Miter Saw Removable Dust Collection Hood
To keep my shop clean, and more importantly to protect my lungs, I wanted to hook up my miter saw to my dust collection system. The miter saw comes with a "dust collection" port but it's kind of a joke - hooking a shopvac up to this port only gets a bit of the mess, and hardly any of the dangerous dust. I researched a variety of dust collections solutions, and tried some variations before I settled on this low cost idea. In addition to capturing virtually all the dust that my miter saw produces, I was able to make it easy to install and remove.
I was able to use on-hand items so the project didn't cost much: plywood, PVC pipe (1/2" and 3/4"), a dust collector blast gate, a shower curtain, and some large binder clips.

The dust collection hood must be wide enough to deal with the miter saw angles from -45 through 45 degrees, and tall enough to catch the sawdust that is directed upward when the saw comes down.


I had a cheap $5 shower curtain that I could clip onto the PVC and plywood framework, and the good suction from a full sized dust collector draws in everything that hits the curtain.

Using a heat gun, I bent the 1/2" PVC pipe into the shape I wanted. Not shown: I put some nails into a sheet of plywood to act as a guide when I bent the heated PVC pipe.

The PVC frame fits into a slot at the bottom of the wooden frame. It has a little wiggle room so it can be tilted forward over the saw a bit.

I used a tablesaw to carefully cut some 3/4" PVC pipe lengthwise not quite in half, then cut into small "clips". These are the perfect size to snap onto the 1/2" PVC pipe framework.

Snapping the clips over the plastic shower curtain keeps it in place.

I used some large binder clips to attach the plastic shower curtain to the plywood frame. This did the job, and they are easy to remove. I considered some other alternatives such as magnets, but this seemed the easiest to accomplish, and it was cheap at only $6 for a bunch of binder clips.

I attached a dust collector blast gate to the bottom of the frame, so the dust hose can be attached, and to let me turn dust collection on and off.

Under my miter saw table, I added a 2x4 with some 3/4 plywood spacers. This gives me a strong slot where I can just slide in the dust hood framework, so it will be easy to install and remove.

The plywood frameword slides tightly into the slot.

The dust collection hose attaches to the bottom of the framwork.

The plastic shower curtain stops the dust no matter which way the miter saw is angled, and the dust collector provides suction to pull in the visible sawdust as well as the smaller particles. Plus since it is transparent, it does not obstruct your view.