vintage bandsaw dust collection solution

[mark kosse]

I asked about doing this in another post. I have 2 vintage Delta/Rockwell bandsaws that ever since I used the Grizzly GO555 I wanted dust collection on. Then by chance I bought a Rigid 1400 that had a 6" extention in it. The rigid is a copy of the Delta/Rockwell, like the GO555 and many others.

This dust collection port came off of the Rigid saw. As I looked at it I saw its great potential for my other saws. I had an old magnetic base for a lamp that had gone bad lying around so I attached the rigid dust port to the magnetic base and it works pretty good. I can now move it from saw to saw without any modification to the saws.

I think rare earth magnets might work better but this is what I had available. One neat feature of this jig is it comes loose when you trip over the the vac hose.

Also in the pic is my favorite old girl. She's in nice shape for her age. The thought of modifying her was out of the question. Her partner I don't have pics of is even older. It's a Milwualkee/Delta one day soon heading to restoration. Hope ya'll enjoy!134151

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[Gary McNair]

That a great idea! I also have a vintage Delta band saw that I don't want to modify (ie drill holes into!) for dust collection. Louis Iturra says he thinks mine is a 1939 or so. Just don't want to ruin such a fine old Pc.

[mark kosse]

I would try to buy the vac attachment from Rigid. It's not as good as a body cavity collector, but it beats the heck outa nothing.

[John Harden]

Clever approach to the challenge. My Delta is about 12-15 years old and had a small, 1 1/4" port or some such thing.

My solution was to take a rigid black plastic 4" to 4" make adapter and screw it to the side of the cabinet directly underneath the dust port (about 18" down). Then, I removed the OEM dust port and ran a 20" or so piect of flex hose up to where it is basically right up against the lower blade guides. I cut a taper into the end of it and because it's the old fashioned, black plastic flex, it is rigid enough that it stands up there vertically on its own.

Not the most elegant solution, but it delivers 4" of dust collectionon cfm to the underside of the blade.

Can't say it performs the best either, but it still works a lot better than the small port they supplied with the saw.

Has anyone tried the spendy, sheet metal one that Delta sells that has a 4" port on it? I think it was $100 or so, but looked like it pretty much delivered all the cfm right to the blade area as it had shields and bends in the sheet metal to form fit underneath the table.

Regards,

John

[Greg Portland]

Your idea looks like it will work for topside collection as well (i.e. use standard lower port on a new saw + magnetic port on top).

[Bruce Wrenn]

I wish Wood Magazine would hurry up and publish mine (They own the rights to it. $$$) I love spending magazines money!

[Josiah Bartlett]

If you stuck an air nozzle on the other side of that blowing a good stream of air right across the teeth of the blade I bet you could keep the dust out of the housing.

[James Carmichael]

I have the Ridgid and simply installed a 4" port in the lower cabinet. This catches probably 80% of the dust. Someday I might get around to putting another one directly below the table.

I removed the cheesy port that came with the saw, cut it down, and mounted to a router table fence. It works well on the router table with the shop vac.

[Kent Parker]

Mark,

My solution was a bit more elaborate. It is a tight fit at the underside of the table and is attached only at one point on the base (stand) of the saw. It probably get 85% of the dust when resawing.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=76737

Cheers,

Kent

[Bruce Wrenn]

June issue of Wood has my tip in it for your viewing pleasure. Bruce