I've been unhappy with the ability to collect dust from the top of my Unisaw for quite a while. I was a bit inspired by photos of WoodNThing's setup, so last year I picked up a boom-arm setup suggested by the guys at Woodcraft, and installed it upside down on the ceiling of my shop.
Here it is as of last week after I modified the nozzle and redirected the vacuum hose based on suggestions in another discussion.
That's a ShopVac nozzle that barely accepts my 2-1/4" hose end.
It worked okay, but I found that the long arm coming in from the side was usually in the way when I tried to make cuts using a pusher tool and stick. The collector nozzle would also "bob-around" a lot. Overall, I felt that it was going to get me hurt at some point and I needed a better solution - something that didn't come in from the side, but instead came down from the ceiling on some sort of armature.
After some investigation, I could not find an armature of the proper length, but I realized that some of the microphone armatures out there are held together with nuts and bolts. So if I bought two cheap units, I could do a little Dr. Frankenstein surgery...
After some delivery delays, I got to work on this project this morning. I ended up combining parts from two armatures into a 3-part arm with tensioning knobs on the "elbows"
I mounted the "socket" to a block in between the joists directly over the top of my saw blade (found with a laser level)
All together, it looks like this:
Up close from the back.
Now I have a clear path on both sides of the blade - no big arm coming in from the side to get in my way.
If I need to get it out of the way, I can just raise it up (it can go even higher than this)
I can also just turn it to the side when I'm running a window sash over the blade for a weatherstripping groove.
It turns out the super-coarse thread on the armature shaft for the microphone mount is 3/8-16. I drilled a small hole in the top of the hose nozzle and used a nylon nut on the inside. I used some superglue as a threadlocker. Not sure how CA glue performs on nylon plastic, so I'll need to keep an eye on it.
A "nylock" nut might have been better, but it occurred to me that if a metal nut worked loose inside nozzle it could drop down into the blade and become a speeding bullet.
The armature was a little fussy to build and I have to remove some of the tensioning springs. Someone more clever than me could probably work out the most ideal way to assemble all the parts and get the springs and tension working better for such an application.
All-in-all, this set me back $30. $10 each for the armatures, and another $10 for the new vacuum nozzle. I also have some spare arm parts, if I want to experiment further.
These are the arms I bought
Here it is as of last week after I modified the nozzle and redirected the vacuum hose based on suggestions in another discussion.
That's a ShopVac nozzle that barely accepts my 2-1/4" hose end.
It worked okay, but I found that the long arm coming in from the side was usually in the way when I tried to make cuts using a pusher tool and stick. The collector nozzle would also "bob-around" a lot. Overall, I felt that it was going to get me hurt at some point and I needed a better solution - something that didn't come in from the side, but instead came down from the ceiling on some sort of armature.
After some investigation, I could not find an armature of the proper length, but I realized that some of the microphone armatures out there are held together with nuts and bolts. So if I bought two cheap units, I could do a little Dr. Frankenstein surgery...
After some delivery delays, I got to work on this project this morning. I ended up combining parts from two armatures into a 3-part arm with tensioning knobs on the "elbows"
I mounted the "socket" to a block in between the joists directly over the top of my saw blade (found with a laser level)
All together, it looks like this:
Up close from the back.
Now I have a clear path on both sides of the blade - no big arm coming in from the side to get in my way.
If I need to get it out of the way, I can just raise it up (it can go even higher than this)
I can also just turn it to the side when I'm running a window sash over the blade for a weatherstripping groove.
It turns out the super-coarse thread on the armature shaft for the microphone mount is 3/8-16. I drilled a small hole in the top of the hose nozzle and used a nylon nut on the inside. I used some superglue as a threadlocker. Not sure how CA glue performs on nylon plastic, so I'll need to keep an eye on it.
A "nylock" nut might have been better, but it occurred to me that if a metal nut worked loose inside nozzle it could drop down into the blade and become a speeding bullet.
The armature was a little fussy to build and I have to remove some of the tensioning springs. Someone more clever than me could probably work out the most ideal way to assemble all the parts and get the springs and tension working better for such an application.
All-in-all, this set me back $30. $10 each for the armatures, and another $10 for the new vacuum nozzle. I also have some spare arm parts, if I want to experiment further.
These are the arms I bought
Amazon.com: InnoGear Microphone Stand, Adjustable Mic Arm Max Load 1.8KG Microphone Suspension Boom Scissor Arm Stand Compact Mic Stand for Blue Yeti, Blue Snowball iCE, Streaming, Recording, Gaming, Podcasting : Musical Instruments
Buy InnoGear Microphone Stand, Adjustable Mic Arm Max Load 1.8KG Microphone Suspension Boom Scissor Arm Stand Compact Mic Stand for Blue Yeti, Blue Snowball iCE, Streaming, Recording, Gaming, Podcasting: Stands - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases
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