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Finally got my scroll saw up and running well. Only issue is the blower tube for dust. A gnat fart has more power! Any after market solutions/suggestions?

ChrisNeilan wrote:Finally got my scroll saw up and running well. Only issue is the blower tube for dust. A gnat fart has more power! Any after market solutions/suggestions?

Oil the pump seal and see if that makes a difference. See the manual, it is in there.

Thank you both for the info. I'll give this a try tonight if I have time.

Chris

Another option would be a small air pump for aquariums.

I am in the process of refurbishing my scroll saw completely. (New bearings, new bushings, new shafts, etc.) I'm mostly done - waiting on the 3 main arm shafts - but I noticed some interesting things about the blower assembly I thought I would pass on.
On my saw (555272) the castings on the upper cover COMPLETELY BLOCK the tubing. Where the plastic tube enters the upper cover it passes through a hole and there is a casting stud that forces the tube completely flat, which means that the blower assembly never worked at all!!
My bet is the blower assembly was added at some point and the original castings were not changed, and for a period of time the blowers just didn't work. I don't know if someone at the factory had the job of grinding down the one casting stud so that it would work, and they simply didn't do it for every saw... because at least on my saw, there is no way the blower could EVER work.
So my advice is have a look at where the tubing passes into the upper shroud, underneath the long plastic cover held in place by three screws. If the casting stud at the back is there, and is at full height, as mine was, you need to fix it.
What I have done is to grind down that stud enough so that the tubing can lay over it without being squashed, and I also ground down one side of the stud holding the middle screw in place, because it was being squashed there, too. There are a couple of other points where the tubing may be flattened, and you need to check each one and grind accordingly.
I am also in the process of replacing the plastic line with a copper line, for several reasons. Firstly, so that on the upper shroud it can't be pinched. Secondly, in the housing at the back that holds the arms and the upper shroud, the tubing is forced to take two very tight 90 degree bends and this may also cause it to kink, split or simply flatten over time as the plastic ages. Lastly, the plastic line supplied by SS is a little short to work properly on the motorized version of the saw, and the only way to make it long enough is to allow the plastic to lie directly on the motor below, which when it gets hot... well, you can imagine.
So I am going to run copper line for most of the length of the tubing, and if necessary epoxy or silicone it into place at points to keep it from rattling. I plan on only using plastic where the tube exits the top of the shroud to connect to the little blow tube on the adjustable arm. There I will use plastic as that must flex depending on how you adjust the arm up or down. I will also use a section of plastic in the middle so that the saw can be disassembled in two parts where the base connects so that I can take it apart easily. I'll report back when I'd done but right now I agree - the blower system on my saw doesn't produce an ounce worth of usable "blow". I'm hoping my solution will be a permanent fix which makes the blower useful.

For years I had a Delta scroll saw with a terrible dust blower. I took the route Ron suggested. I got a garage sale aquarium air pump, I think it was $3.50. I ran a small tube through Loc-Line which attached I attached with hose clamps to the saw. I think you can make it out in this pic. Under the table I have my SS dust collector attached. This set-up worked really well. I could position it as needed and adjust the blower for how much air it moved.

??????
http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewt ... 588#p93588

JPG wrote:??????
http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewt ... 588#p93588

JPG - sorry, somehow I missed the section where you already covered this issue! Still, it's worth posting to this thread talking about the blower.

Ad you did, I deepened that slot which severely pinched the tube, and that casting post right in front of the slot I ground down because it flattened the tube. It's a terrible design and looks to me like the whole blower idea was an afterthought. My saw is a bit older than yours (I noticed my tension rod is different, being a thinner rod that ends in a ball where the roll pin seats) so I think every saw is a bit different. I like the lamp and may install a tiny LED one on mine...

Do you have any pictures of the lamp assembly itself?

I deepened the notch to make room for the lamp power cord.

Not lamp alone, but you may get a better 'see' of what it is and where it is. The goose neck has a threaded end that mounts to the upper arm shroud.
http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewt ... 594#p93594