Miter Saw sawdust

Ivan Coleman

Member
Messages
11
Hi guys. I haven't been on this for some time but I still do some woodwork. I do have a question.

I have had a miter saw for some time but it doesn't put the sawdust in the cloth bag. I have put up with this for a long time but this am I cleaned up then when I used it there was sawdust everywhere. This wasn't an expensive unit but just under $300.00 at CTC. On the back just behind the blade is a small 2" round plastic pipe with a small bag on it. This bag collects nothing as the sawdust flys everywhere from the blade.
Does anyone have an answer?
 
I have a sliding miter saw that I find that it is pretty much impossible to collect any more than 70% of the sawdust. I did take off the bag and stick my shop vac to it it collects quite a bit of the dust. The hose fell off today while I was cutting a 2 x 12 and I was amazed at the amount of dust coming out of the port:eek:

Some guys have made a pretty good collection system for their compound miter saws. I'm sure that they will chime in.
 
depending on what you have if you dont have any dust collector equipment then use the method frank suggests and the bag is just for looks sorta.. the connecting it to a vacuum hose is far better for collecting..
 
As someone mentioned, that dust port only collects a portion of the swarf. What's needed is a cone shaped affair behind the saw with a dust collector port in the center (or a shop vac hose). That'll get more if it but even that won't get it all. The cone has to be pretty wide so that it'll collect the swarf when you're making 45* cuts.

Mike
 
one of the carpenters at a shop I worked at built a plenum with each end sloping to the bottom behind the saw that covered the entire arc of its swing. then he stretched a sheet over it and attached it on the top and two sides, then split it down the middle forming 2 curtains. Then ran the 4" dc hose into the bottom. When I first saw it my thought was that he must have had a lot of time on his hands the day he came up with it:rofl: But it collected more dust than any other attachment or gizmo I have seen before or since.The plenum was big enough to catch the "spray" of dust off the saw, even most of the fines.
 
Then there is the 'poor mans' version ... from one of the emails I get

1297577MS-Collect.jpg
 
Been there done that, my solution uses the small 1 1/4" hose from a small shop vac with the regular size SV connector on one end and the attached nozzle on the other. I cut the length of the nozzle a bit so it fits tightly into the exit port on the saw. The larger SV provides ample suction and the smaller hose does not fall out, no bags that fill and need to be emptied; actually works quite well.
 
I put a seperate shop vac with a y connector, one hose goes to the dust port on the mitre, the other one goes to a 4 inch port I put under the mitre saw table in back of the saw.
I opened the entire table top in back of the saw up, put a big scoop under the table with a 4 inch port, covered the hole with a fine rebar mesh sheet, so small pieces of wood wouldnt fall in, then used some sheet metal and built a small wall sloped inward allowing the dust to fall into the open rebar mesh.

while dust still accumulates on the side a bit, most of it fall into the mesh and keeps the area much cleaner.

I think unless you have a tent covering the entire area behind the mitre to capture all flying dust, there is no way to get close to 100% collection.
 
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