Table saw hook up HELP

[CharlieBlink]

I have a Powermatic table saw and have a 6" drop about 4' away from the factory dust port. I can hook up to the table saw from the 6" line directly at the same location as the factory port and enlarge it to 6" or I can run 2 4" lines to the saw - one to the factory port and probably one to the plastic door on the side of the saw. The saw comes with a plastic under table blade guard and 3" hose connecting to the 4" dust port. I think the hose connection to the blade guard is probably 2-1/2".

Now for my question -
1) Do I make the 6" connection at the typical table saw location and modify the saw and drop the under table/blade collection guard - possibly add the guard over the table with another 4" hose?
2) Do I Make two 4" connections - one to the factory port with factory internal hose and guard and one to the side of the saw through the plastic Door?
3) Do I make the 4" factory hose connection with guard and 2-1/2" blade guard and the overtable guard connection with 4" hose?

The 6" drop I am connecting to is about 10' away from the CV1800 collector and drops about 10' (10' ceiling height) through 2 45's to a Y 3' off the ground where I can split or do whatever to connect to the saw about 4' away so I'm pretty sure there won't be any collector insuffinciencies to be concerned about.

Does anyone have any advice on what would be the best connection to the saw???

[Jim O'Dell]

I'm going to guess that you have the PM2000, is this correct? Does the blade shroud hook up to the 4" factory hookup? If so, is this 4" port split to the shroud hook up and the rest to the cabinet? Or does the 4" only run the shroud? If only the shroud, I'd leave that alone. If it splits inside, and you can do it where the shroud hose could still be hooked up if you enlarge the port to 6", then I'd do that.
My best suggestion would be to temporarily hook up the 4" factory port, and cut some wood. Where does the dust that's not collected go? Look for changes/improvements that would help that while still keeping the factory set up working as it does. Hopefully there are some other users here that have that saw and can make some recommendations. If not, are you a member of a larger woodworking forum, like Saw Mill Creek, Family Woodworking or Lumberjocks? If so, post on that type of forum and see if a PM user has a good suggestion.
Hope this helps!! Jim.

[CharlieBlink]

Hey Jim

Yes I beleive it is the PM2000 with the built in mobile base wheels. The factory port hooks up to the back of the saw down at the bottom just like most all cabinet saws but there is a plastic shroud under the blade and a short piece of 3" hose connecting the 4" port and the plastic shround under the blade. This in effect leaves the only saw pick up to be the shroud under the blade. The connection is direct and I beleive the shroud necks down to about 2-1/2". I'll hook up the factory port and try it as well I also recall a poster on this forum that installed a sheild to the blade insert that helped with his saw dramatically. I'll also try a couple of those other forums to see what they come up with.

Oops - Just had another idea - I could use the factory port at the bottom of the saw to collect there and add another 4" port to the saw to collect off the shroud. - That sounds like a doable option coupled with the added insert deflector

Thanks
Charlie

[Girino]

Another option is to enlarge the cabinet port to 5" and then a 4" line to a blade guard to get the sawdust from the table top. The shark guard, for example, comes with a 4" port option. The cross sectional area of a 5" and 4" combined is almost the same as a single 6".

[Danscyclone]

CharlieBlink,
I also have the PM2000 and have a 4 in. flex to the cabinet and a 4 in. hose to an overhead dust hood. It works real well. I do get a few chips come out of the front of the overhead hood and think if I installed a brush like I have see on others would help. I added a deflector that attaches to the inserts and slide inside the blade shroud. This made a huge improvement especially when using my dado blade. I have pictures posted in the Gallery at http://www.gallery2.clearvuecyclones.com/v/Dust+Hoods+and+Pickups/Hoods/ (http://www.gallery2.clearvuecyclones.com/v/Dust+Hoods+and+Pickups/Hoods/)
Also, you shouldn't have to worry about the available air flow, from what I have read, the CV1800 will produce more than enough.

[Jim O'Dell]

I'd try it with the factory hook up first for the cabinet. The shrouds are supposed to do very well at getting the dust and chips leaving the inside of the cabinet virtually clean. The overhead guard is always good to have on a TS doing through cuts. Won't help a bit with non through cuts like a dado of course.
See if you get any dust inside the cabinet that the shroud doesn't get before modifying the base. You may find you don't need to. Jim.

[Danscyclone]

I agree with Jim that the blade shroud will collect most of the chips and dust. But when you run a dado blade, most of the chips will be thrown out above the front of the shroud and will pile up in the cabinet and out the front of the saw on the floor. That happened once before I made the insert deflectors mentioned below. I thought about installing a larger hose on the cabinet but decided to try the deflector first. The cabinet stays clean now. It worked so well, that I made them for my other insets.

[CharlieBlink]

Thanks Dan and Jim for your input. I'll definately be taking your advice. My plan is to make the factory hook up and who knows the 3" port hooked to the 5 hp 1800 cfm collector just might do the job. On one hand though I was looking over the saw tonight and it appears that if I do put another hole in the cabinet I could hook that up to the hose and blade hood quite easily as well as having the additional hook up at the bottom of the cabinet to collect the strays created. I could put the new hole a little higher and to the side of the existing hole to hook up the blade guard hose and it might even work better as the blade guard hook up angles off to one side to accomodate tilting the blade. While I was looking at the blade guard tonight I could see where Dan's idea would work as I'm sure most of the chips come off the blade as it re-enters the saw and the factory guard is a bit lower than the table top leaving a nice gap to allow chips to fall astray. A few stray chips dont really bother me much but I am getting really tired of the facefull using the saw with out anything hooked up and really look forward to having a dust collector. I'll definately report back in a couple weeks to share my experience.

Charlie