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Jim Behning Jim Behning is offline
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Default Best Place for Dust Port on Bandsaw?

Aren't the gullets of the blade supposed to pull the wood chips down
and out? I would think zero clearance on a bandsaw is not much
different than zero clearance on a table saw. Most of the chips should
go down and out and need to be collected underneath.

On Mon, 06 Apr 2009 09:27:01 -0700, mac davis
wrote:

On Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:20:57 -0500, -MIKE- wrote:


Damn good question, and you're going to get a lot of different answers..

I have the Ridgid and it comes with a tiny little port in the top of the bottom
wheel cover, kind of under the blade..
It doesn't suck, which in this case is a bad thing..

I did the 4" hole in the bottom wheel cover door, and it helped a lot, but
mostly by keeping the saw dust from building up in the lower wheel area..
I also put duct tape over the old DC port and around the seam where the lower
door meets the frame..
Not a lot of help in the "general dust" problem, though..

I ended up using a 4" Y and adding a 2nd DC port, which works well but looks
really funky.. It's a small cardboard box with a 4" hole in the back for the
hose and a rare earth magnet to hold it to whatever part of the saw I need it
on, as close to the lower blade guides as I can get it..
That's made a huge difference..


OH! Almost forgot... If you use the hole-in-the-door thing, don't use a zero
clearance plate unless you really need to..
As was pointed out here a few years ago, it sort of defeats the purpose of
trying to create a vacuum in the lower clamshell... YMWV



I want to put a dust port on this wonderful Jet JBS-14mw.

Where's the best place to put a dust port?
I know I can look at pictures of other saws, but sometimes the wrong
engineers decide that. Like the guy responsible for making sure the case
can be stamped out in one pressing decides the port should be moved from
the most efficient location to a horrible spot.

My first clue is the pile of sawdust right underneath where the blade is
doing it's cutting. This thing doesn't "seal up" at all when the doors
close, so I don't think I can reply on vacuum pressure inside the
machine to move the dust very far. (Yeah, sounds like I answered my own
question, I know.)

I don't have a problem with cutting a hole in its heavy cast-metal(*?)
casing. I've already drilled a tapped a few holes in it and it seems
pretty strong.

*I don't think it's iron, but it is very heavy and magnetic (ferrous?).



mac

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