Hello All,
Well, earliers this week I framed my first wall in my basement. Used the CMS to chop some studs and plates and the framing nailer to put it all together. I’ve heard stories about how people hate to sand drywall mud, but never heard of people talk or complain about sawdust. Well, my CMS loves to eat wood and defecate sawdust all over the place!
I was wondering how some of you are handling the sawdust in your shop when it gets all over your workbench/table and especially the CMS. I’ve got a 708 and the last thing I want is the sliding feature compromised when sawdust adheres to the fine film on the slide bars, etc.
I have a Rigid ShopVac and the manufacturer makes a kit for attaching to miter saws and other common shop equipment. My concern is only on its effectiveness as I’ve noticed that the fabric collector on my 708 only collects about 2/3 the saw dust created in its little baggy. Maybe a shovac attached with some ‘sucking’ action <grin> would help better?
Curious as to how some of you are handling this sawdust problem in your workshops.
Replies
Kartman,
For a shop you should have at least two levels of dust collecton.
One is to directly connect the dust collectors on the tools to some sort of suction system. The shop-vac hook-up you described fits this level. There are also dedicated dust collectors that take the place of the shop vac. Many are more powerful and have large storage bags that don't need constant emptying. The blowers are also bigger and less likely to burn out. A good tool outfitter can show you these as well as all of the related plumbing. If you use your shop a lot, they are a good investment.
The other level is to use an ambient air filter. These usually get hung from the ceiling and catch all of the fine dust the first level can't. For a home or part time shop I recommend at least one of these. I recommend buying one before buying the other collection system. There are even portable models that you can carryy around the house when working on projects. Ridgid has these models so you can see them if you go to the orange store.
By the way, the dust collector systems mostly collect the stuff you don't want to clean up. The air filter collects the stuff you don't want to breath or have floating around the house damaging things.