tugnut1

I do not have better numbers for you, but I have some experience with both shop vacs and larger units. I started off using a shop vac with their standard filter. I would keep up with most of my tools like my table saw and hand sanders....at least the visible dust. But in all reality, the harmful dust was shooting by the shop vac filter. Plus whenever the filter got plugged, the performance dropped....and fast. I added a dust deputy to the system and that helped with the performance. The filter in the shop vac almost never got plugged. Then I added some bigger dust and chip producing tools...ie, jointer, thickness planer, and drum sander. These tools produce a ton of wood waste and in the case of the drum sander, the manufacture required 600 cfm of air volume to keep up with the unit. The dust produced from this tool is very fine and can lead to respiratory issues in the long run. The shop vac couldn't do an adequate job for these tools. Time to upgrade. I purchased a 2 HP jet DC unit and piped up my entire shop with sewer pipe and blast gates. This unit has so much air flow that it easily handles all that I need. It also have a 1 micron filter that takes care of a good amount of the harmful dust. I know if you are looking at upgrading to a large shop unit, Oneida air systems and ClearVue will both help you calculate your runs and size the system accordingly.

Yes....Question please. I have never heard of Sikkens before. I just did a quick search and they seem to make all kinds of stuff. What product would you suggest for outdoor wood? I should have started this post off by saying, "I want to add a finish to protect and the wood so that I will last as long as possible." So, the color isn't very important. I also don't want to spend a lot of time refinishing it every few years. I will be using Titebond 3 and stainless steel fasteners for sure. Thanks.

Welcome to the crew.

Rich, how easy is that to flip over with the planer mounted on it? I know that planer is really heavy. Does the top rotate or do you need to physically take it out and flip it? When I move my planer around on its stand, it feels like it could tip over if I wasn't careful. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

I can see changing cutter heads voiding the DeWalt warranty. I will most certainly have to look at potential issues that this change out can cause before I go ahead and purchase it. Thanks for the heads up.

Hey guys, I started making a set of adirondack chairs for the back yard. I was able to pick up quite a bit of rough cut cedar for this project. Cedar is supposed to be a really good wood for outdoor projects. My only questions is how should I finish it. Almost all of the furniture I build is for indoor use and gets the standard Polyeurothane or oil finish. I don't know if I should use something like thompsons water seal, spar varnish or something else. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Great tip. I haven't lifted any screws on what I have done yet, but that has always been a concern of mine. That is also a reason I went with a bench dog option for my work table over a t-track system.

I have the Dewalt DW735 thickness planer and I absolutely love it. It is by far the best thickness planer I have ever used. To get anything better, I think you need to at least double the price of this unit...($1000+) After talking with Rich @rrmccabe last night and talking with a buddy at work that has the same unit, I started looking at this unit in Amazon. My buddy at work just bought some new carbon tipped knives from infinity and asked what I had. I bought two sets of Powertech hardened steel knives for about half of what he paid for the carbon ones. This led us to talking about helical cutter heads. I didn't realize that they made a direct replacement for the dw735 planer on Amazon. He said that he saw the replacement head under $400 in the past and was waiting for it to drop more. I just checked it out and noticed it is just over $500 right now. If it ever does get under $400, I'll be all over it. The only knock on the DW735 is how long the knives last on it. They are prone to nicks and need to be changed at least yearly for me. If I can switch over to a helical cutter, I know I can get at least 4 years+ out of the replaceable knives on the cutter head. Also, these cutters are supposed to be so much more quiet. Has anyone switched over to the helical cutter head yet and if so, how do you like it? Here is the link that I have to the helical cutter head. This cutter is supposed to be situated a little differently than standard heads, but I don't know much about that yet. https://www.amazon.com/Byrd-Tool-Shelix-cutterhead-Dewalt/dp/B008CS2QAE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484592612&sr=8-1&keywords=helical+cutterhead

Woo Hoo! Rich is here! Great to have you back in the mix again.... For those of you who don't know Rich, he is extremely talented. He built this incredible workbench a couple years ago that is just out of this world. As a matter of fact, it was pretty much the inspiration for me to completely redo my bench this year. He will be a great asset to this forum. Again....WOO HOO!

I would love to see a drum sander. I love the one that I have, but it would be nice to see the 4 big tool makers come out with something geared toward woodworking. From how I understand it, most of the tool makers have backed away from woodworking tools and concentrate on the trades. That is why you don't see many big tools. Case in point, they can make jobsite saws, but don't put any effort into cabinet saws. Kind of a bummer.

I was able to find some 1/2" cast acrylic on amazon and ordered a 18" by 24" sheet so that I could cut a new shoe with my X-Carve. The 1/2" stuff is expensive, but really cool to work with. I also contacted Kent CNC (they make the split shoe for the X-Carve) and bought some 3" long bristles that ended up being much nicer to work with than the FastCap Sawstache. It took an afternoon, but I am much happier with my dust shoe now.

I'm not entirely happy with the shoe. I believe I'm going to redo the shoe this next week or two. The bristles are way too stiff. I think that I am going to order some 3" bristles from Kent CNC and make the shoe very similar to their dust shoe for the X-Carve. I'll share pictures as I go along.

Thanks guys.

