dust collection operation?

Maybe I’m an idiot but…

I tried to use the dust collection system today with the radial arm saw. I turned it on. I opened the slide by the tool I was using. I made a decent mess with a couple cuts.

I disconnected the hose from the tool (It was press-fit) and suction was miserable. it was barely functional as a vacuum.

Is our main unit massively undersized? Is the ducting that leaky? The suction didn’t ever compare to a regular vac let along a shop vac with a decent motor.

Did I do something wrong?
-D

Wonder if it was clogged up again.

Brad

Did you check for other open connections? Often the CNC one is left open…

I didn’t… That was probably a contributing factor.
-D

When I used it last night every gate was open before I got started. General rule of thumb, go around and close every gate before you start working because at least half of them are open.

Dave, sounds like a gate was left open.

However, even with everything closed and working it still sucks. This is not a problem with our cyclone, which is pretty close to top of the line, rather, the small connector on top of the saw is a crappy design that’s never going to work well. Since I originally hooked it up, and discovered how crappy it really it I’ve been looking into other approaches.

I added $50 to the dust collection proposal to build a custom enclosure. Essentially you surround the back of the saw, and attach it to the 6" connector in addition to the 2 1/2-3" connector from the factory.