Miter Saw Dust Collection

Brent Dowell

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So, one of the keys to keeping dust down is to actually do "Something" to collect it. My problem is I get tired of moving the shop vac hose or DC host from machine to machine. My Miter saw is on a moveable base, so it likes to spray dust anywhere behind it. The particular saw I have has a little chute right behind the blade that you can hook a small vac hose to.

So I picked up 'buckethead' at HD for 19.97 and use one of those 'i-socket' switches to turn the vac on whenever I use the Miter saw. I was amazed at how well it actually works. Used it a bunch yesterday and there was very little dust anywhere. I liked it so much, I'm going to dedicate the Bucket head and I-socket to the mitersaw, permanently.

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Very little dust going anywhere...
 
i didnt know they made such a critter to go on top of a bucket been in the sticks to long i quess.. that could come in pretty handy for other small use items..
 
Brent thats a great idea:thumb: but surely that solution only suites machines we have not dedicated to a location then surely a shop vac would do the trick. I love the idea of having the shop vac come on when the machine is started up.

For my own dust collection plan, which i might add requires me to stop procrastinating and settle on the location of my dust collector as well as machines, I have a two prong approach.

I am planning a large dust collector duct to each "station" and then i some time ago i had the luck of LV selling a kit like this which at the time was a close out of Rigid kits $29 bucks each for use with shop vacs. It has been my intention to add a ring of this kind of shop vac vacuum to my shop so i have it everywhere and dont have to move the shop vac around.

I ask would that not be a better space saver having one vacuum and a ring of pipes rather than bucket vacs all over the show.

I am thinking here of router, drill press even sander at the workbench or sanding table.

The other unit that was intriguing to me for the portable mitre saw was this unit

Whats your thought.
 
If I had a 'real' shop, I'd definitely have things setup differently. I'd go with the dedicated piping and a large dust collector mounted outside of the shop in a seperate closet, with a filtered air return.

Being as how my shop is kind of haphazard at this point, I do what I can.

For the 'big' machines (Table Saw, planer, jointer, drum sander), I have to go through the whole process of pulling the machine to the center of the shop, and then I hook up the DC. Since I'm already having to move stuff around, It's not a big deal.

My mitersaw 'station' is right by the garage door with a huge stack of wood seperating it from the rest of my garage. So it's not real convenient to drag the shop vac over to it, and fireing up the DC is a bit of overkill. So for this machine, it seems to make sense. Heck, the bucket head hose fits perfectly in the little chute built right into the machine.

For the rest of the smaller tools (drill press, hand sanders, mortise machine) the shop vac can be wheeled around pretty easily and used with them. I'm going to rework my little dust deputy cart to have it's own dedicated I-Socket. Love that little gadget. It's so nice to have the vac come on when you turn on the tool.

As far as the hood for the miter saw, it's not necessary with my saw. It has a dust collection hole built right into the frame and most of the dust kicks right into that channel.

I think Larry has a good solution with his saw. He has a box behind the saw with a ramp that goes down to collect the dust.
 
I ask would that not be a better space saver having one vacuum and a ring of pipes rather than bucket vacs all over the show.

Oh, and the space under my miter saw is pretty much wasted, and the bucket fits right on the portable stand, so in this case, I think it's a pretty good use of the space.. :thumb:
 
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rob .. the shp vac is not going to be able to pull the dust very far in 2.5 pipe.. brent has got the best bang for the buck by having it right where he needs it. and i think you would be better off making your hood than buy the yellow big gulp:D:thumb: you can get a tapered 4x10 boot that will go to 4" pipe and then have the taper all ready built in and just build a hood to accept it..
 
The HD Bucket Vacuum uses 1 1/4" fittings. The Lowes equvalent uses the more standard 2 1/4" fittings and the intake is on the top. The hose that is supplied fits the 2 1'4" intake and then necks down to a 1 1/4" hose so you can have your choice of hose sizes. It is also a bit more powerful AND noisier. Neither of these have filters that will pull strongly for very long since the filter is not very efficient and there are no bags made for the unit. If you want a shorter unit, 3 gal buckets are the same lid size as 5 gal buckets. The next size up Rigid shop vac, currently on sale at HD for $30, uses the totally non-standard 1 3/4" hose size.

I've got one of the Lowes Bucket vacs dedicated to my SCMS. I hook up a better shop vac and a Dust Deputy if I'm going to make a pile of dust. It is nice to have something cheap "right there" so that I'm not tempted to saw one or two pieces of wood with NO dust collection.

