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Thread: Dust collection for bandsaw

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
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    Perth, Australia
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    9,467

    Dust collection for bandsaw

    I have struggled with dust collection to my bandsaw, a Hammer N4400. The outlet is a 120mm (close to 5") port that is linked by 5" hose 2 hp dust collector via a Super Dust Deputy cyclone. The DC is the next planned upgrade, but it does a decent job of sucking dust (but more power and suction would not go amiss).

    The dust port ...



    My plan was to add a hose near the source of the bandsaw dust, that is, where the cutting takes place at the blade. Not sure how to attach the hose, I did a little research ... and came across a video on YouTube by Rob Cosman. I am not sure if the idea is his, or whether he borrowed it (I did come across another that was made several years ago). Suction in this case would be via a Festool CT26E.

    The idea is very simple. This is the construction of the dust collector ...



    Just a bit of 2" PVC tubing, with an end cap (I planned to lock the end to the bandsaw with a spacer, but this was unnecessary). The tube is sawn half way for the blade (in this case, a 1" Lennox) and opened up a the top (for sawdust).

    Behind the dust collector is the holder. The holder is attached on the Hammer here (red arrows) ...



    This is half the holder attached (with bolts) ..



    This is the other half of the holder, with recesses for the bolt heads. Obviously, the pieces are screwed together.



    This the collector attached ...



    So, the question is does it work?

    The inside of the bandsaw is usually coated with dust and quite thick on the floor. This picture was taken after a clean and then sawing about 20 feet of MDF with just the lower dust port in use ...



    I found that the lower dust port needed to be connected for the system to work optimally. It was not enough to just use the upper collector. However, with both connected, after repeated use through the course of an afternoon, this is the inside of the bandsaw ...



    The connection from the CT26E may be may with either the 28mm hose ...



    .. or a 50mm hose ...



    Both worked equally well, but in the end I decided to use the 50mm hose, as it was possible to swap it over to the K3 slider as well (where it has reduced dust spray considerably) ...



    Hope this helps others.

    Regards from Perth

    Derek

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Location
    Elmodel, Ga.
    Posts
    798
    Nice job. I too have been thinking on the same lines as you for DC below the table. For the likes of me, I cannot understand why the manufactures aren't doing this or even doing a better job of finding solutions to DC extraction.
    Again, nice job.
    Steve
    My Dad always told me "Can't Never Could".

    SWE

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Griswold Connecticut
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    6,926
    Nice!!!!!!
    I see a mod to my band saw coming soon.
    Thank you!
    Last edited by Mike Cutler; 12-29-2018 at 12:31 PM.
    "The first thing you need to know, will likely be the last thing you learn." (Unknown)

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    SE PA, Central Bucks County
    Posts
    323
    The standard two-port dust collection configuration of my Felder FB510 is inadequate. I've wanted to set up collection under the table since I got the saw two years ago. Thank you for posting what you did.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
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    Princeton, NJ
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    That’s pretty cool.

    I think it’s interesting that the manufacturers recommend something like 500cfm for a bandsaw but my DC is 3x that and probably could stand to be 5x.
    Bumbling forward into the unknown.

  6. #6
    That's a very cool solution, thanks for sharing. My solution is a lot less elegant, a 5" port in each door. It works well enough that I just ignore the OEM dust port.
    bandsaw_dust.jpg
    --Mike Roberts

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    WNY
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    9,645
    FWIW, my 17" Grizzly has two 4 inch ports, one below the table and another on the back near the bottom left corner of the lower wheel (when viewed from the front). When I first hooked it up to my dust collector I had very poor results. My friend who has the same bandsaw, however, had no troubles with dust building up in it. The difference was he had a lot more flow than I. After I spent some time reconfiguring my DC system to maximize it's flow the dust collection from the BS is very good. I probably have at least 600 CFM now between the two 4" ports. You need flow at the machine itself, a lot of flow.

    John

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    E TN, near Knoxville
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    12,298
    Quote Originally Posted by Derek Cohen View Post
    I have struggled with dust collection to my bandsaw, a Hammer N4400. The outlet is a 120mm (close to 5") port that is linked by 5" hose 2 hp dust collector via a Super Dust Deputy cyclone. The DC is the next planned upgrade, but it does a decent job of sucking dust (but more power and suction would not go amiss)...

