My first real project - garage ceiling shelving

[fjimp]

Chris,

Impressive photo's and a very insightful description. I recently read from someone here that if you open the inlet opposite the inlet your hose is hooked up to 1/2 way dust collection is improved. I tried that by removing the rubber cap then using the 3300 with my jointer. I was very pleased at the decrease in sawdust I picked up later. The next time I used the Jointer I left the opposite inlet closed all the way to get a comparison. Trust me leaving it 1/2 open is the way to go. I also leave the 3300 running for several minutes after I am finished making sawdust, with all three inlet ports open. It amazing how clean the air in my shop becomes. The good part being the boss lady doesn't complain about dust. Jim

[Bruce]

Chris,

Impressive photo's and a very insightful description. I recently read from someone here that if you open the inlet opposite the inlet your hose is hooked up to 1/2 way dust collection is improved. I tried that by removing the rubber cap then using the 3300 with my jointer. I was very pleased at the decrease in sawdust I picked up later. The next time I used the Jointer I left the opposite inlet closed all the way to get a comparison. Trust me leaving it 1/2 open is the way to go. I also leave the 3300 running for several minutes after I am finished making sawdust, with all three inlet ports open. It amazing how clean the air in my shop becomes. The good part being the boss lady doesn't complain about dust. Jim

Jim,
I'm not clear on what inlet you are opening half way. Can you elaborate?
Bruce

[fjimp]

Bruce,
I hope I understand your question correctly. There is a manifold on the front of the DC3300 dust collector with three inlets where you can attach hoses. Mine came with two plugs that can be inserted when a hose is not inserted in the remaining two inlet ports. Each of those plugs has two parts. The larger piece fits firmly into the manifold holes to plug them when no hose is installed. Those larger plug pieces each have a hole in them and the second part (a rubber cap) fits over the open hole in the plug.

What I propose is removing one of the rubber plugs. Assume for a moment you have only one hose attached and it is on the right side port. Then you remove the rubber cap from the left side port and leave the bottom port totally sealed.

I find that in my shop I am only capable of running one piece of equipment at a time thus see no reason to have more than one hose attached at a time. Over the Christmas holidays my daughter was truning pens with me in the shop. I decided to hurry things along a bit and had the bandsaw and the lathe going at the same time. Oh yes my band saw is a shopsmith but is free standing with it's own motor. The point being with two hoses connected at the same time I really felt the DC3300 was taxed a bit.

Regarding shop safety and operating tools. This evening I decided to cut two small rectangular holes in order to finish a project. I have a rule to stop working in my shop when I first begin to feel tired. I worked an extra thirty minutes and came a lot closer to losing losing a finger than I ever have before. I still have the finger but will be reminded of my stupidity by the small divit I removed from the side of my finger for a long time to come. Jim

[pinkiewerewolf]

Chris, thanks for sharing the photos. I'm envious of the work area.

[paulmcohen]

osx-addict,

Thank you for sharing your experiences regarding dust collection with a bigger/badder dust collector. I have been contemplating playing around with the lower guard, adding rubber flaps or other types of things to help eliminate gaps and improve collection. If I figure anything good out, I will certainly share it.
- Chris

I have a very big, very bad dust collector with 6" metal pipe and it doesn't work as well as my Craftsman Shopvac on collecting dust from the table saw. The problem is by the time you narrow the flow to the 2.5" port you have so much restriction that you still get sawdust.

For the lathe or planer with 4" port it works great, if I had the room I would be using the Shosmith collector but my collector is in another room.

[paulmcohen]

When I was at a TA and Rick was doing his thing, I would said there was about the same proportions of sawdust that wound up on the floor as yours. I was rather surprised at the end of the day how much needed to be cleaned up. But the same thing happens with me as well.

This is where a large dust collector comes in handy, I can connect one port to the Shopsmith and put another on the floor to collect the overflow. I could even connect a third if I ever get the Shark looking saw guard.

[charlese]

Hi Chris! My $0.02 - Very nice photos. Along with these, your explanations were very clear. Shelves are a very good first project, because you will need places to put stuff while completing the shop.

