# miter saw dust



## ducky911 (Oct 6, 2010)

Hi,

Shop down for a month now as I am working on dust.

Miter saw in a nice box enclosure with 6" pipe to DC also hooked up to my festool shop vac to port on saw. Really looked like I had a winner until I turned on my dylos meter. High reading as I cut. I made some modifications with no luck.

Than I started looking at the retractable blade shroud, it has lots of 3/4 inch holes pointed right at me. I taped them up and started to get much better readings.

So I see other miter saws with these holes and some without. Why are they there? It would have to be a pretty good reason to allow the dust in my face. This is the invisible dust, before I turned on the dylos meter I thought I had a winner.

Thanks

Bob


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## bigblockyeti (Sep 9, 2013)

Not sure why they are there either, but it seems to make no sense. Have you tried running the dust port just aimed (approximately) into the enclosure without the vacuum and only the DC? I only ask because no vacuum can compete with the air velocity of a good DC setup. This could in theory improve your reads further depending on the design of your enclosure.


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## firefighterontheside (Apr 26, 2013)

The holes are there so that you can look down the blade and see where you are going to cut. If I didn't have the holes I would not be near as accurate with my cuts.


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## Pimzedd (Jan 22, 2007)

Having work in plastics injection molding, it cuts down on material cost.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

I think they prevent dust from caking up inside the 
guard. You can also see through the holes.

That said, I often bend at the knees to get a in-line
view or I might retract the guard with my thumb
to set up a cut. I don't presently have a miter
saw so I don't exactly recall what I used to do but
I did have a DeWalt with slots in the guard.


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## ducky911 (Oct 6, 2010)

OK

The holes are for the laser. I thought my laser was not working. I took the tape off and was not able to duplicate the high reading. Don't want to put out misinformation.

Still testing


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## BillWhite (Jul 23, 2007)

Some of the shop tools just don't want to respond to dust collection. The miter saw is one of them.
I have an ambient DC that is used in conjunction with the vac.
Not the end all-be all, but it sure helps.
Bill


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