    Your mod looks good. I discovered pickup below the table certainly helps. I agree pickup might be even better with a more powerful DC.

    One thing I noticed on my bandsaw was as the blade exited the bottom of the wood, sawdust in the gullets would spray outwards in all directions.

    From these pictures I wonder if some of that spray is getting missed.
    bandsaw-mod-cohen.jpg bandsaw-mod-cohen2.jpg
    From the inside picture of the bottom cabinet it looks like considerable dust is still making it to the lower cabinet. I have much less dust than that in my bottom cabinet even after hours of sawing, basically none. However, I don't know what the top of the lower door covers on that saw. Perhaps some of the dust is from spray and some is carried in the blade gullets. (Or if just before taking the second photo you ran the saw without closing the lower door maybe most of that dust would have been pulled into the lower port - hard to guess.)

    My own bandsaw (Rikon 18") used to get a lot of dust in the cabinet, on the table, and on the floor. It came with a 4" port in the bottom of the bottom cabinet plus another 4" diagonally positioned port just below the lower guides.

    bandsaw_DC_comp2.jpg

    I did some things which fixed it. The first was going from a wimpy shop vac to a powerful cyclone!

    However I still had a lot of dust spraying off the blade gullets and ending up on the floor at my feet. Some was carried through to the lower cabinet where part of it was picked up by the diagonal port. Some was apparently carried in the gullets past the upper port and into the lower cabinet. The dust collection with the cyclone was a huge improvement but still not "perfect".

    I designed a "shroud" under the table to catch the spray and force the dust to go into the lower cabinet instead of onto the floor. I first mocked it up in cardboard then later built one from plexiglas. (The cardboard worked so well I used it for years before I made the plastic box!) With this, everything below the table gets picked up - the bottom of the cabinet is clean.

    bandsaw_DC_comp3.jpg

    With the shroud it seems to me like far less dust is carried in the blade gullets past the diagonal upper port and into the lower cabinet. My guess is the plastic shroud with an opening to the left of the blade caused a horizontal air current that helped blow some of the dust out of the gullets. I can see some dust swirling through the clear plastic. I suspect breaking this loose helps the diagonal port to pick up more and less makes it to the lower cabinet.

    Finally, I dealt with the dust spray above the table. I use my bandsaw a lot for skimming cuts when processing wood for turning blanks and sometimes I get a lot of dust on the table. The flexible tube has a strong magnet to let me position it as needed or store it out of the way on the side of the table.

    bandsaw_DC_comp4.jpg

    I think causing air to blow across the gullets would help with a table saw too. I designed something similar to your PVC pipe intended enclose a bit of the blade just below the table and force air across the teeth. Someday maybe I'll even try building it.

    BTW, my DC is a 5hp ClearVue cyclone. I run 6" ducts and split the one at the bandsaw three ways. A larger main duct would be better but the suction from that cyclone is so powerful that the sizing inefficiency doesn't seem significant.

    bandsaw_DC_comp1.jpg

    When you upgrade your DC, perhaps a small redesign of your under table pickup would make it work even better with a larger port catching even more dust. Hey, did you try running it without the end cap on the PVC? I wonder if doing that (or just drilling, say, a 20mm hole somewhere to the left of the blade) would cause more horizontal air flow across the blade and blow more dust from the blade gullets.

    JKJ

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    Perth, Australia
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    9,467
    I did not want to live with a double vacuum system, so connected the main 5" hose to the collector at the blade. My concern was that the 2 hp DC might not be powerful enough to pull dust through two hoses ...



    This is a 2 1/2" hose ...



    With all dust collection switched off, this is the result after sawing 1500mm of MDF ...





    Now I tried a few variations after this: removing the end cap for increased air flow/ventilation (the cap on was slightly better), and taping up the blade kerfs in the tube (this was slightly better). Essentially, these all resulted in this ...



    Bottom line: I think that the little dust in the corner is a dead spot for cleaning. The system is working so much better than ever before, and now it only needs one switch at the DC to get it going.

    Regards from Perth

    Derek

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    Perth, Australia
    Posts
    9,467
    After a month of frequent use, the bandsaw is amazingly clean - for some reason, better than in the last picture. I am extremely satisfied with the results of this simple modification.

    Highly recommended.

    Regards from Perth

    Derek

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