I had some time to tweek and work on my table saw dust collection attachment. I decided to get rid of the wooden braces by adding some welded braces and then minimize the sagging at the end where the shoe attaches by running a cable with a turn buckle around the outside of the frame. I added the saw stache to the outside of the dust shoe. This was pretty much the only real disappointment in my build. I ordered the saw stache forgetting that there are at least two different siffnesses to bristles. I was hoping to get bristles that were like the ones I got from the people at Kent CNC when they made the dust shoe for the X-carve...the second time. The first one they made, the used stiff bristles and the second shoe they made had really soft bristles that flexed when it went over a board. The ones I am using are really stiff and make it difficult to run wood under it easily. Bummer. I also need to cut the extra length of bolts off and run them in the inside. By leaving them outside, I figured I would eliminate any issue with potentially hitting them with the blade. But by doing it this way, I can't get my push stick down the side without catching a bolt........all in the process. I also quickly changed up how the springs were attached. Lastly, I took it all apart, painted it grey to match the grey on the table saw legs and then made up Ridgid emblem on the X-Carve to make it look like it might come with the table saw. This part was inspired by Comp56's zero clearance insert plate details.

I don't think so. There should only be a couple of feet on it. Plus I have a thumb screw on one of the bolts to lock it into place if I need to. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

I didn't see it. I'll have to check for his post Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk I just found the thread......I do remember seeing it. As a matter of fact, it was the reason I started thinking about making it. I completely forgot. Comp does some awesome stuff.

Here is the finished product of my overarm dust collection attachment for my Ridgid R4512. Everything below will let you know how and why I did what I did. I finished connecting all of my tools to my new dust collection system recently. Now I am just tweeking some connections to optimize my dust collection abilities. I've wanted an overarm dust collection system after the first time I was it on the SawStop cabinet saw. You might not think so, but with a zero clearance insert plate on my tablesaw, I end up with a good amount of dust coming off the top of the blade....especially if I am cutting thicker stock. Last week, I collected a lot of images off of the internet with what other people have done. In case you were wondering, there isn't a lot of different units out there. I have the Ridgid R4512 tablesaw and this unit has one really useful feature that a lot of different saws don't have that makes add-ons to this unit simple. the back railing that the fence rides on is made from two pieces. In order to connect those pieces, there is a small bar that sits in a tee track and connects the two pieces. Since this bar only takes up about 6 inches (if I remember correctly) there is plenty of space to add an outfeed table and this overarm unit. I just used some toilet flange bolts to connect this unit to the saw through the T track. I had some of the unit welded up by a friend, but I didn't have all of the measurements, so I had to bolt some wooden braces to the unit. This is temporary, so I will fix this soon. I made the dust collection shoe so that it can be lifted up and down from the saw blade. I still need to add some 2" bristles to this unit so I can slide the stuck under it and not affect the dust collection ability. I attached to springs to the back of the arms to assist in the lifting of the shoe. It really makes it nice for lifting and holding the unit in place. I have the ability to move the shoe close to the blade either way to fit what I am cutting by adding some threads to the square tube I added to my smaller square tubing. You may have noticed the bungie cord attached to the top of the horizontal arm. It was added since the long section of the arm has all of the weight and bounces a pretty good amount. I have more permanent fix for this problem that I am going to have taken care of before the end of this week, so I will share pictures then. I still need to add the 2.5" hose to the shoe as well as the saw stache. I just wanted to see if this was possible before I ordered the parts......so follow up pictures to come.

I'm not sure what to think about this unit. I know its not for me, but it looks like a viable option to a miter saw stand. At the very least, its a bit more versatile than a miter saw stand. Did you notice that they didn't show this unit with a sliding miter saw on it. That maybe a bit more cumbersome with the rails hanging out the front.

Great start on your router table addition. I've considered doing that myself, but I was able to fit a stand alone table in my shop. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Love that truck. I have an 07 Tundra myself. Sorry, didn't mean to derail the thread anymore.

If anyone is ever interested, I got the link to the fastcap Saw Stashe It is charged out by the foot http://www.fastcap.com/estore/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=53770&idcategory=0

Well, it didn't take me long to find an identical product. KentCNC (who makes the X-carve dust shoe) sells an identical product to the saw stashe. https://www.kentcnc.net/nc

just remembered seeing a video from FastCap where they have this product you can use like the dust shoe. Its called a Saw Stashe. I'm thinking about making my own overarm dust collection for the table saw and this saw stashe would allow me to add the bristles to the collection piece making it real simple. The only issue is, it doesn't show up on the fast cap site anymore. Here is the video of it.

I am going to plumb my shop up for a central dust collection unit in the next couple weeks and I was watching videos on shop built overarm dust collection units for the table saw when I ran across this video for miter saw dust collection. It has to be the most well thought our unit I have ever seen. I am going to have to make something similar to this in the near future.

I agree with everyone who says that a jobsite saw is not what will work best in a shop. If you can swing the size at all, go with a a better saw than a jobsite saw. Small spaces can make it tough, but with some creativity, you should be able to make it work. The Ridgid hybrid saw is not all that much larger than a jobsite saw. You can always store stuff under the right hand table to make up for lost space. Plus it has casters, so you can push it out of your way when you need the space. I did start with a jobsite saw because I didn't have much space, but I was extremely happy when I upgraded to the hybrid saw. Spend some time thinking this purchase through before you commit to something you maybe disappointed with down the road.