Bandsaw Dust Extraction - My Solution

[Jensmith]

I've had this working for a few weeks now so it's had a good test before posting and the toughest test is acrylic as a few months ago I posted a topic as I had acrylic bits going everywhere!

As we all know, every bandsaw is different and so every solution has to be different. I tried out a few options with failed attempts and had a post asking for help quite a few months ago.

My thanks goes to Eric for pointing me in the direction of this idea as it turned out to be the best for my bandsaw and setup.

I got a drainpipe elbow from the DIY store that was the perfect size for both my 2.5" tubing and the space under the table and I've managed to fix it in place with a bit of wood bolted to the door of the bandsaw. It's slightly messy but I needed to get the wood far enough out so it would miss the guides for the blade. Bandsaw's really don't make it easy!

The dust tube weight is held with a very simple strip of cardboard and 2 very strong magnets

I reckon it's extracting 95% of the dust and when I tried it with acrylic only a few its escaped so I'm really, really pleased with the results

 

[yetloh]

Hi Jen,

Looks like a nice low-tech solution - often the best. Does your bandsaw also have a dust port somewhere near the bottom of the cabinet and, if so, is your extraction also connected to that too? It looks like you have something like a 100mm hose there and I can ssee the advantage in that. I have a bottom 100mm port which I have supplemented with a ply box under the table in roughly the same position as your chute. This has a 50mm hose which connects to them 100 mm hose via a Y junction but I wouldn't say it is as effective overall as 95%. It has occuurred to me that I might be beter off with a bigger under the table port in place of the one at the bottom of the cabinet and perhaps supplementing that with one above the table because I get quite a lot of dust escaping from the kerf, particularly when cutting thick timber or resawing for veneers. Hs anyone tried this?

Jim

 

[Eric The Viking]

Thanks for the hat-tip Jen, but I can't claim any credit at all: it was Olly P-J who came up with the idea and fitted it too. And it does work well...

 

[Jensmith]

Hi Jen,

Looks like a nice low-tech solution - often the best. Does your bandsaw also have a dust port somewhere near the bottom of the cabinet and, if so, is your extraction also connected to that too? It looks like you have something like a 100mm hose there and I can ssee the advantage in that.

Thanks Jim,

I did have a port in the lower left but I closed that off as it didn't work very well.

It is a 4" dust extractor but I'm using 2.5" pipe to connect to my tools as they all have small ports and I couldn't fit a 4" pipe under the table of the bandsaw.

I have found that most of it gets collected before it gets to the lower cabinet anyway so I'm using all the suck there rather than splitting it.

The key is getting a good seal to the underside of the table so the suck pulls the dust off the blade.

I also drilled holes in the insert in the table so the dust is being sucked down off the table too as the blade cuts.

 

[Jensmith]

Thanks for the hat-tip Jen, but I can't claim any credit at all: it was Olly P-J who came up with the idea and fitted it too. And it does work well...

Fair point. Thanks to Olly for coming up with a great solution and Eric for telling me about it and drawing a sketchup model.

I think the thing that made it work so well is that the elbow is just the right size to fit the round insert hole in my table and the slight downwards tilt helps the dust to be removed efficiently. Because it's sealing against the underside of the table (push fit) there's no air escaping.

If I put my hand over the insert on the top of the table I can feel the air flow so it shows that I'm getting a faily good seal.

 

[OPJ]

Looks good, Jen. Yours looks to be held quite securely, too. One problem I've had with my solution is that I'll accidentally 'twist' it when fitting it (after changing a blade or opening the doors), which means it basically clamps itself around the blade... On more than one occasion where I've forgotten to check for this before starting the saw, I've stalled the motor! I should really have glued it in place, or something. ;-)

 

[Eric The Viking]

With respect, no, you shouldn't!

It's just fine as it is

Actually, I have tweaked it very slightly, by opening up the blade slot a bit. It doesn't affect the suction, but it does mean the alignment isn't so critical. Actually, I think the vortex round the blade thus created may help a bit too, but it's still brilliant.

 

[Jensmith]

I think my cut for the blade is slightly wide as I cut it by hand to avoid mishaps. It seems to work fine like Eric says.

The elbow fits exactly between the underside of the table and the guide blocks so it will actually push fit and stay there. Fixing it was just to make sure it stayed.