of the DC. a wider throat will allow air to flow past the blade and carry the dust to the collection place.

Each has its advantage, the ZC throat plate makes for great cuts but poor DC. Wider throats have greater DC but splinters on the cut. It is a write off as to which you prefer.

You can't make an industrial DC out of a home model increasing the pipingwill only agrovate you and cause an undue expence, Manufacturer provided a 4" duct , so use it. Yes the DC has a 8" hole but it devides into two 4" ducts... 4" is the answer.
 
First off, You can't contain ALL the dust from a TS. Air flow is the key issue, :thumb:

You have to have enough air flowing past the blade and all its wonderment, to carry the dust to the suction tube be it 4" or 6" $" is plenty to carry enough dust to fulfill your needs. Back in our school shops we had giant DC and built in system to handle whatever we threw at it. the Planer had a 8" duct, the joiner had a 6" duct and the saws had 4" ducts. volumes of air passed through the system, the key was the air movement keep the air moving and it will carry the dust. With a small system as most of us have (I have a 2 hp DC) the volume of air is limited, so you have to contain the flow. 4" should be enough. Often we constrict the air flow trying to direct where it consentrates. A zero clearance Throat plate will constrict air flow and cause dust to carry through and expell on top and out of the reach of the DC. a wider throat will allow air to flow past the blade and carry the dust to the collection place.

Each has its advantage, the ZC throat plate makes for great cuts but poor DC. Wider throats have greater DC but splinters on the cut. It is a write off as to which you prefer.

You can't make an industrial DC out of a home model increasing the pipingwill only agrovate you and cause an undue expence, Manufacturer provided a 4" duct , so use it. Yes the DC has a 8" hole but it devides into two 4" ducts... 4" is the answer.

Bill,

With all due respect, what you're saying just hasn't been my experience.

ZC inserts, for example. When the wood is in the cut, covering the entire throat plate, how much more air is a wide plate going to provide vs. a ZC one? I posit not much more, if any. Widening your throat plate isn't really helping any airflow once there's wood covering it up.

As for 4" being the answer. Again, not in my experience. I have a simple 1.5hp Jet dust collector that has a 6" port that originally split into two 4" ports. They worked okay either alone or in tandem, but the real boost that _I_ have seen was when I went to 6" for as long as possible. I have about 35 feet of duct on my longest run with a couple elbows and it was miserable with 4" duct work. With 6", it will steal your cat, I promise! Granted, every dust collector is a little different and some don't respond to lowering the static pressure as well as others.

I don't think 4" is ideal most of the time. In fact, I'd say only stick to 4" if you're going to be pulling from a single machine and roll the DC around from one machine to another using a short length (6-8') of flexible hose. This is really not for a performance thing, but because 6" flex hose is expensive and kinda unwieldy.

My experience with 4 or 5 dust collector models (all of them 2hp and below) is that going to 6" is a very dramatic improvement in every case. I have not yet found one that worsens, provided the filters are good and clean. I'm not a fan of bags, either, and much prefer a Wynn Environmental canister filter upgrade on even the small 1hp models out there. The increased airflow is fantastic and will easily handle the added load of a larger duct.


Again, that's just my experience and I can't say I've seen everything, yet - but I'm workin on it! :D
 
I have a contractor style TS. I put a pre-fab plastic shroud under the saw and partially closed in the back with magnetic sheets and connected it to my HF DC. It seemed to work extremely well except for the rooster tail at the blade. i put on a ZC insert and it took care of 90% of the dust.
I'm not saying that it will work for everyone but I am pleased as heck with it.
 
I have just finished off enclosing the underside of my table saw and out rigger motor in with appropriate blade width slits to allow a small amount of air flow over the motor. It was displayed in a recent edition of FWW mag. I have put in a zero clerance insert and have added a 1/2 inch hole at the back side of the blade in the insert to help to reduce the roostertail. I have used sheet magnets to cover the front adjustment hole and for the most part I have eliminated most of the dust. There is still a small amount that does get by from the blade but it is a fraction of what use to. It has worked great though an over head will eliminate the rest of it.
 
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