Miter Saw Dust Collection Question

[David Stone]

I’m building a miter station. For dust collection, I thought of putting one of these dust hoods in the shelf that the saw sits on, so there is a big vacuum port/down draft behind the saw, attached to a shop vac. (Like a drop-in sink.)

https://assets.leevalley.com/Size4/10121...f-0019.jpg

Will this work? Or is the suction not strong enough?

[fredhargis]

For me the shop vac would not be enough. Miter saw are among the harder tools to capture the dust and i would want a stout DC.

[jteneyck]

Great big hood so it works at all angles, with all the DC flow you can get to it. 

John

[JDuke]

Suction is a matter of air movement.
The simplest way to look at it, is high volume/ low pressure systems like huge cyclones need big pipes to move air at low pressure.

So a 5hp cyclone likely would move enough air to provide passable collection with one of the hoods big enough to cover a miter saw.

Vacuums deliver low volume at high(er) static pressure so are essentially useless when connected to an opening big enough to funnel air from a miter saw.

That’s the simplest overview, you can spend weeks to months getting into the weeds of dust collection.

But the short answer is you need lots of airflow behind a miter saw and even then your not likely to be happy with how effective collecting efforts will be just due to the ability of high velocity dust to escape the low velocity high volume air stream.

[David Stone]

So, I'm thinking for now I just stick with a hose connected to the dust port of the saw until I can put something better together.

[skeeterk]

I copied the box type that replaces the original mitre saw fence seen on several web variations. It has that big gulp hood (4" port) underneath and have a separate 2" hose connected to the OEM dust chute.   This "box" reduces the volume behind the saw.   What doesn't go into directly into the 2" hose is contained and collected by the 4" hose.   This setup works pretty well for me but not perfectly dust free.

[Stwood_]

I built my own huge dust hood, with a 6" port behind and down.
No shopvac is going to touch the dust that gets away from a mitersaw.

[ajkoontz]

I did a homemade wood box around my SCMS. Copied the design from the internet or magazine or whatever. Hooked to a ‘650’ CFM harbor freight bag DC with <6’ of duct run. Sawdust pickup into the bag is marginal at best. BUT, I would do it again without hesitation because it does keep the dust in the box and not spewing all over my garage. Worst case I can clean it out with the shop vac at the end of every project. I could spend some $$ and tweak it so I actually get (more of) the dust in the bag, but for little $ it works good enough and saves a ton of cleanup.

[Mr Eddie]

Festool miter saws have a rubber cup behind the blade to help collect dust.  I bought the cup, bracket, and screws for around $12 and adapted it to my Makita 10".  It doesn't catch it all but it did make a noticeable difference for the small investment in time and money.

Lonnie

[JDuke]

Lonnie,

I’d like to see a picture of that if you could.

Duke