I can't add very much to what others have said except these few things:

= Dust collection (actually sawdust collection) will be improved by switching from the Shop Vac to a dust collector. It's all about CFM (cubic feet per minute) of air movement. I had set up my Shop Vac while my DC 3300 was down for fan repair. The sawdust remaining on the carriage and floor was decidedly and obviously more than with the DC 3300. There is some sawdust left behind with my 3300, but a lot less than the Shop Vac. In fact, as soon as the relatively small filter on the Shop Vac gets plugged up with fine dust, it's collection will get worse real fast.

= When I use the aluminum 24" fence extension, which is all of the time, because with the sandpaper, there is absolutely no slippage, I have nuts rather than wing nuts on the back side. I always use a phillips screwdriver to hold the screw with a 'spin tight' wrench to tighten the extension. Your photo shows about an eighth of an inch more aluminum on the blade side than mine. I've never had the catching issue. Considering the problem you are having with the upper blade guard, maybe you should think about sawing off a little aluminum. Don't worry about the aluminum harming your carbide blade.

= Rather than using a feather board as a stop, I would recommend a small block of wood. Just clamp it to the fence. It only needs to be a spacer. A 1/4" block will work just as well as a piece of a 2X4.

= Incidentally, I find the collection at the saw is better with only one port open. As a table in the PTWFE shows, - -The CFM of the 3300 increases as ports are opened. - - but this increase must be divided between the number of open ports. Since the CFM of the 3300 does not double when an additional port is opened, the CFM in each individual port must decrease. The largest amount of air flow you can get is through one (only) port and hose.

[Bruce]

Bruce,
I hope I understand your question correctly. There is a manifold on the front of the DC3300 dust collector with three inlets where you can attach hoses. Mine came with two plugs that can be inserted when a hose is not inserted in the remaining two inlet ports. Each of those plugs has two parts. The larger piece fits firmly into the manifold holes to plug them when no hose is installed. Those larger plug pieces each have a hole in them and the second part (a rubber cap) fits over the open hole in the plug.

What I propose is removing one of the rubber plugs. Assume for a moment you have only one hose attached and it is on the right side port. Then you remove the rubber cap from the left side port and leave the bottom port totally sealed.

I don't have the 3300, but I do have a 1 1/2 HP Grizzly that has two 4" ports. I guess the reason for leaving the other port open is to clear the dust from the ambient air, not necessarily to increase the efficiency at the saw. Correct?

[Ed in Tampa]

Chris
Since everyone else is weighing in on this I will too.
First it looks like your going to end up with a great setup.

CAUTION be real careful how you hang your shelves and what you put on them. Ceiling joists are not engineered to support much weight, their purpose is to keep the two walls from moving in or out. Their strength is tension and compression of their length. They have little strength engineered into them for things hanging from them. By suspending shelves from them you can have a failure. My son in law is a contractor and he can usually find a garage ceiling to fix to keep his crew busy if things get slow, (never a lack of this kind of work) so be careful.

On the dust collection I'm an advocate of letting a second port open in many cases. With the port open the fan turns faster (based on sound no scientific measurements). I believe the increase in speed increases the air flow and possibly may have a slight effect on suction (not sure if it goes up or down). However I think air flow speed is what is needed for catching sawdust from the saw, jointer and planer.

I also found that if I use a zero clearance throat plate I have more dust on the floor than if I had used the normal plate. Again I think this is due to air flow restriction. With the normal plate in the air flows freely around blade and carries dust to the hose. With an air flow restriction suction must move the dust.

All that said while I can't truly compared your amount of dust to mine I think I catch a lot more dust than you have using my DC3300 with or without a port open. That may be due to the lower shield not being positioned right.

Again be careful with your shelves, I'm a very strong advocate of using columns and wall anchorage to help take some of the shelf weight off the ceiling joists.
Ed

[charlese]

Whoops! Sorry Chris!! This morning when cross cutting - I saw that my 24" miter extension sticks out just like yours. Yes, it can go beneath the upper saw guard unless you are lucky or push the guard over a bit.

Guess I haven't noticed that is because I automatically flip to upper guard up, before cross cutting. The splitter and anti kick back pawls are still effective.