Table saw dust extraction - is a crown guard port effective?

[GraemeD]

Hello everyone.....this is my first post on this forum after a number of years of lurking in the background, so please be gentle with me!

I'm looking for a bit of advice and help from your experience in terms of dust extracting from a table saw.

I recently got around to fixing up a piped in dust extraction system in my workshop.....after many years of suffering mess and hazy atmospheres. It is based on a couple of the well known 63mm Axminster pipe kits and a two motor vacuum extractor. Seems to work ok so far, but I still get lots of fine dust emanating from my table saw.....it just seems to appear everywhere after a sawing session!

My saw is an older Kity 617 (kind of like the current 419, so small but accurate). It has a dust chute out the bottom which I connected to my system, but has no crown guard dust port.

I wanted to ask the forum members how effective a crown guard dust port is? Do you think it is worth me trying to fit a replacement guard, and will it fix my fine dust problem? Also, anyone any ideas how I could get hold of a suitable crown guard? I've wondered about trying a guard from another saw (eg. a Kity 419), or maybe even making something suitable.

Any feedback and thoughts would be very welcome!

Graeme

 

[Gordon T]

Hello and welcome to the forum. Not sure if this will be any help, but I have a record table saw, with crown guard dust take off and I find it works well enough. IF you wait long enough for them to reply there will be an expert along...eventiually. The more dust taken out of your workshop the better.

GT

 

[Paul.J]

Hello GraemeD and welcome
Have you looked at something likeThis
I had one on my previous saw and it worked quite well,though i doubt that you will remove all the dust from a table saw.
I believe some members have made their own similar sort of thing.

 

[wizer]

The Triton has extraction on the crown guard and IMO it's very good.

 

[jasonB]

I have a Bestcombi 2000 which uses a lot of the 419 saw parts, the guard has a port at the rear and several "airways" cast into the plastic gaurd so air is drawn all along tit's full length.

It is quite effective at collecting a lot of the dust that would otherwise get thrown into the atmosphere, very useful as I do a lot of work with MDF/MFC. I didn't use the kity hose kit just some flexi hose from the local pond shop and teed into the main extraction port.

If your riving knife has a hole to take a M6 bolt then you should be able to retro-fit a Kity item, try contacting NMA for one.

Jason

 

[GraemeD]

Thanks very much for all the responses so far. It certainly sounds like most of you have had positive experiences with crown guard extraction. Without it, I've found that the heavier dust is taken away (presumably because gravity takes it downwards to my extraction port), but the lighter (and therefore more dangerous) dust is flung around the shop.

Paul.J - I had looked at Axminster's take off, and think it would be brilliant, but was put off by its price. I'm sure they used to offer a generic replacement crown guard for fitting to the riving knife, but it seems to have been discontinued.

Jason - this is great to hear. My riving knife has such a hole in it (slightly larger than 6mm, as it currently has a metal plug which holds the plastic guard in place using an M6 threaded knob), but I'm sure a little ingenuity would work around any issues. Can I ask what diam hose it works with?

Graeme

 

[jasonB]

The guard has a 25mm spigot so nominal 1" bore hose and a jubilee type clip will be OK.

The kity part No for the guard on the combi 2000 is 504363 if you intend to try and get one from NMA.

Jason

 

[Steve Maskery]

Graeme
I made a new guard for my saw, it is my avatar. It doesn't have DX at the moment, but it is on my list of TTD when I have an hour or so in the workshop. I have no doubt that it will help.

And Welcome.
Steve

 

[TheDudester]

The Triton has extraction on the crown guard and IMO it's very good.

I wholeheartedly agree with WiZeR. This made a big difference to my environment when I started using it.

Regards

D

 

[wizer]

Remember what the late great Barry Burgess did with the Triton Guard?

Brilliant!

 

[GraemeD]

Thanks guys for all the brilliant feedback.....this is all really useful, particularly since it comes from real personal experience. Sounds like I really have to do this to improve my dust situation!

Looks like I have three suggested routes forwards;

1). a Kity spare from NMA.....probably the easiest and most direct fit
2). a Triton guard (not thought of that previously). From the pics it looks generic enough to be fitted to my riving knife (I presume the little knob is attached to a bit of studding which goes through the riving knife?).
3). Make your own....maybe out of perspex offcuts

I'm presuming that the design of the guard is non-critical and won't much affect its operation in terms of dust collection so long as it follows the normal basic design.....hence any of these ideas will work equally well.

Did some more sawing yesterday....MDF, made lots of horrible dust! So I'm definitely going to move forwards this week. I guess I'll probably try the NMA route first, all things being equal, as this will get me up and running quickest.....unless anyone can see a better way forwards.

All the best
Graeme