How do you collect the saw dust?

[JR]

Basically, are these Ridgid shop vacs OK? And just get one of an appropriate size (12 gallons or more)?

Yes, they're fine. They use a paper filter, which is good for filtering out the fine particles as well as the big ones. You can even get a better filter at the BORG if you want.

JR

[Luckbox]

I have a 25 gallon shop vac and I use the bags for it so the filter never gets cloged. Just need to replace the bages ever so often. Since all of my tools are on mobile bases and get move around the garage it wil work till I get a small, portable dust collector.

[jhart]

If you're going to get a 12+ gal Shop Vac, look for one that also has the horsepower. I picked up a Ridgid 5.0/6 gal last fall when they were on sale for around $30.00. Hooks right into the port and works great. Also used the Sears autostart and that worked great, but the saw/autostart/Shop Vac was hooked into a dedicated 30 Amp line.

Since I set up my DC, I no longer use it with the saw, just for clean up

[JonW]

Thanks for all the input, folks. I guess I'll pick myself up a shop vac to hook into the saw. I just now have to figure out which one (size, brand, etc.).

[kgworkman]

Oh, one other question- is there a trick to getting the miter fence to move freely after unscrewing it? It seems I have to completely lift it off the table to get it to then move.

JonW,

Congrats on the saw, and welcome to the forum. In reference to the miter fence question, I've had the same issue. After you loosen the hand knob to free the miter fence, sometimes the bolt that slides in the channel inside the sliding miter table stays stuck. All you have to do is loosen the knob a bit more and then give it a little smack on the top. This pushes the head of the bolt free in the channel and you'll be good to go.

Happy cutting.

[JonW]

JonW,

Congrats on the saw, and welcome to the forum. In reference to the miter fence question, I've had the same issue. After you loosen the hand knob to free the miter fence, sometimes the bolt that slides in the channel inside the sliding miter table stays stuck. All you have to do is loosen the knob a bit more and then give it a little smack on the top. This pushes the head of the bolt free in the channel and you'll be good to go.

Happy cutting.

That's exactly the solution I figured out last night when playing around with it. I just looked at it mroe carefully and that became the thing to do. Thanks.

[JonW]

When you get the shop vac, use a disposable bag in it. One will probably come with the shop vac, but you will need more. Don't go for less than 12 Gallons. I believe mine is a 16. When I tried to use it without the bag, my filter almost immediately plugged up and my suction dropped dramatically. When I start to loose suction, I just dump the bag and drop in another. Works pretty well.

Do you mean just line the shop vac with a plastic bag? And then lift it out when done? Or maybe there are some special bags for teh shop vac? I've never used one before, if that wasn't painfully obvious.

[IBBugsy]

Don't use a plastic bag. The bag needs to be porous to let the air filter through and out the exhaust. I also am not sure what they mean but I assume these shop vacs are designed in some way to use paper dust collection bags like a standard cannister vacuum uses?

I have a set-up that I think will work fine (need to see how it goes). The new home I purchased has a central vacuum system that my wife doesn't want to use. The previuous owners put an outlet in the garage! I just connect the central vac hose to the outlet pipe on the saw. The central vac has a large capacity paper bag (about 4 times larger than a standard cannister vac bag) in it and the exhaust exits outside (so no fine dust goes back into the garage). I just hope it doesn't fill up too fast!!

[sacherjj]

Do you mean just line the shop vac with a plastic bag? And then lift it out when done? Or maybe there are some special bags for teh shop vac? I've never used one before, if that wasn't painfully obvious.

No, a plastic bag will keep the bottom of the shop vac from getting dirty, but the filter will clog really fast. The bag I am talking about is mounted inside the body, but attached directly to the hose. The air is sucked through the thin pores of the bag. All of the sawdust and other materials are captured in the bag. Most fine dust that gets through the bag is trapped at the filter. Make sure not to clean up any liquid spills with the bag loaded, unless you are just about to change the bag. Or, let me put it another way, if you pickup liquid with the vacuum, you WILL be changing the bag.

Here is a bag at Lowes.

The opening on top goes over the hose coming into the vacuum. Then the bag unfolds like a tri-fold wallet and wraps around the outside of the vac tub. It can't use the center, because of the filter sticking down.

