Craig’s Crafts

Here’s a couple of pictures of the final version. Basically it’s just a box, measured and cut to fit directly behind the blade. The left side, looking from the front, extends about 4″ down past the frame of the saw. A single plastic knob and bolt with a piece of wood beneath the knob that clamps against the extension to hold it in place. I cut two “flaps” to help guide the sawdust toward the intake port.The white strip is a piece of 1/4″ hardboard pin-nailed (no glue) right through the aluminum flaps to hold them in place. The left side flap is hard to see, as it’s much narrower than the right one. Blue painter’s tape was used to cover the edges of both flaps, so I wouldn’t get cut if I bumped against it. I bored a 4″ hole to attach a short adapter (See It’s just a 15 minute job) that my dust collector connects to via a quick-connect adapter.

Most of the dust is sent straight back by the blade and very little comes out of the port on top of the blade housing, which is aimed straight back at the 4″ intake. With this and my Portable Air Cleaner made from Box Fan going, I’m in Fat City.

So I started to build my dust collector for my radial-arm saw (RAS), and began to get together the materials to build it. This shouldn’t take long, after all, it was just a small box with a hole cut in it. The wood was no problem, and I had plenty of 4″ hose to make the short connector, and then I pulled out the 4″ OD plastic pipe I had found last summer laying beside the road. It had been set aside for just this type of project, and after trueing up the end, I cut off a 5″ section to become the adapter end that my Jet dust collector (DC) needs.

That’s when I found out I had rescued a 4.5″ pipe.

No problem, I’ll just cut a slice out of the pipe, squeeze it together, and with the help of some HVAC tape and a couple of hose clamps, I’ve got my 4″ connector.

I did a few high school Geometry calculations, and figured out the circumference of a 4″ pipe should be 12.5″. All I had to do was mark off 12.5″ around the 4.5″ pipe, remove the excess, and when pressed together, I’ve got a 4″ pipe.

Ever try to roll a piece of slick plastic pipe across your workbench and not have it slip? I solved the measuring problem by borrowing my wife’s measuring tape from her sewing basket (it really was a basket!), and using that to mark my cuts.

Since I had always intended to make short connector adapters for all my tools that could be hooked up to the Jet DC, I cut three more slices from the pipe, marked them up and then used my bandsaw to remove the required slices.

Then I got out the tape, cut a 8″ section and tried bending the pipe into the smaller circumference. This is a three, or better yet, a four handed job. That pipe didn’t want to bend to my will, to I decided to weaken it. As you can see in the photos, I went back to the bandsaw and made a series of shallow cuts. This isn’t quite as effective on plastic as it is on wood, but it did make it easier to bend. I could apply about 1/2 the tape, leaving the waxed paper on the rest, squeeze the pipe into shape, and then pull the rest of the waxed paper off with my teeth as I rolled the pipe against my workbench to press the tape down. It took a couple of tries at first, but ultimately I got them all done.

Then I cut the flexible 4″ pipe to about 2′ lengths, made their connections to the PVC pipe adapters, and then I began to make the wooden box for the RAS. By then it was past 7PM, so I called it a day.

Here is a couple of shots of the reduced diameter adapters:

One year the company I was working for gave out bonuses of electronic equipment, with the employees able to choose which of several items they wanted. To give you an idea of the time period, the choices available were a VCR, in either VHS or. Betamax, or a color TV. (For a better idea of how long ago this was, my spell checker just flagged Betamax, and I had to add it to my dictionary.)

I had recently bought a VCR, and asked if I could substitute something else. My choice was a Craftsman radial-arm saw. This was approved, and as soon as I got it I set it up in my basement, where it sat for about a year until I decided I needed a workbench. One crosscut later, I went out and bought a shop-vac, to control the sawdust created as I cut the 2×4’s to build the bench. The vac had an adapter that fit to the dust port on the blade shield, which was about 1” or so in diameter. After making the bench, it sat there, collecting non-woodworking dust.

I’ve moved five times between then and now, each time packing and unpacking the saw. Now I’m trying to use it, and the same problem has arisen, the dust. I still have a shop-vac, but in the twenty-five years since I acquired the saw hose sizes have changed, besides I now have a Jet dust collector. It works great, and the tools I attach it to have 4” ports, just like it does.

So, now I’m making a collector that matches the Jet’s hose. I Googled up a few links, and found one that someone made to fit a Craftsman similar to mine. So now I’m going to take some measurements and knock together a box with a 4” port and see how well this works.

As soon as I’m done I’ll post pictures, and let you know how well it works.