OMG!! At long last, my vintage General (Canadian-made) 350 cabinet saw has effective dust collection. While the machine was in pieces for new arbor bearings and some other maintenance, I decided to finally address the machine’s abysmal original dust collection.
With the foresight of an afterthought in the early 90s’, General’s geniuses in Quebec patched a 4-inch port onto the bottom of their fiberglass molded motor cover. This may have contributed to motor cooling but was virtually useless as a dust collection portal.
I long feared the notion of cutting a new 4-inch in a cabinet wall. I was afraid of (1) the metal cutting itself (2) damaging the machine and (3) perhaps a failure in terms of improved dust extraction.
Very happily, a bi-metal hole saw made surprisingly quick work of creating a clean new hole. Attaching an angled port ($3.95 at Klingspor) was fast and easy. I fabricated a ¼” plywood subfloor to raise the interior floor of the saw’s cabinet to the height of the port (just above the cabinet’s reinforced base). I also cobbled together an angled cardboard panel to better direct dust towards the port. Lastly, I covered (closed) the motor cover’s port.
I should note that I have a very short hose run into a Jet JET Vortex Cone dust collector.
What was perhaps a dust collection efficiency of 10-15% has become something closer to well upwards of 90%. I only wish that I’d done this years ago. Sorry for the long post. It’s just that this made me so very happy.
With the foresight of an afterthought in the early 90s’, General’s geniuses in Quebec patched a 4-inch port onto the bottom of their fiberglass molded motor cover. This may have contributed to motor cooling but was virtually useless as a dust collection portal.
I long feared the notion of cutting a new 4-inch in a cabinet wall. I was afraid of (1) the metal cutting itself (2) damaging the machine and (3) perhaps a failure in terms of improved dust extraction.
Very happily, a bi-metal hole saw made surprisingly quick work of creating a clean new hole. Attaching an angled port ($3.95 at Klingspor) was fast and easy. I fabricated a ¼” plywood subfloor to raise the interior floor of the saw’s cabinet to the height of the port (just above the cabinet’s reinforced base). I also cobbled together an angled cardboard panel to better direct dust towards the port. Lastly, I covered (closed) the motor cover’s port.
I should note that I have a very short hose run into a Jet JET Vortex Cone dust collector.
What was perhaps a dust collection efficiency of 10-15% has become something closer to well upwards of 90%. I only wish that I’d done this years ago. Sorry for the long post. It’s just that this made me so very happy.
