My 20-year-old Dewalt Miter Saw finally needed to be retired. I had always intended to put a ZCI on that one but I never did. My new model has a grate on the bottom that traps small cutoff bits. A big challenge with dust management on these is that so much dust ends up under the saw.
So, I’m building a ZCI that is sealed on the bottom. I start with a piece of oak (way too nice for this, but it was the right size). I’m adding a block of plywood (from tearing down a pool table years ago). I keep cutting pieces away until the plywood block drops in easily. Now I can glue it together. I make sure that the block is biased to the right for when I tilt the head.
Now I can bolt the ZCI in place and lower the blade to get the zero clearance. I find that the blade has passed through the block in a few places. It turns out my earlier trimming was a bit excessive.
I file some faces flat and add blocking back in.
Now all the dust is directed at the back of the blade and into the dust collection chute. It’s not perfect but a huge improvement.
I suspect that when I tilt the blade that the blade will break through the side of the plywood block. I’ll see if I can add material once that happens.
Seems they all come with an insert wide enough for a 3/4" dado blade. Filling that gap may help with dust, but it certainly helps with cut quality. The first one I made was years ago, and the blade also needed refreshed, or replaced, and without doing that I noted much cleaner edges on all the cuts after putting in the insert than I was getting before.
Hardest part of the entire process is getting stock to the correct thickness. Once you have that using the insert as your template makes it quick work. Worth the benefit IMHO.
Question for all? Is anyone else using the dust ports from Shop Nation? I bought one right before I got sick for my new to me Metabo 12", but really haven't gotten much chance to use it since. Anyhow I was wondering what everyone thought about them. They seem to average about 50 bux, which would be peanuts to get rid of the dust mountain those things can produce, at least this was my thought back when I bought mine.
Funny you should mention Shop Nation George. I upgraded my saw specifically because of their product. They don't make one for the 705. I ordered one and either I ordered the wrong one or they sent the wrong one. I'm not sure. I ended up modifying the one they sent until it fit. That in combination with my ZCI had helped a ton. The only thing is my hacked up version will not allow me to tilt the blade. I need to get in touch with them and get the correct version and try again.
And - yes, the ZCI gives a much better cut. I need to make a zero clearance fence as well. Always another project!
That is one beefy ZCI... but sometimes I wonder what designers were smoking at the time.
Manufacturers should be crucified for the table inserts they supply in which you could just about loose a big log, however, I guess they have to cater for bevel cuts... however, when we users enthusiastically add our own ZCI, we usually forget bevel cuts... and destroy our work of art.
I've made a ZCIs for my Hitachi and Fe$tool mitre saws, but fortunately they were just standard single thickness profiled.
Talking about lost logs and under the saw debris, I often wonder what the hell that Fe$tool boffin injected when he/she decided to put these ribs into their "turn table", that you could practically drive a small bus into... MDF and the laser came to the rescue,
I do admit that there is one helluva difference between the dust collection of the Hitachi and Kapex... for all you skeptics, it's the Kapex that wins that race by a very big nose.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
Steve when I was doing a lot of work in, and on houses I was always using "most" of a sheet of plywood. Seemed I never mastered the art of using the entire sheet. Anyhow I would accumulate a lot of 3 to 6" wide ends, or sometimes full lengths. These were perfect of fence material though. I'd just screw it on from behind the fence. All of them have a few places with holes in the fence for this, and just cut through. Tons of improvement in cut quality, and also narrowed the gap you usually get in the throat were that dust heads to, suddenly it's stopped, except that tiny slit in the fence. Allowed your suction from above to actually work. But the biggest benefit was stock support, especially on miters and bevels, or combos, and like the ZCI a lot less furring of the stocks cut end.
On most saws going to the right with the head of the machine was doable going full left is sometimes limited though. it's a design flaw of the tools concept. Probably the biggest reason a lot of guys with big shops kept their RAS's. I'm wondering if this is what you are seeing with your dust port from Shop Nation?
My Shop Nation port is actually doing well - after I modified it to fit my saw. The only issue is I can't tilt the head. This is where having the correct port should help. That and a Zero Clearance Fence...
While I don't have a miter saw for reference of dust collection problems, I think this is a nicely designed solution to the problem. Nice design and execution.
