Is Dust Collection Useless Or Is Something Not Setup Right?

[Meng88]

Pretty new to the Shopsmith (only had mine for a couple months). Is this normal for the amount of dust with a dust collector running? This is the picture after ripping 10-15 one-foot boards.

[RFGuy]

Pretty new to the Shopsmith (only had mine for a couple months). Is this normal for the amount of dust with a dust collector running? This is the picture after ripping 10-15 one-foot boards.

From your picture it looks like the lower saw guard is not adjusted correctly leaving a gap near the top of the table. The two knurled nuts on the front and back of the saw guard (shown in your picture) need to be loosened and the lower saw guard needs to be adjusted to the right of the saw blade as far as possible. This should close the gap between the lower saw guard and the top of the table. This should greatly reduce the sawdust as shown in the picture. There are still other places for sawdust to escape around the Shopsmith saw guard. With the tilting table design there are some tradeoffs to it unfortunately. The thread linked below has some of the previous good discussions for ways to minimize sawdust escape around the saw guard:
http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewtopic.php?t=6063

[Meng88]

A little confused, so for clarification...are you saying have the guard as “open” as it can me?

[dusty]

Definitely now right. As has been said, I believe the lower saw guard is either broken or improperly adjusted. I suggest you loosen the two knurl nuts and close the guards as far as they will go. I hardly ever run mine any other way (cutting dadoes or table tilted the exceptions).

[RFGuy]

A little confused, so for clarification...are you saying have the guard as “open” as it can me?

If you look at the area in the red circle of the pic below, it looks like about a 1/2" gap between the lower saw guard and the table above. This is where your sawdust is falling through. You may have to kneel down and look up at this area to see the gap.

IMG_5138_2.jpg (318.5 KiB) Viewed 19983 times

[Meng88]

Oh! When I put the blade and guard on, I assumed it needed to adjusted as close to the blade as possible. Never thought to look under to see what it “seals” up against. I’ll give it another try later, but I’m assuming this is the cause.

[P89DC]

It's been my experience that it'll be better but there's always a little bit to clean up.

[dusty]

A little confused, so for clarification...are you saying have the guard as “open” as it can me?

If you look at the area in the red circle of the pic below, it looks like about a 1/2" gap between the lower saw guard and the table above. This is where your sawdust is falling through. You may have to kneel down and look up at this area to see the gap.
IMG_5138_2.jpg

I am waiting to see the results on this suggestion. I have that gap, too. It is inherent with the lower saw guard.

I have escaped saw dust but not nearly that much.

[robinson46176]

We need more information here.
Question one is if this dust collection involves a shop vac, a Shopsmith DC or a full 4" conventional dust collector?
There is dust collection and there is dust collection...
Personally (and I have said this before) I don't really give a rats behind about chips and coarse saw dust that falls immediately to the floor... I have common brooms and push brooms and dust pans located around the shop. I don't mind sweeping up at all. I do some of my best thinking while holding onto a broom handle (as well as in the bathroom ) . Priority #1 out of 10 is getting the fine air-born dust, period... Getting the coarse stuff that falls down to the floor is about #9.
I use a couple of the common 4" dust collectors, one a Harbor Freight 2 HP and the other a Penn State 1 1/2 HP unit. I can't tell a nickels worth of difference in the performance of them. The difference I can tell is if I try to adapt down from 4" to about 2" to make a tight connection at the tool. If you choke it down you lose CFM and in getting the air-born dust CFM is about everything. Simple static vacuum does very little.
When I connect my dust collector to any tool I DO NOT adapt it down in size. I have not developed a proper universal system yet but I just push the 4" hose over the smaller connection and hold it there with a spring clamp, string or tape. It doesn't look very sophisticated but it works... With the collector running near wide open it will suck in fine dust from a an area about the size of a 4' beach ball including a lot of the coarser stuff as well.
I can't recall who here first expressed this concept to give them credit but some one of the regular contributors presented it in a past discussion and I realized that they were correct and have been making sure my DC could breathe as much as possible instead of a tight connection at the tool instead.
I'm looking at several connection possibilities, one is a simple tab on each tool with a matching tab on the 4" hose and a captive small bolt and a wing nut. I have also considered some kind of a quick clamp like a small pair of Vise-Grips. Another thought is a stout magnet but I fear the hose is too stiff for that.
.
I first proved this to my satisfaction when using an older bench table saw on a stand that is boxed in to gravity catch sawdust and I just stuck the 4" DC hose loosely down in that box and was surprised at how cleanly it operated.


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[algale]

The Shopsmith doesn't have the greatest dust collection. But even taking that into account, my first reaction was, wow, that's a terrible result! But after re-reading, I'm not sure if what you are seeing is normal or not.

My confusion is that while say you ripped "10-15 one foot boards" that still leaves out at least one important variable: thickness. A thicker one foot long board will make more dust per rip than a thinner one foot long board because the blade is removing more wood on the thicker board.

So, for example, if these were 10-15 boards, one foot long by 1/2" thick that you made one rip cut in per board, that's subjectively more dust than I would expect to get with my 520. However, if the boards you were ripping were 2" thick, that might be about what I'd expect to see.

Another variable here is the dust collector/hose you are using and how many CFM it moves (h/p is largely irrelevant). The DC3300 is what I use along with the Shopsmith hose. It is rated at somewhere around 330 cfm and is marginally adequate, in my opinion, for dust collection with the 520.

If you are using a shop vac with a thin hose and an adapter to connect to the lower saw guard, that will adversely effect dust collection. Shop-vacs filters also tend to clog and lose suction and CFMs. Also check the hose for obstructions.

Suggestions have been made about the lower guard and its width. Frankly, I find that it doesn't make a huge difference what width it is set to.

If you have ever removed the tie bar guard (or if you acquired this machine used) do check to see if your tie bar guard is installed correctly. If it is installed upside down, this might have some impact on dust collection.

Best,
Al