Track Saw TSC55 Dust Reduction Devices (Cover ABSA-TS55/60 577341)

M

mac sparrow

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I'm trying to see if there is anything else I can do to reduce how much dust my TSC55 kicks up.  I have a ceiling mounted air filter running when I'm cutting, I use a dust extractor, I keep the splinter guard down.  That's all I use and I'd like to improve dust collection if that's at all possible.

Here are some ideas I was simply thinking about but I'm not committed to any of them and would appreciate input:

Thanks for your time
 
I always cut on a foam board and have the arbor cover.  With a Midi I dust collector I get virtually no dust.
 
The arbor cover is so cheap compared to the Festool product that I'd go with the eBay offer.

If I had a TS saw and needed a cover, I'd make my own cover (provided the saw body is metallic). I could easily fashion a cover out of rare earth magnets and some wood. I like to supercharge my tools and machines with shop-made solutions for fun.
 
What dust extractor do you use?  Remember that high CFM is more important than high suction for dust collection.  So hooking up to a vacuum cleaner is likely to be far less effective than hooking up to a proper dust collector.

Addendum.  I over simplified that.  You need both pressure (measured as inches of water lift) and CFM (cubic feet per minute).

Shop vacs usually have a high pressure and a lower CFM than dedicated dust collectors.  That makes the shop vac a less suitable source for dust collection. 

I assume that Festool’s dedicated vac system is properly balanced for removing dust. 

My point was that you did I not specify what dust collection system you were using.  If it is a shop vac, you will likely see an improvement by switching to dedicated equipment. (Though their hoses look more like those on shop vacs than the 4” diameter hoses typically used on dust collection systems.)
 
I put a cheap eBay 3d-printed arbor cover over the hole on my TS55. It made a massive difference. The most effective £5.99 I ever spent.
 
I installed a National Guard Products 1” brush weatherstrip to cover where the saw blade comes down as well as the cover over the  blade fastener access.  I  cut a lot all of plastics so trapping the chips is important because normally the chips go everywhere and because of the static electricity, stick everywhere
 
Thank you all for your input.  I have gone ahead and ordered the arbor cover from eBay as several of you have said a cover over this hole makes a big difference.

[member=74278]Packard[/member] I use a Festool CT Midi dust extractor with the standard smooth hose that came with it (which starts at 27mm and increases to 36mm I think?)

[member=25351]rst[/member] good idea.  Could I perhaps trouble you to share a photo of that please and how you attached it.  I'm interested.
 
I use Bosch hose when I use the track saw indoors.  Whenever possible, I set up saw horses and make the cuts on my driveway.

I have two roller stands for my table saw and I use them to roll the sheet goods out of my van and onto my sawhorses (which are topped with foam insulation panels).

No dust collection on my driveway.  Only dust dispersion (via a leaf blower). 

I find that if I have my cutting sketches fully detailed, I can cut up a 4’ x 8’ sheet in about 10 minutes.  Even if it is cold outside, I can still manage 10 minutes. 

If it is raining or snowing or if there is snow on the ground, I need to re-schedule the cuts.

My shop is in the basement, so carrying down small pieces is much preferred over carrying full sheets of plywood. 
 
I just googled:  Ideal vacuum pressure and vacuum CFMs for dust collection.

Instead of being sent to a site or a list of sites, Google generated an answer using artificial intelligence.  It did offer some footnotes.

This is the first time I used google where the response was A.I. generated.  It read like an appropriate response with no egregiously dumb stuff.

Here is the reply:

The ideal vacuum pressure and CFM for dust collection depends on the type of dust collection system and the tools being used, but here are some general guidelines:
High volume/low pressure systems
These systems are often used for ambient air filtration and source capture systems, and can move up to 10,000 cubic feet per minute (CFM) of air at 10-12 inches of vacuum pressure.

Woodworking equipment
Most woodworking equipment needs 250-1000 CFM, but the exact amount depends on the size and number of tools being used. For example, a table saw, planer, or jointer with a 2-5 inch diameter port typically needs 300-600 CFM.

Dust Deputy
The Dust Deputy can be used with any wet/dry vacuum that has an inlet size of 1.5-2.5 inches, but Oneida Air Systems recommends an airflow rating of at least 50 CFM.
Pipe diameter
Smaller pipe diameters increase air resistance, so higher velocities are needed to maintain the same CFM rate.