The Lowes Bucket Vac does work really well on my 12" Delta Disk Sander where I don't make tons of dust and much of my use of it is steel, aluminum, and plastic dust.
 
Brent, does the i sockets have a time delay on the outlet output so that the vacuum stays running or does the vacuum cycle on and off with the saw. miter saws don't typicaly run continous and I would think that you'll burn up the shop vac in short order is it cycles a lot.
 
Strange, I logged on to discuss this.

I did some test cuts with my DeWalt today. I have the DW712 with a 8 1/2" blade, slider. I wish I could gotten the results Brent got. I have a lot of fine dust going out to the left side. I tried 2 different sizes of vacs. I am thinking of the "Larry style" collector for my stand. It still will be cleaned by a shop vac, but I think it will work better. Might have to do a working test model.
 
Strange, I logged on to discuss this.

I did some test cuts with my DeWalt today. I have the DW712 with a 8 1/2" blade, slider. I wish I could gotten the results Brent got. I have a lot of fine dust going out to the left side. I tried 2 different sizes of vacs. I am thinking of the "Larry style" collector for my stand. It still will be cleaned by a shop vac, but I think it will work better. Might have to do a working test model.

Might have something to do with the slider? Mines just a regular miter saw.

Brent, does the i sockets have a time delay on the outlet output so that the vacuum stays running or does the vacuum cycle on and off with the saw. miter saws don't typicaly run continous and I would think that you'll burn up the shop vac in short order is it cycles a lot.

Starts immediately, stays on 7 seconds after. Saving the 'good' shop vacs for other uses, for only 20 bucks, this is easy to not worry about.

The HD Bucket Vacuum uses 1 1/4" fittings. The Lowes equvalent uses the more standard 2 1/4" fittings and the intake is on the top. The hose that is supplied fits the 2 1'4" intake and then necks down to a 1 1/4" hose so you can have your choice of hose sizes. It is also a bit more powerful AND noisier. Neither of these have filters that will pull strongly for very long since the filter is not very efficient and there are no bags made for the unit. If you want a shorter unit, 3 gal buckets are the same lid size as 5 gal buckets. The next size up Rigid shop vac, currently on sale at HD for $30, uses the totally non-standard 1 3/4" hose size.

I've got one of the Lowes Bucket vacs dedicated to my SCMS. I hook up a better shop vac and a Dust Deputy if I'm going to make a pile of dust. It is nice to have something cheap "right there" so that I'm not tempted to saw one or two pieces of wood with NO dust collection.

The Lowes Bucket Vac does work really well on my 12" Delta Disk Sander where I don't make tons of dust and much of my use of it is steel, aluminum, and plastic dust.

Dang, didn't see the Lowes version of this. Just to be clear, it's really cheap, and not what I would call a great shop vac, but for what I'm using it for, so far it's pretty serviceable.

The "filter" is just a piece of non woven fabric that fits over the intake, so probably not great to use for fine sanding either.
 
Strange, I logged on to discuss this.

I did some test cuts with my DeWalt today. I have the DW712 with a 8 1/2" blade, slider. I wish I could gotten the results Brent got. I have a lot of fine dust going out to the left side. I tried 2 different sizes of vacs. I am thinking of the "Larry style" collector for my stand. It still will be cleaned by a shop vac, but I think it will work better. Might have to do a working test model.


I have the same saw Steve. I have a dust hood in back of the saw connected to my DC and a shop vac connected to the dust port. Everytime I cust something its like a dust storm. If I get half the dust its a miracle.
 
My Hitachi CF8B slider is the messiest tool in my shop. It throws dust to both sides of the blade, and as far as 4 feet back. The catch bag is an absolute joke. If it gets 10% of the dust, I'd be surprised.

To make a catch hood, it'd have to be about three feet wide, two feet high, and nearly two feet deep to accommodate the slider mechanism - not very practical...

I've tried about a dozen different schemes on it over the years, and none have been more than marginally successful.
 
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The other unit that was intriguing to me for the portable mitre saw was this unit

Whats your thought.

Rob, I have several pieces from Rousseau in the shop and have been pleased with them. I called Rousseau just last week and spoke to the owner of the company. He said there is a new dust catching hood that will be avaialble soon. I don't know if I can wait any longer and might order the same model that you linked to in your post.
 
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