They come in 2 or 3 packs. Just get the one that fits your vac when you purchase it. Also, in my experience, any vac with a "detachable blower" isn't really worth it. Don't let that sway your purchase. Look for minimum capacity of 12 gal and better is 16 gal or more. Power should be 5 or more horsepower, even though this is a pretty bogus "stalled motor" rating, they all seems to quote power the same messed up way.

Edit: After re-reading my post, I need to clarify something. The vacuums with the "detachable blower" work fine as vacuums. It is the blower that is pretty worthless. If that is the best deal for the vacuum, go for it. I just wouldn't spend more money for a detachable blower model over a regular of the same specs, because it isn't really useful.

[JonW]

OK, thanks again. I didn't realize shop vacs have bags. That looks and sounds just like my regular vacuum cleaner for floors. Easy enough.

IBBugsy- sweet setup with the vacuum in your garage/shop.

Joe- Thanks for the detailed explanation- makes perfect sense.

[JonW]

I did a quick look at the vacs at Lowes and Home Depot last night. At Home Depot, the cheaper 12 gallon vac at $70 doesn't take bags. The cheapest Ridgid one they have that can use a bag is 14 gallons and $100. At Lowes, they have a 12 gallon one from Shop-Vac at $80 that can take bags. So maybe that's the way I'll go. Although I'm open to suggestions.

[LarryG]

Wait for a sale, if you can.

Although I'm open to suggestions.

At the risk of being tiresome, I'll repeat what I wrote up the page a ways: wait until you can catch one brand or another on sale and then buy the biggest tub and the most power you can for the fewest number of dollars.

One possible glitch would be if you absolutely, positively need it right away. If not, you should have a short wait since both HD and Lowe's run sales at every possible excuse (St Patrick's Day, maybe?).

If it helps, I paid $90 for my 18gal, 6.5HP ShopVac, with a free one-gallon wall-hung mini vac included in the box, at Lowe's during their 2004 Father's Day sale. Granted that's been almost two years but the last time I checked, vac prices had not changed much. IIRC the big vac alone normally retailed for ~$110 so I saved twenty bucks and got the little vac to boot.

[JonW]

Hi Larry,

Thanks again for the thoughts. The first Home Depot in my town just opened up about a month ago. So I haven't seem them around enough to ever actually see anything go on sale. And I don't recall ever seeing much on sale at Lowes. But it's good to know that will happen at some point. I was thinking about really using the saw for the first time this weekend. So I might want to get the vac in the next few days.

They even had a sale for Father's Day? Heck, I guess they do have them for anything. The Spring Equinox is coming soon...

I'm looking forward to just using the saw, getting some practice, and maybe making something that looks really amateurish.

[vaking]

The sears switch works very well for me. The switch is plugged into a 20 Amp circuit. It feeds a 15Amp saw and a DC. I actually tried collecting dust with a 6HP shopvac and a small DC (Jet JSL-610DC - about 600cfm). Both work well with the switch but DC collects dust better. The switch has enough brain to stagger the start of your devices so they don't blow fuses with the rush-in current at the same time. $20 very well spent. As for DC vs shopvac - many people here install something called shark guard. It is an aftermarket blade guard with dust collector - a big improvement over native Ryobi blade guard. Then you would need to connect your shopvac/DC to 2 places at the same time - the dust port on the back of saw and on the shark. I believe shopvacs are not able to handle collecting from 2 places at once - not enough airflow. So I believe that any shopvac for a dust collection needs is a short term solution only.

[JonW]

Just an update in case anyone comes across this thread later...

This weekend I bought a $80 12 gallon Shop-Vac at Lowes and hooked it up to the saw. It's incredible. I had no idea it would collect so much of the dust made by the saw. And I used it to clean up the wood shop, in general, during all my work this weekend- from the saw, the router, etc. For a weekend of working, the first bag isn't even close to half full. (I'm a newbie and don't really do much in the course of a weekend.) So 12 gallons seems to be plenty big for me. Less saw dust every where and it's quite useful for a quick cleaning during various parts of the day. Lots of suction. Totally worth every penny. Thanks for all the tips, fellas.