Apply palm directly to forehead

[Mark J]

Wait!  We can't even blame the CEO's?!  Then it must be the Board of Directors, or the guys in the mail room, 'cause that's all that's left.  

Not to get back to the original topic or anything, but this was pretty much what I was thinking when I saw the orginal pics.

1 hour ago, Chestnut said:

the original point i wanted to make which was that port design might increase performance despite the contrary thoughts due to the fluid rushing around the obstruction creating a low pressure behind it both directing the dust from the smaller line and increasing flow....

Maybe the execution wasn't the most aerodynamic, but I think it might function better than it's appearance would suggest.  @Bombarde16 were you able to test out the system before modification?  Did the modification help?

[Chestnut]

7 minutes ago, Mark J said:

Wait!  We can't even blame the CEO's?!  Then it must be the Board of Directors, or the guys in the mail room, 'cause that's all that's left.  

I tihn the point that I failed to make clear and that is becoming aparent is that the failure is a company wide faiulre and there isn't a single person to blame but a lot of people that made compromises that lead to the breakdown.

8 minutes ago, Mark J said:

Maybe the execution wasn't the most aerodynamic, but I think it might function better than it's appearance would suggest.  @Bombarde16 were you able to test out the system before modification?  Did the modification help?

Saying areodynamic is a double edge sword though. An airplanes wing by design ISN"T aerodynamic by the defination of (of or having a shape that reduces the drag from air moving past) because it's the drag that's created that gives the plane lift. If it was perfectly areodynamic the plane would never leave the ground. Some things are designed to be not areodynamic to serve a purpose. EG a spoiler on a racecar increases drag.  Fun fact anF1 car drag coefficient is between 0.7 and 1.1 where as a prius is 0.3 and some new cars are even as low as 0.22 (lower means less drag).

[Minnesota Steve]

So I'm actually not entirely convinced that's a bad design.

The problem with a wye joint at that point is it'd really stick out far from the back of the saw to the point of hitting things as you push the saw about.   So doing the tee  is a compromise in terms of space.  As far as why it's blocked off.   They might have done that to ensure adequate air flow comes through the 2 1/2" hose connection.   It's that principle of finding the path of lease resistance... so they added some resistance.   I'm saying it may have been something they did intentionally after doing some testing.

Now if you aren't using the overhead dust collection, then that's a different issue and this design isn't flexible for a different configuration.