To reduce dust in my garage, I sealed my table saw and attached a shop vac with a bucket cyclone. Sealing the saw redirects the shop vac’s limited airflow to where it’s needed most: the throat plate. This makes the shop vac a reasonable alternative to an expensive and bulky dust collector. In the process I also extended the outfeed table to make rip cuts safer and easier.
Agreed, it was a ton of work. The back of the saw was definitely the biggest struggle because of how the motor moved when adjusting tilt and height.
Sealing the blade shroud might have worked. I’d probably try that first if I did this again.