Dust velocity
The proper dust velocity for most applications is between 3,500 and 4,000 feet per minute. If the velocity drops below 15 meters per second, dust will fall out into the airstream.
 
An arbor cap should come with every saw. Nice of Festool and Makita to foster the 3rd party accessory makers but this is a must have. Use tape until it arrives.

There are many very useful $0 tricks for improving dust extraction by simply placing scraps of wood strategically. Any time you fill a void where dust could fly, you are in effect improving dust collection by minimizing where the air can come from or go to.

I.e. Add a small bock of the same thickness material at the end of your tracksaw cross cuts. This allows the saw to collect a large amount of dust that would otherwise shoot out at the end of the cut. Longer scrap can be useful for rips. Place the scrap or even just a 2x2 next to the track during edge rips.
 
makpacman said:
An arbor cap should come with every saw. Nice of Festool and Makita to foster the 3rd party accessory makers but this is a must have. Use tape until it arrives.
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Click to expand...
Strong disagree here. At least as far as Festool goes.

I am pretty sure about zero people who advise this did any fluid dynamics modelling or controlled measurements of the macro (visible) as well as micro (invisible) dust generated by the saws.

The main danger of dust is micro-dust and all the air that gets sucked through the right hole (there is a similar left hole "inside" the saw) is additional air - dust cloud to be precise - that would otherwise not be "eaten" by the saw and stay in the air. On a modern Festool saw*) The blade is placed in a semi-sealed channel which has vacuum from the vac and already has restricted air inflow, meaning any further air intake restriction does not affect the air volume that much through that path. I.e. the total air volume extracted from the saw zone gets reduced when the side intake is blocked.

Closing the arbor opening on Festool achieves two things:
- more visible dust is sucked in > good for nice table
- less invisible dust is sucked in > bad for lungs

One can choose one's priorities ...

What would be a much more useful accessory - but much, much harder to design well - is one that would block the debris flying in front of the saw and high up when cutting along the edge. Attaching it to/replacing the anti-splinter guard with that would be a natural choice .. but that would need some serious prototyping work ..

*) With Makita and cheaper brands this is so only partially - the fluid dynamics profile inside the SP6000, for example, is far from optimal. And I am being generous here.
 
Very interesting. You have far more information on tracksaw fluid dynamics than I do, and I'm quite happy to be mistaken here.

Your point is well made and I'll need to reevaluate using the cap simply for my bench's benefit. Thanks.

 
When you open up the TS to clean it .. there are "ribs" next to the blade that go from the dust port all the way to the cutting point. They form an air channel which is under slight under-pressure when the vac is turned on. This also enables the saw to "collect dust" (but not micro-dust) into a bag just from the "wind" the blade movement creates in this channel.

That channel is not air-tight (a "wobbly" blade moving there after all), so bleed air can come in around it. This bleed air gets sucked from the outside through the left "hole" for the moving assembly, the right "arbour access" hole and the blade slot.

This "bleed air" actually forms the majority of the air volume that gets sucked to the vac and is what creates a bit of a "space sucker" around the saw, sucking in a lot of the micro-dust that escaped. That is also why using the D36 hose is recommended for the TS saws.

The trick here is that the particles that tend to escape (without the cover) and not escape (with the cover) are the bigger/heavier particles. The smallest ones having the same original paths are sucked into the saw either way. Once the "right" bleed air entry is removed, there is not much sucking in the micro-dust cloud "outside" that side of the saw into the vac. The context here is that unlike the visible dust particles, micro-dust does not "fly" far as it is too light for that. Once ejected into the air, it stays closely around the saw.

This is not all that complicated once one thinks about the different dust particles - the smaller the particles (and the more dangerous), the shorter distance they "fly" from the saw and the longer they stay in the air, some even for days. Hence the micro-dust "cloud" around any tool generating these which most tools try to secondary-capture, easiest seen with "side bleed" vents on sanders. Anything one can see by bare eyes on a surface is big-enough to settle fast and not really much of a (health) concern.
 
Mackenzie, I don’t have pics, I drilled and tapped to fasten the aluminum brush holder.  I’ve even working with fabbing aluminum for 45 years now so it wasn’t an issue, I ground down the attaching screws so they did not protrude into the case far. I still haven’t done it to my TSC so I just use 2” painters tape currently.
 
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