Improving the Dust Extraction on a Table Saw

[MarkAW]

I have a Charnwood Cabinet saw and the dust extraction on it is poor. All the dust drops out the bottom onto the floor, but it's not a bad saw otherwise. After seeing someone mention on here how they solved it, I thought I'd post a description of my project to help anyone else

Here's my table saw opened up via 4 bolts/screws on the top side panels:

You'll see it's all open to the floor and the 100mm inlet turns into something much smaller inside
That internal pipe is fitted to the internal blade guard with an even smaller square cutout inside:

I needed to be careful any modifications or additions didn't foul the tilt and height mechanisms that drop the motor below the top cabinet at their extremes:

So I ordered a big mouth extraction hood from Axminster and deliberated for quite some time how best to fit it.

In the end I:

• Cut some plywood the same size as the internal of the top cabinet. Cut out the size of the hood from that, but specifically in a position for it to fit so that the motor would drop into the opening of the hood.
• Cut that plywood in half to allow easy fitting. (It was possible to get the hood in through one of the sides with a bit of fiddling, so no need to lift anything heavy.)
• A little cut out for the cable clip (a welded on nut)
• Removed the old dust port connection and marked out and cut (using a jigsaw with metal blade) a bigger port to allow a 100mm hose to pass through. Filed and sanded.
• Added a plywood ramp to help funnel some of the dust into the hood at the same angle as the hood. (This took some careful measuring)
• Remove and cut off one side of the blade guard and the small port (I would have taken the guard off completely, but thought it best to provide some protection from projectiles hitting the plastic hood) I left two faces continue so I could bend them together to provide a continuous protection surface. It also meant I didn't need to fiddle with the alignment of the riving knife as the blade guard was fitted with it using bolts. Be careful which you undo. There's two at the back for the alignment that you want to leave untouched
• Fitted the 100mm pipe and screwed down the hood (don't drop any screws, bolts or tools at this point, they'll be tricky to retrieve)
• Put some draft excluder foam tape I had lying around onto the more open spaces around the bottom sides of the cabinet. The goal here wasn't to seal it up, there's plenty of air gaps under the table, it was to focus the airflow from the top down into the hood rather than the sides

So it now looks like this (without the blade)

And a few more pictures in progress for reference:

I intend to get some magnetic sheets to cover the large gaps at the tilt mechanism holes front and back and haven't cut anything, so haven't got a verdict on how well it performs yet. Should be a lot better.

 

[artie]

Those must be massive pics.

I'm on full fibre and it's like being back on dial up in the nineties

 

[MarkAW]

posted on a phone, (taken from a phone) don't see an option to do the thumbnail thing.

They're only 2.2mb, and there's 9, so on the slowest fibre page should display in around 0.7 seconds

 

[artie]

Must be a knot in my Ethernet.

Good job on the saw.

 

[MikeJhn]

I did a similar mod back in 2016 to an Axminster TS250 with the addition of an overhead extractor/blade guard: Axminster TS250-2 modifications.

 

[Simon89]

Would be good to hear how some feedback on how it works.

What are you doing for extraction at the crown guard?

 

[MikeJhn]

This is how I extracted from the crown guard, works extremely well: Table saw Crown Guard angle.

 

[MarkAW]

At the moment I've just hooked up the crown guard to a vacuum, so both dx and vac working until I decide and get to working on that.

I do like the idea of making it clear and easier to lift. I find sometimes the stock gets stuck on the guard and I have to lift it manually (with a push stick of course) but I do wonder about making something that is there to protect easier to lift

 

[Citracal]

Thanks for posting this information, can you confirm how much of an improvement this resulted in?? Was it worth the effort???

 

[MarkAW]

Hello. Yes it has been a vast improvement. I now don't need to sweep the floor after each table saw use

I don't know that it provides any more suction. I've no way to test this, but it does collect all of the under table dust now.

The OEM crown guard still needs a replacement. Haven't got round to that yet. I think that will improve things some more.

 

[TRITON]

Excellent bit of problem solving .

 

[jb94]

I did a similar mod back in 2016 to an Axminster TS250 with the addition of an overhead extractor/blade guard: Axminster TS250-2 modifications.

I have the same table saw, nice work on your mods.

I’m building a new wheeled stand for my saw and it got me thinking - I’ve already made a plywood platform for it to sit on, I could just use a holesaw and attach a hose adapter directly to this instead of getting the bigmouth funnel. Though might need to take an angle grinder to the bottom rails / cut out a recess so it sits flush without gaps at the bottom.

 

[MarkAW]

You may find it builds up in the corners, but that may not be a problem

 

[jb94]

You may find it builds up in the corners, but that may not be a problem

I did consider this, and tried to put an angled piece of hardboard inside, but it fouled the tilt mechanism sadly.

I wanted to keep as much storage space under the saw as possible, so didn’t want the dust extraction coming down too far.

If I’m getting loads of dust buildup I’ll rethink the design, but hopefully the suction from the hose should draw everything down (I hope)