After viewing many different ideas on the web on dust collection for a RAS and trying different setups, I think this will be the final setup I'm going to stick with. Don't even try this with a standard shop vacuum as there is not near the air flow needed to be effective. I tried this with a Oneida Dust Cobra that out sucks a shop vac and there was still not enough air flow (which its not designed for). It took the Oneida Mini Gorilla to get the job done, but was very effective. Suction port is 4". I found the fence is what gets in the way of the dust collection so I made my system part of the fence. This could easily be made using wood and hard board, you could even narrow the width a bit. Note, this is mounted on a 12' RAS and the sides and back are wood with finger joints connecting each piece.
I don't use it with a dado blade (have a table saw and a smaller RAS) and I use a jig for angled cuts instead of changing the arm angle. If you're trying to get good dust collection at this level, doubt you'll get it with a dado blade. I can now use my my RAS without filling my shop with dust.
thats a pretty cool idea,your right about the fence blocking the flow of dust.how much or does any dust fly over the top?.i may amke something like this for mine since i only do 90 degree cuts.
Very clever.
Frank Howarth, over on YouTube, did the same type of thing. The suction is so good it actually holds the work piece tight up against the fence. LOL
Thank you for sharing your solution with us.
The only dust that escapes is through the top saw slot if you push the cut too fast in material such as MDF. Franks design was one I looked at before I built mine. If you notice, the fence is replaced by the horizontal 3/16" thick pieces near the kerf so dust shoots back into the collector, there is no fence to get in the way near the cut.
I forgot to mention, the dust collector is only connected to the 3/4" fence with the 4 bolts via thread inserts so if I choose to move the arm to say 45 degrees all I have to do is loosen the table clamps at the rear of the RAS and remove the dust collector and fence in one piece then replace the fence with another 3/4"x 36" piece of lumber.
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