Dust collection with bandsaw

kd6vpe · Post by **kd6vpe** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 8:46 am

Charlese
I won't have an oppotunity to make saw dust till the weekend. It really should help. I have a 650 cfm dc and only use about 8 feet of 2.5" flexible pipe to the bandsaw. I had a picture of the sawdust collected by the stock grid but the camera lost the picture before I could save it to the PC. I really know this will work. I also don't use an elbow on it just a straight pipe.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:14 am

Clogging the line of a dust collector attached to the bandsaw is one of the last problems I would have expected.

Bandsaw dust is so fine and there are no chips; nothing of size to block the line.

Does this problem possibly have anything to do with static charge on the plastic grid (like a dust magnet)?

I know that I often feel a static discharge when I handle the hoses connected to my dust collector. Plastic and moving dust seem to do that.

kd6vpe · Post by **kd6vpe** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 9:32 am

Dusty,
Interesting thought. I wish my clogged picture would have came out before I fixed it. I do re-sawing and get some shreads of wood not just dust and that seemed to be what was clogging on the grid. We shall see this weekend. I have some more re-sawing to do. I will report back when I am done.

Randy · Post by **Randy** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 1:35 pm

Jim,

Are you sure your dust collector is OK? This is your second problem in as many weeks with dust. (Jointer and now band saw).

You may be starving your collector of air. Starving the collector is the same as too much, the machine will not properly work in either case.

kd6vpe wrote:I have a 650 cfm dc and only use about 8 feet of 2.5" flexible pipe to the bandsaw.

This may be your problem....starvation!

kd6vpe · Post by **kd6vpe** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 6:28 pm

Randy,
Another great thought. I just came in from the shop could not wait till the weekend. Ran some silver maple thru the bandsaw and no clogs like before. Still some saw dust inside the bandsaw. I may be being real picky I was hoping to have none in there. Pictures show my setup. The piping is 2.5 in. and only 8 feet long to DC. Threw in a coffe table/chest SHMBO wants me to hurry and finish. Thank you guys for all your help. I am going think about maybe increasing the size of the piping from the DC to the blast gates and see if maybe I am starving the DC. That will have to wait till I recoop from my spending spree at the TA. I see me order it there. Got the univeral lathe tool rest and sharpening kit.

Randy · Post by **Randy** » Thu Mar 13, 2008 10:11 pm

When you're running the your DC, leave the other line open and you will most likely see a difference.

Try this...turn no the DC close all but your one line, look and and push on the upper bag of you DC, now open a second line and look and touch again. The bag will be tighter and harder.

I run the DC3300 and when I am running say the table saw, the suction is better if I open 1/2 a second line. That is why (at least when I got mine) there was 2 reducers and 2 caps for the reducers with the DC. so you could open a 1" extra.

Also when I piped in a 4" line in my old shop, it worked better with 1 2-1/2" hose connected and 1/4 gate open at another entry way. Now I only had half the power you have so you must need much more air than the DC3300 does.

paulmcohen · Post by **paulmcohen** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 2:15 am

kd6vpe wrote:Randy,
Another great thought. I just came in from the shop could not wait till the weekend. Ran some silver maple thru the bandsaw and no clogs like before. Still some saw dust inside the bandsaw. I may be being real picky I was hoping to have none in there. Pictures show my setup. The piping is 2.5 in. and only 8 feet long to DC. Threw in a coffe table/chest SHMBO wants me to hurry and finish. Thank you guys for all your help. I am going think about maybe increasing the size of the piping from the DC to the blast gates and see if maybe I am starving the DC. That will have to wait till I recoop from my spending spree at the TA. I see me order it there. Got the univeral lathe tool rest and sharpening kit.

I don't think starving is exactly the issue but I think you are close. I assume the DC has a 4" inlet, you then narrow the pipe to 2.5" which cuts the airflow by ~50%. So for so good but then you have a Y and go to two 2.5" runs the air here will be again a 50% drop plus a drop through the Y. I don't think any DC would work like this.

You want to run a 4" pipe to the Y and then get a Y that goes from 4" to two 2.5" pipes. That should fix the problem. Depending on the DC you might want to run both blast gates open to maintain the airflow in the 4" pipe.

kd6vpe · Post by **kd6vpe** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 8:43 am

See I knew some of you guys would know. I will try both suggestions. As you know I don't have room to do any kinda hard pipe so I used what I had. Yes my DC has a 4in inlet and I have the reducer on the end of the 4in flexable piping comming off the DC it is about 2' long. I can't wait to build a real shop at that time I will put Nicks calcualations and suggestions to work for now I have to do what I can.

paulmcohen · Post by **paulmcohen** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 3:13 pm

kd6vpe wrote:See I knew some of you guys would know. I will try both suggestions. As you know I don't have room to do any kinda hard pipe so I used what I had. Yes my DC has a 4in inlet and I have the reducer on the end of the 4in flexible piping coming off the DC it is about 2' long. I can't wait to build a real shop at that time I will put Nicks calculations and suggestions to work for now I have to do what I can.

You don't need a permanent shop, you just need to run the 4" pipe to where you need it and put the correct splitter there.

I have 6" permanent pipe from my dust collector to my shop then I split to 4" flexible pipe to near my machines and then if I need to I have a reducer at the end to attach to the machine. With the Shopsmith I use 4" for the lathe and drill press but 2.5" any time I need to connect to one of its dust ports.

michaeltoc · Post by **michaeltoc** » Fri Mar 27, 2009 12:13 am

kd6vpe wrote:I bought the new bandsaw cover with the little window and dust port. The dust port has a plastic grid in it ths is part of the mold and it keeps getting clogged with saw dust.
Have any of you ran into this? could the grid be cut out? Or would that comprimise something.

Getting back to the original question - I would guess that the grid is a safety screen to prevent you from sticking your fingers inside the bandsaw while it is running. It's probably OK to remove, but then you have a potential safety hazard.

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Dust collection with bandsaw

Dust Collection with bandsaw