Steven Giamundo reminded us that mounting a dust control system outside of the immediate workshop area also creates negative pressure that will draw cooler outside air and dust back into the space. And he reiterated Michael Dresdner's suggestion to build a return that permits the filtered (warm) air to return to the shop.

Oct 9 - Oct 21¸ 2002 - Do All Those Options Require a Motor Upgrade?

Delta contractor saw owner, Rex Ward, wrote to explain how he'd exchanged its 1-1/2 horse motor for a 3 horse. With that change -- plus installing a 3-pulley system and a magnetic switch -- the saw cut all materials, straight or at a tilt, with no extra torsion (at least not too much) on blade.

Roger Feeley thinks our experts forgot to mention the danger that more power represents. A larger motor on a 10" saw will tend to throw the work instead of just binding it. He recalled how a woodshop student at his college was impaled by a board kicked back from a WWII surplus 14" 3-phase 5HP saw. Smaller saws, he noted, are simply not built for that kind of power, nor are most woodworkers prepared for it, and he advises against any changeover.

A reader noted that the motor on the Delta saw is a dual voltage unit and directions for converting to 240V operation can be found inside the small cover off the end opposite the pulley. 240 Volts puts out two horsepower & it's all in the manual, he notes, and suggests reading it!

Other reader comments

To always have a place to store her router mat, Annette cut a length of 4" drain pipe to the size of the mat, and, using two pipe clips, screwed it under the bench so the mat can be rolled up and put away and is always at hand.

Jeremy Reid always hangs on to his old credit or phone cards to use as glue spreaders or scrapers. They are durable enough to use as a scraper and can be shaped with a knife into a custom-sized putty knife.