Added Dust Collection to Bandsaw

[Bill Adamsen]

Came by a small 4" dust port and decided it would be an easy add-on to my Delta 14" bandsaw to pickup at least some of the dust. Had an "unused" 4 inch blast gate nearby, a short length of flex hose, and 20 minutes later, everything hooked up. "Placed" the port, traced the inside, drilled a pilot hole and cut with a bi-metal jigsaw blade. Finished off with a file and the oscillating spindle sander just to remove burrs. Screwed and glued (silicone) the port on and attached flex pipe with stainless band. There have been some posts with more elaborate collection and greater efforts at "closing off" the opening below the table. My collection at this bandsaw is not perfect, so I may take those additional steps to optimize. In general, my system produces enough CFM that when the bandsaw is used "alone" there is little escaping dust.

The big Centauro 700 to the left also had a 4 inch port originally, I kluged on the 5 inch port and by careful cutting and bending managed to do it without having to drill any holes. That saw gets used a lot, and the collection is actually a major improvement - but again not perfect. It seems bandsaws have their own insidious dust collection problems ... and my systems do not master all the dust. Love to hear simple ideas on improving that situation.

PortFromBandsawFront.jpgPortFromInsideCover.jpg

[Chris Parks]

It is very important to make sure the cabinet has an air inlet the same size or bigger than the extraction port. I saw a video recently where Laguna were boasting that they had made the door seal more effective to aid dust collection, all they had done is made the problem worse. I wonder when these companies are going to do a bit of basic research and design their machines to have good dust extraction? They all fail in this area abysmally.

[Brian W Smith]

One of the problems Bill,and few guesses about the "whys" of lousy factory engineering in this area is........it isn't that simple.Yes we can pare it down to some basic principals but,it is so dependent on what's downstream.The factory's are,"why bother".This isn't an excuse......'cause I agree with Chris on how bad they're designed,especially in port/collection head shape and design.Square = bad,in an awful lot of respects with dust management.Most factories(and we can go right up the $$ ladder....cough,Martin,cough)don't have the required equipment to "shape" the hoods(metal) in anything much more svelte than a basic square/rectangle to round,"transition".And they don't want to go with anything more durable than injection plastics.....meaning other composites.

[Bill Adamsen]

Brian and Chris: You got me thinking about that. I'll bet a well-positioned intake port on the Centauro would greatly improve the collection performance. I'm a bit nervous about taking the saw to the covers on that machine. The reason the "spare" 4" gate was there was because I had thought I'd use it on the Centauro with some custom built collection - either above the table or below. That may still happen. No question, the original design for collection leaves something to be desired.

The covers on the Delta are so poorly fitted that air restriction is not a problem. However air flow could definitely be improved. One approach might be to rivet on some gasket material which would better direct intake flow. Might test concept with some duct tape and let you know how that works.

[Brian W Smith]

One way to increase airflow through a small opening is actually a "side benefit" of another problem with BS,resawing;

You can plumb in shop air,to blow air straight down into the cut.It accomplishes several things.One is to help evac chips on resaws,and to a slightly lessor degree it helps with heat on not only the blade but can help with certain woods prone to burning.It also helps the dust management side because your introducing the "intake" air that Chris mentions.We mounted a mini regulator on the BS itself.Shop air,QD(quick disconnect)then plugs onto it.On the regulators downstream is simple clear hose that gets attached to upper bearing/guide.It's flexibility allows it to raise and lower with upper guide.We don't use it all the time,maybe 50%.You play with the pressure to get it tuned......ours is @10-15#.

You can hook up shop air to any enclosed cabinet and pressurize it........you will notice the difference in the dust collection.It's no big secret really,positive pressure is how we keep certain rms clean,near...or adjacent to the cabinet shop.

[Chris Parks]

Because I never got the time to do an inlet port on my last saw (18" Jet) all I did was crack the bottom door open with any handy piece of wood and that was as effective as adding a port. A lot of people go to extreme lengths with BS's to improve the dust extraction when all they had to do was add an air inlet or crack the door to allow air to enter. Why us users get the message and the manufacturers do exactly the opposite of what they should is one of life's mysteries. Any cabinet that has DE attached must have an inlet port.