[joselamar]

Hello,
I bought a stand for my table saw (Harbor Freight Tools brand) and added a 3/4" plywood top to it. I'm planning on cutting a hole in the center to allow for sawdust collection in a bag. This is my first time getting involved in woodworking so bear with me. Is the idea of cutting a whole in the center of the plywood good. The table saw is really light, I'd say about 35-45 pounds. Would the plywood hold as long as I have it bolted to the frame? I can send pictures if needed.
Thanks in advance.

 

[JohnnyG73]

You plan to bolt the plywood between the saw and the base if I understand correct. I can't imagine any problem as long as nothing interferes with moving parts. It may even help deadening sound and vibration through additional mass. Have to consider how to remove the bag once it is full though.

 

[jargo432]

What kind of table saw is it. A lot of table saws have a port to hook a vacuum hose to draw out the dust. Does your saw have a port like that?

 

[joselamar]

You plan to bolt the plywood between the saw and the base if I understand correct. I can't imagine any problem as long as nothing interferes with moving parts. It may even help deadening sound and vibration through additional mass. Have to consider how to remove the bag once it is full though.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, the plywood is bolted down to the stand, I'm actually planning on screwing extra bolts to increase firmness. As for the bag, I will screw pins that came with it to the underside of the plywood. They work as buttons. If that doesn't work well, I'd have to build a light weight box with a latch and attach it to the underside.

 

[joselamar]

What kind of table saw is it. A lot of table saws have a port to hook a vacuum hose to draw out the dust. Does your saw have a port like that?

It's a Central Machinery 10" Table Saw. It does have the port to connect the vacuum hose. I don't care too much about that because of the cleaning hassle after. Since I won't be doing much cutting anyways, I can just leave the saw dust in the bag until it's full enough. I use the vacuum for other things too and I don't want the saw dust flying everywhere in the house while using it.

 

[jargo432]

I guess I'd have to see the saw to understand. For me I love using the vacuum while cutting(I have a porter cable), it keeps the sawdust from coming at me and collects most of it while I'm cutting. It also saves a ton of cleanup. I never realized how much saw dust a table saw put out until I emptied my shop vac for the first time.

 

[JohnnyG73]

My dust just falls through to the floor but the idea of putting a board in between and making it into a dust collection chamber that I can hook a hose to might be a good idea.

 

[joselamar]

I'll send some pics of the plans soon. As I said, I'm no professional at all. I'm doing what I can to be organized.

 

[SeniorSitizen]

My two saws both have an open stand. One is shop built angle iron and the second is a factory ( modified for height ) stand from the 60's a band saw was on. A cardboard box of about the correct dimensions with the flaps flared catches about 99 percent. Emptying is a snap.

 

[joselamar]

These are just two pictures I took quickly, not too professional but enough to get the point across. The first picture is the table saw of course. Not fancy or expensive but it does what I want. The inner square markings on the plywood are the marks I made for the dust collection hole cut. Not sure if I want to go with the wider cut or the narrower cut. I will add four more bolts to the base for added strength.

 

[BWSmith]

In a very general sense......one of the things that makes highend TS's work so good is their very well thought out,engineered dust management.Which is almost irrespective of how much $$ it cost.IOW's,you can have well thought out dust management on a complete POS saw.....the two(saw quality),and dust management are somewhat independant.

Just sayin......active air movement within the relatively small spaces inside a TS is worth playin with.Ideally this is both positive and negative flow.The spinning blade is used as an air pump of sorts on highend saws to help blow air.This is seen in their well-developed sheetmetal blade shrouds/surrounds.....which usually connects to an interior flex duct.Then it either exits the machine or is dumped into an interior "main cavity",that is then exhausted.

Thats a positive flow because.....even if the interior duct dosen't connect to anything,it'll blow sawdust out this duct.

The negative pressure would be if you hooked a shop vac to the cabinet.You're creating a vacumn inside.So,even though the shop vac may not have enough suction to actually "pull" sawdust....it does help in keeping the dust from shooting out all the little cracks and openings.And really gets the blade shroud thingy working.

 

[Stephens73]

I did something similar.

I added an extension to mine. I built a box underneath for some dust collection, its not fancy but it works.

 

[Pirate]

Stephens73

Interesting fences on your saw. I wouldn't have the patience to measure f & r on the blade to get the fence aligned to the blade, for each cut.

I just bought a Biesemeyer fence from a cabinet maker, who gave me a bag of wood screws, he said he used to attach the rail to the saw. When he saw my face, questioning him, he told me the saw was set in a table (like yours) and the fence rail was screwed to the table front edge.

 

[joselamar]

Did you use 1/4" ply for the box?

 

[Stephens73]

Stephens73

Interesting fences on your saw. I wouldn't have the patience to measure f & r on the blade to get the fence aligned to the blade, for each cut.

I just bought a Biesemeyer fence from a cabinet maker, who gave me a bag of wood screws, he said he used to attach the rail to the saw. When he saw my face, questioning him, he told me the saw was set in a table (like yours) and the fence rail was screwed to the table front edge.

I got the idea for my fence from New Yankee workshop, it had to be built to custom fit my table. It cost me 10 bucks for the black 3/4" pipe, 24 for the two sets of pipe clamps and the melamie was 22 for a 4x8 sheet. I didn't use it all so I have like maybe 40 bucks into my fences. Much cheaper than a Biesemeyer. But I would have to construct a rail system, and I am not a machinist. It isn't that hard to line up my cuts, I just set a triangle to be sure I am square. Works great for me.

I built my dust collection box from 1/2" cdx plywood.

 

[woodnthings]

interesting fences

Using a clamp is a cool idea. I made one for a bandsaw using a bar clamp very similar to those. http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f27/shop-made-bought-bandsaw-fence-lets-see-44227/

How ever I think you stopped short of having a self squaring fence.
If you bring the fence forward and have it secured to a cross member at 90 degrees, like a Biesemeyer it will self square when clamped.
The cross member can be a 2 x 2 and bear along the front face of your table. Clamping pressure will draw it tight against the table edges, like you have now.
A good fence is the heart of the tablesaw, which is the mainstay of the shop. :yes:

 

[Pirate]

A good fence is the heart of the tablesaw, which is the mainstay of the shop. :yes:

I agree 100% with this.
Can never understand, someone recommending a ts, saying "but you may want to upgrade the fence"

If I were looking for a saw, I would look for a Biesemeyer style fence, then see what saw is included with it!

In a thread on which saw to buy, there were 2 Delta contractor saws. 1 had an orig. Jet Lock fence. The other had a Biesemeyer fence, and was $100 more. The Jet Lock saw looked a little cleaner.
The buyer bought the Jet Lock one. Hope they never use a Biesemeyer fence, and find out what they missed.
My Uni had a Jet Lock on it, and when I replaced it with a Xacta fence (Jet, Bies. clone) it turned it into a much better saw.

If I did multiple precision cuts, a Incra fence might be on my list.