(Less) Dust in the Wind
How does a dog get the LAST bit of water out of his bowl ?
With a half-lap
Spent too much time figuring out how to get Hurricane Walter to spew less dust, or-at least-how I could capture the dust he spews.
Shroud seemed like the way to go.
So …. with leftover plywood from the construction of the ol' ChupaCaja, I made me a dust collection box.
ID is about 8" wide x 8" deep x 8" tall.
The joinery is (IS it called this ?) half-lap (or lock miter, or … well … whatever you call it !).
My biggest Forstner bit-at 2-1/8"-wasn't quite big enough for my Shop-Vac hose, so … after cutting the 2-1/8" hole, I stuck the hole over the biggest spindle that my oscillating spindle sander had to offer, and … gave it a few whirls.
Now … the Shop-Vac hose has an EXCELLENT friction fit, the box sits beautifully right behind the blade, and atop the saw frame, and …. the dust collection is just great.
To be quantitative, I'd say the BOX captures about 95% of the dust. OF that 95%, I'd say 85-90% goes RIGHT into the hose. The rest gets pushed toward the nozzle, and goes bye-bye.
There wasn't a dead-simple way to insert the hose from the bottom, or I would have. I'd either have to snake the hose behind the cabinets, semi-permanently, or invoke a 90 degree elbow, which … would decrease CFM more than I wanted to.
This saw … yesterday made an AWFUL mess of my countertop. Today: virtually no dust at all.
I'll likely mount it to the saw base AND the back (concrete) wall with either double-sided tape or … something.
For now, though, it works, it was zero incremental cost, it took about an hour, and … Walter seems happy
BY THE WAY ….
For those following this series …. I bought the
Master Plate, from Grizzly:
For ME, it made a BIG difference in ease of aligning the RAS.
I'm pretty sure I've got this thing dead-on [WOO-HOO !!!].
I started by removing my Mister Sawdust table. I stuck the mag base of my dial indicator on the underside of the RAS motor, and … using it … got the table awfully darned parallel to the radial arm. A few thou', here and there. Nothing more.
Then … re-mounted the table, and re-installed the sacrificial 1/4" topper (sadly, this was TWO HOURS before the replacement hardware, that I had ordered, arrived [D'OH!]).
The Master Plate made it very easy to get the blade square in every axis. I've done QUITE a few test cuts, and … each … is well nigh perfect !
Next time I'm tearing into the saw, I'll replace the table mounting/adjusting hardware. For now … I'll likely plug up the dust collection snout [or … get a Wye, and run a second small hose TO that dust collection snout], and … just start getting acquainted with the thing.
Thanks for looking !