A final note (for now) on the Sawstop.
I’ve been on a bit of a crusade to eliminate or reduce dust in the shop. The old Grizzly was dreadful at dost collection. The top of the cabinet had so many cutouts up under the table (where you couldn’t see), that it was impossible to get sufficient suction to corral much of the dust. The cabinet filled with dust and a fair bit is sprayed out at you as well.
So when specing out the Sawstop, I spent the extra $275 for the overarm blade guard with integral dust collection. This seemed like a great addition. Reviews said that Sawstop was great at dust collection (for a table saw) and this overhead thing should really be the icing on the cake.
It shipped separately and arrived a couple of weeks after the saw, but right as I was building the outfeed table which was fortuitous because I needed to make a relief cut in the bottom to accommodate the vacuum hose connection.
Like the rest of the Sawstop experience, the assembly and installation was well thought out and easy. They included a fitting that attaches to the 4″ dust port on the rear of the cabinet. So you pull off your 4″ hose, slap that in place and reattach the hose to that fitting. It adds a smaller port for the arm which is just a friction fit, but tight enough.
The upper part is a couple of rigid pipes and a small flexible hose that attaches to the blade guard that came with the saw. Total time, 20 min. Sweet.
So, how does it work? Not great. I still got plenty of dust spewed out of the blade at me and that’s what I was looking specifically to avoid. All the promotional material suggested there should be little to no dust. So I was feeling more than a little disappointed with the investment. It’s not just the cost, but the hassle of actually using a blade guard. I had my Grizzly…at least 10 or 12 years and the included guard was never installed, not once. So, having one is taking some getting used to.
So I took it off and went back to just a splitter for a while. Then I got to thinking about it and tried it again. pulling the hose off the guard, there was damn little suction coming through. Hmm, clearly that’s a Problem. But, it’s not too surprising. The route to the saw from Breezy is about 20′ of PVC pipe connecting to a piece of flexible 4″ hose 6ish feet long and then there’s the splitter for the overhead arm. That’s nice and all, but it’s at a right angle to the flow and with the induced turbulence added to the leaky system, not much was reaching the guard area.
Well, shoot. I have already been feeling the limitations of Breezy. I really should have gone for the 220V version to simplify my wiring pain (and the scary need for a 30A breaker even though that line is 2′ long). But that motor was no more powerful than the 110V version and came at a $200 premium. It didn’t seem worth it. Plus the shop subpanel is only 8 spaces and a second 220V circuit would really necessitate replacing the panel for more space and I didn’t want to go to that hassle even though I am perfectly comfortable wiring a subpanel (because I can be SURE it’s cold, unlike the main panel which I treat with the utmost care).
A more powerful unit would be nice, but would not fit in the cramped basement shop. More due to the vertical space restriction than anything else (just over 7′ ceiling). Well, and marital harmony. Breezy’s 1.5HP motor already makes it sound like the house is now a hovercraft when you are upstairs since the whole place is hardwood floors and the basement is an open ceiling, so there’s zero sound dampening. Jess is very much looking forward to building me a shop and getting that thing out of the house.
Anyway, I finally stumbled on a solution. I pulled the Fein HEPA vacuum out of the sanding cabinet where it was rarely in use and tucked it under the wing of the saw. I removed the clever but useless diverter from the saw and reattached Breezy direct to the cabinet. Then routed the Fein’s hose to the end of the rigid pipe section of the overarm.
NOW, it sucks enough.
I am sure the original setup works fine in a professional shop with a 3HP (or more) dust collector, it’s just a too constricted arrangement to function with anything less without resorting to a separate unit as I have done.
Of course, the whole operation of using the saw is even more complicated. It’s like launching a fucking missile or something. Let’s run through the checklist:
- Earmuffs – check
- Dog not sleeping right next to Breezy – check
- Dog not sleeping under my feet in front of the saw – check
- Turn on the saw and start it’s power up sequence – check
- Wait until we have a green board on the saw – Check
- Start Breezy – Check
- Start Fein – Check
- Start the saw – Check
- Saw something avoiding any flesh or metal contacting the blade and firing the safety (again) – Check
- Stop the blade – Check
- Stop Breezy – Check
- Stop Fein – Check
- If I think I am done using the saw this session, power it off – Check
Shesh.