Read the article. I have an old sears contractor saw that doesn’t have a dust shoot. Is a dust shoot necessary for air flow or can the bottom of saw compartment be closed off and the dust port connected there?
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The Delta Contractor's saw that the author owns and is used as the example in the article is basically the same saw as mine. Except mine didn't have any form of dust shoot on it in factory trim.
It wont be hard to build a shoot out of any sheet good, you want that will work as well as the factory metal one. It is just an inclined plane with two lips on the edge. I'd recommend 1X2s and tempered masonite or 1/2-inch MDF, because they are smooth. If you wanted to get fancy you could actually build in two side panels to bring all the dust to the center where the air pick up is.
I think you can close it up somewhat. There will be some pretty big holes where the belt goes out to the motor though.
If you have a big dust collector with a lot of volume of air the holes might not matter.
But if you have a shop vac every hole adds up because the shop vac just isn't moving that much air.
Will Rogers
I was going to add the box to the back to cover the motor. What I was wondering was is the chute nessary for air flow or could the collection port just be attached to a piece of plywood that closes off the bottom of the table directly below the blade.
Sorry for the confusion.
I didn't read the article so I just haven't seen it.
I think the big dust collectors pull so much volume that little things don't matter to much.
But if you are using a shop vac little things might make a difference.
One thing to consider is one of the reasons shops use big dust collectors is because some machines produce large quantities of material. Like a surface planer. So they need a big machine.
I would keep in mind how much material your saw can produce and design around that.
I think using a dado blade hogging out a dado would probably be the operation that would produce the most.
You don't want to build it have to fiddle with it when it gets clogged. Maybe the author of the article built a few and had them clog before they built it with a chute.
I can't say for sure. Maybe ( I'm guessing here) if a pile builds up near the hose and then clogs it. So you don't want a pile to build up.
"There are three kinds of men: The one that learns by reading, the few who learn by observation and the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."Will Rogers
Edited 5/2/2009 11:12 pm by popawheelie
once used a (low-end) home-owner tablesaw with bottom a funnel-ish base whose intent was to drop sawdust into trash can. So much sawdust came back out the blade area to make it blinding without a mask (okayokay never saw without eye protection, but still...). Good idea, never tested by manufacturer? (a canadian tire product, btw)