Ripnado Bandsaw Dust Collection

[Mark J]

I picked up this Ripnado system last March in Milwaukee at what may have been the last woodworking show that we're going to have (well maybe they'll be back next Spring, but it's gloomy here today).  The Ripnado is made by the Drillnado company and is a set of fittings for 14" bandsaws to efficiently channel sawdust to a vacuum hose.  I won't say it's perfect, but it seems to work reasonably well.  The system consists of a magnitized "rubber" sheet that attaches to the underside of the saw table.  There are cut outs for the blade and for a fitting (also held on by magnets) to allow attachment for the vacuum hose.  As long as the wood your cutting is against the table it seems to do a respectable job.  It seems that by creating a small space around the blade the sawdust is contained and sucked up.  

Amazon has a better picture of the kit so I didn't bother to take my own. 

https://www.amazon.com/RIPNADO-Band-Saw-Dust-Collection/dp/B07QYBPPT2

Here is what it looks like on my saw, which is a steel spine style Jet SFX 14.  Note I have removed the red guards, they were pointless anyway.  

Really clever people know how to annotate the image with circles and arrows.  I am not really clever people, so what you see is the round rubberized magnetic piece stuck to the underside of the table.  The blade passes through this and between the roller guides.  In front and to the right of the blade is the magnetic fitting that attaches to the hole in the round piece and to that fitting is friction fit the vacuum hose adapter.  You'll notice the hose adapter has a tight fit under this saw.  The Ripnado is designed for the older and more common style cast iron 14" bandsaws with the oval cases, but it does fit this saw and might fit similarly styled steel spine saws from Laguna and Rikon. 

Here's a picture from the top.

The hose adapter is a few feet, long enough to reach the floor and connect to larger diameter hose.  

 

So how well does it work?  I was squaring up a block of wood, so sort of like re-sawing, and cut all these pieces. 

Without the Ripnado (and even with the useless red guards) there would have been a good deal of sawdust everywhere.  While I'm sure that in the course of operations some sawdust might have been knocked to the floor, here's what was left on the table. 

I still use the 4" dust hose and big DC, so the case still stays clean.

 

Room for improvement?  Well everything is held together with magnets and friction fit so it's pretty easy to knock the whole thing off, especially with the hose on the floor.  I wish that the magnetic fitting that attaches to the vacuum hose adapter had a little angle to it so the hose would fit on squarely, but then it probably wouldn't fit another model of saw.  

It's a small hassle to install as the rubberized magnetic sheet is not that powerful while the magnets on the vacuum hose connector are rather strong and tend to attach in the wrong place.   Attempting to reposition the one generally results in removing the other.  Suffice it to say that it's best to install while kneeling down and working with direct visualization and good lighting.  Changing blades does require removal of the fittings, but I can't see how that would work any other way.  

It's 50 bucks so that's not going to appeal to everyone, but if you've looked at it and wondered, or if you've run out of other tools to buy, that's my take on it.  

 

[Coop]

Given that and you know what you know, would you purchase it again? 

[Mark J]

On 9/12/2020 at 9:32 PM, Coop said:

Given that and you know what you know, would you purchase it again? 

Well, it is a bit pricey, but I like that it works so probably yes.  It would be difficult to source something like the little shroud/duct that seems to be the key.  Still I'd be happier paying $35.

[Mark J]

After writing the review and finding myself with a spare hour or two I decided to fix something with the Ripnado that has bugged me.  As I've said it works pretty well because of that small dust shroud, but it has to be removed to change blades, and re-mounting is a pain.  

The magnetized rubber circle needs to be centered under the table.  The shroud is then positioned into its cut out.  The shroud has a couple of rare earth magnets so it has good hold, but what those magnets want to preferentially grab is the rubber circle, dislodging it.  Start over.  

So I had the idea of replacing the rubber circle with a bit 1/4" ply.

A couple of magnets and cutouts.

I left a ledge of material on one side of the shoot cutout.

So the shroud sits on an angle.

Which relieved the strain on the shroud and hose.