Best Way to Seal Gaps on Table Saw

[chefmagnus@grics.net]

My table saw has huge gaps around the cabinet and the cast iron top. What is the best way to seal these up? Insulation? Spray Foam? Cut foam pieces? Duct Tape? Most of my dust collectors air is going to these gaps not pulling dust into the opening by the blade. 

Chef

[rodger.]

FWW had an article a while back about how to seal up any TS for better DC. Take a look in their website and see if you can locate the article.

[chefmagnus@grics.net]

Thanks the article answered my question and gave me a clue on how to tackle a couple more problems. You use expanding foam around the table top and fridge magnets around the height adjustment. 

 

Anyone know of a spray paint that matches DeWalt yellow? 

 

 

Chef

 

[mds2]

I'd be surprised if there wasnt "dewalt yellow" at the home centers.

[Eric.]

Have a baby poop on it and rub it around.

[Rick A McQuay]

I have read claims that sealing a saw produces negligible improvement on the table top. Which makes sense because you have to overcome the inertia of flying chips. But I don't know, not having tried it. Let us know how it works out.

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[estesbubba]

I'd be surprised if there wasnt "dewalt yellow" at the home centers.

The window and door

[TerryMcK]

That baby can poop high

[Tom King]

I just use blue masking tape.

[chefmagnus@grics.net]

Works well. Got to give wife lesson on using expanding spray foam,

 

Chef

[Trip]

Personally, I use aluminum ductwork tape. I’d recommend that over foam – you can remove the tape...

 

Remember, there has to be ‘make-up’ CFM. There’s a more technical term, but I forget it… With a 4” port, you need around 12 ½sqin where air can infiltrate the TS cabinet (hopefully most from the ZCI’s kerf and tilt-wheel penetration). Just make sure this is about 12sqin prior to covering all-possible sources… By totally filling all penetrations, you could actually make things worse…

 

Note: Same thing goes for a router tables. A perfectly good router table may have poor DC because it lacks adequate return air…

[Tom King]

not pretty, but it works

[TerryMcK]

Duct tape. Cheap and it's what it is designed for.

[Tom King]

 I used the blue tape so it wouldn't pull paint off the machine if left long term.   we also use a whitish duct tape that is a clean release kind.  you can see it on the ductwork in that picture going to the jointer.  we used the metal ductwork tape on the ducgts to start with, but was a real pain to get off when time to move came.  even though I'm not real particular about keeping things pristine, I still don't want to use something that will pull paint off a machine in the future, or be hard to get off.  we have to change the blue tape when the blade is tilted, but it's not really a big deal.  The dust collection works great.

 

for an air inlet, I built a wooden box over the motor that uses a 12x12 furnace filter that slides into slots.

[Afro Boy]

Be careful about sealing it up your table saw cabinet too much. A dust extractor needs to draw air in from somewhere in order to work efficiently. If you block too many of the air intakes it will struggle to get the airflow required to suspend the light dust particles and take them down the pipe. 

 

In my set up for instance, I've found that keeping the door slightly ajar actually increases the airflow a little and picks up more dust in the cabinet than having it all closed up. I'm using a 6" port and pipe to my extractor.

 

Cheers,

Af.

[Doug Boland]

I have a Grizzly contractor style saw. I closed in the top part of the stand just under the saw and simply cut cardboard pieces to fill in around the motor and belt area held with magnets.

Connected a 4" dust collector hose to the bottom. Works ok but still get some dust from the top and few of the gaps. As Marc says it's almost impossible to collect all of the dust from a table saw. So keep a broom handy. The important thing (I found anyway) is that the dust stays in the shop and doesn't find it's way in the house. And I have a basement shop right next to the family room so I ware a shop apron. Yes guys it's ok to ware an apron.

Doug

[chefmagnus@grics.net]

Yes I wear an apron both in the shop and the kitchen. One is leather and the other lookings like it belonged to a civil war surgeon. Because I forgot to throw it in the wash after processing two deer. It did get stinky and was washed but the stains stayed. 

 

chef