Sawdust collection on zero clearance inserts and sleds

friscomike · Post by **friscomike** » Fri Feb 19, 2010 10:44 pm

Howdy folks,

Today I spent about four hours cutting pieces on the Incra sled (What a pleasure it is). Outside of forgetting to turn on the 3300 and forgetting to open the gate when I did remember to turn on the 3300, I noticed a lot of sawdust on the sled and floor. Zero clearance inserts and the Incra sled don't have a very large hole for the vacuum to pull in the sawdust, and make more dust than normal inserts and cross cutting. I'm wondering if cutting a small 3/4" hole in the sled and inserts at the end of the cut, might provide more vacuum on the surface to pull in the sawdust.

Has anyone tried this, before?

Dusty on the Brazos,
mike

reible · Post by **reible** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 12:37 am

Hi,

I have found that zci actually help control the sawdust that gets on the top of the table....

I think you will find that the hole is going to let even more saw dust come out but hey I could be wrong... go a head and give it a try and report back.

Ed

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:47 am

I find dust collection as anything BUT an absolute science. Things I think should work don't and things that seem to make no sense to me make vast improvements.

If you think about the process of cutting the blade is cutting on the downward side of blade. All dust should be shot down into the lower saw guard. Yet some apparently hangs onto the blade is thrown up landing on the table.

Opening another port on the DC3300 to my way of thinking should lower suction and make it less efficent, yet my DC3300 seems to work better with two ports open instead of just the one.

Now incorporate these two ideas. One you want to catch any dust as it leaves the backside of the blade and two have two dust ports open. Solution should be a saw guard with vac port on the top.

That way you could hook the vacuum line to the lower saw guard collecting all the main dust being shot down and a vacuum line to the port in the saw guard that would catch the residual that ends up on the table. Thus you would have two ports open on the DC3300.

There are oem saw guards that have vacuum port. Sharkguard is one company that make them for Shopsmiths.

curiousgeorge · Post by **curiousgeorge** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 2:54 pm

Ed in Tampa wrote:Opening another port on the DC3300 to my way of thinking should lower suction and make it less efficent, yet my DC3300 seems to work better with two ports open instead of just the one.

Ed,
The reason for this is that a DC just doesn't work like a vacuum cleaner. The DC is all about how much air flow you have and the vac is about suction. By opening the other port you are allowing more air flow; thus the DC works more efficient.

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 10:15 pm

My Goodness! What's wrong with a little sawdust? After all, it's what we do - Make Sawdust! - right?

Remember the pile of shavings from hand planing a few boards? How about the chips made while making box joints or dovetails with a router?

It's all good, except for the stuff that's so small you can inhale it and it gets into your bloodstream. Oh Well! Those are the dust particles so small you can't see them anyway! They don't pile up very much.