Miter Saw Dust Collection

Like you I hate the dust from a miter saw. It really throws dust all over.

I partially (I say partially because I do not believe there is any total solution) solved the problem by a " home brew" hood. It is crude, not pretty in any aspect, made of materials on hand, but it is effective. In my world pretty is not required, just operational.

George

I did about the same thing as George. The things I learned is that you need to have the saw deep enough to capture any bounce back from the chips but not so deep as to hamper the use of the tool. Also on my plan the bottom of the hood is about a foot below the bottom of the saw. I cantilevered the back of the saw over the open box so all of the chips would fall in. The base of the box slopes to one side with the dust collector pipe hooked to the lower end. Does it work?? Kinda.... I usually have about 2" of chips in the base of the hood but that's okay because it's not all over the saw and the wall and everyplace else

Bob

LearnByDoing said:

Two question...
1. what Miter saws are known to have good effective dust collection?
2. anything you think I could do to improve mine?

Click to expand...

Good questions!

1. When I researched miter saws in 2012, they all seemed to be deficient in dust collection. I purchased a Milwaukee 6955-20 because I liked most of the features. Dust collection wasn't one that I liked. A few of the reviews implied that it had "improved" dust collection over the competitors, but it doesn't.

2. I have been thinking about how I could improve the dust collection on my miter saw. I am currently designing a grid underneath the back of the saw that would be hooked up to my DC. It would be something like a downdraft table top, only on a smaller scale. I would then also add a couple of deflection panels that would stop the dust from flying out the back and hopefully fall into the grid.

It is really strange to me, that there are no miter saws that have a dust collection hookup on the table. There is a nice slot where the blade comes into at the bottom of the cut and this would seem like a natural place to collect saw dust, right after the blade has spun through the board. All of the saw manufacturers, try to collect the saw dust after the blade has come up through the back of the cut. Maybe, someone here can explain why that is.......is there some physics behind the collection point at the back or is it "just the way its always been done"....

the best one I've seen here

Best one I've seen: http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f24/compound-miter-saw-13332/
Made by Greg L:


Attached Thumbnails

While I cannot take claim for this, I saw this set up in a youtube video, and it looked pretty cool. The guy claimed in this video he is a fanatic when it comes to dust control, and is building a air filtration system.

As clean as his shop looks in his videos, I'm guessing it would work as good as it looks. This would keep the suction a lot closer to the cut than most I have seen, in turn keeping the CFM's higher and catching the spray of dust before it blows all over.

Not sure if you can tell from this snapshot. But it appears to be a notched DC hose located behind the fence.

This is another of his videos with a better view


And pic

Wow....some nice set ups here.

I took a quick and dirty poor man's route for my miter saw.

First picture is without anything to stop dust from shooting to the left/right of the blade.



So I spent 5 minutes and cut some cardboard.



You can see a notch here where it holds itself in place.



This saw makes vertical sliding cuts 99% of the time, that's why it works for me. If I need to make a bevel/miter cut the cardboard slides out easily.

With the vacuum running this makes clean up much easier.

The only negative is that you have to spend $30 on printer paper first. :shifty:

I am making a masonite box behind my saw and have one of these in the bottom to meet up with the ductwork that approaches from the side.