Matt's thread about sealing up leaks around the cabinet of his saw started me thinking about this topic.
There's potentially a conflict in the issue - to avoid splintering and getting thin offcuts jammed down beside the blade you want a tight fitting throat plate (the classic being one from ply through which to blade has been carefully raised to give almost zero clearance), yet to collect dust effectively you need to create lots of air movement in the volume around the blade towards the collection point(s).
To kick off a discussion/thought experiment:
The first basic is maybe whether or not you are using a top guard delivering a decent volume of suck, as well as an under blade chute doing the same - if yes, then you could potentially run with a tight fitting throat plate and treat the two areas as effectively separate collection zones.
If not as is often the case (due e.g. to either a very small duct to the top guard, or a top guard that doesn't collect dust at all - the former as in the case of my now sold Robland) , then you have to get enough suck to act in the area above the throat plate as well as that below - and all from the connection to the lower dust chute.
The big issue with dust from a saw blade is that it seems that it's carried around in the tooth gullets until it's flung off at very high speed. i.e. short of impossibly enormous amounts of suction you need to introduce some sort of deflector or guard to stop it right around the circle of the blade so that the suction you have can mop up.
Given a decent top guard and bottom chute the chances are that the weak points are the four gaps - above and below the throat plate at the leading/cutting and trailing ends of the blade. The better top guards are getting bigger, drop closer to the table and seem to contain a baffle to prevent dust being thrown out especially the operator's end of the guard.
Some of the high end saws like Format 4 are using very large and deep guards with roller which seem to ride on the work. (i'm not sure how they function in practice)
Without an effective top guard then you presumably need holes, perforations or clearance in the throat plate to allow air to move past it down to the chute - maybe even maintaining the close clearances to the blade to stop tear out and jamming, but with correctly placed (?) perforations elsewhere.
It's not too clear how best (given the need to angle the blade) to handle set up of the lower chute, in that at least some clearance is presumably needed under the throat plate to let air flow into it.
A Euro style sliding table saw like a Hammer or a Felder is of course another ball game, in that the slider forms the throat plate to the LHS of the blade.
Some saws seem to be really badly designed in this regard, and fill up the inside of the cabinet with dust - areas where dust is not meant to go at all.
Is it just me, or does it seem like there's not that much work being done on solutions? Or are there well known fixes about?
Over to you guys....
There's potentially a conflict in the issue - to avoid splintering and getting thin offcuts jammed down beside the blade you want a tight fitting throat plate (the classic being one from ply through which to blade has been carefully raised to give almost zero clearance), yet to collect dust effectively you need to create lots of air movement in the volume around the blade towards the collection point(s).
To kick off a discussion/thought experiment:
The first basic is maybe whether or not you are using a top guard delivering a decent volume of suck, as well as an under blade chute doing the same - if yes, then you could potentially run with a tight fitting throat plate and treat the two areas as effectively separate collection zones.
If not as is often the case (due e.g. to either a very small duct to the top guard, or a top guard that doesn't collect dust at all - the former as in the case of my now sold Robland) , then you have to get enough suck to act in the area above the throat plate as well as that below - and all from the connection to the lower dust chute.
The big issue with dust from a saw blade is that it seems that it's carried around in the tooth gullets until it's flung off at very high speed. i.e. short of impossibly enormous amounts of suction you need to introduce some sort of deflector or guard to stop it right around the circle of the blade so that the suction you have can mop up.
Given a decent top guard and bottom chute the chances are that the weak points are the four gaps - above and below the throat plate at the leading/cutting and trailing ends of the blade. The better top guards are getting bigger, drop closer to the table and seem to contain a baffle to prevent dust being thrown out especially the operator's end of the guard.
Some of the high end saws like Format 4 are using very large and deep guards with roller which seem to ride on the work. (i'm not sure how they function in practice)
Without an effective top guard then you presumably need holes, perforations or clearance in the throat plate to allow air to move past it down to the chute - maybe even maintaining the close clearances to the blade to stop tear out and jamming, but with correctly placed (?) perforations elsewhere.
It's not too clear how best (given the need to angle the blade) to handle set up of the lower chute, in that at least some clearance is presumably needed under the throat plate to let air flow into it.
A Euro style sliding table saw like a Hammer or a Felder is of course another ball game, in that the slider forms the throat plate to the LHS of the blade.
Some saws seem to be really badly designed in this regard, and fill up the inside of the cabinet with dust - areas where dust is not meant to go at all.
Is it just me, or does it seem like there's not that much work being done on solutions? Or are there well known fixes about?
Over to you guys....
