Popular Post gee-dub Posted May 24, 2023 Popular Post Report Share Posted May 24, 2023 Disclaimer - - - This is a version one and we did the whole thing on the fly. I have been watching finish cure for a couple of days. My friend is down from the high desert and we always manage to get into trouble when we are bored. My small bandsaw was screeching at me so the first order of business was to swap the guide bearings and the bearings for the top wheel. Then we decided to upgrade the dust collection which has always been inadequate when using the factory port. We decided to modify an old shop vac end. I used a brass setup bar to level the piece for bansawing and promptly bandsawed right through the setup bar . . . OK, good. Things are starting out well. This looks promising. We plotted and cut the vac end piece some more, fiberglassed it into its new form and pushed forward. Next we needed a method of attachment. Magnets are always a favorite. A hose clamp serves to hold the fixture to the magnet block and thereby to the saw for testing. At any rate we ended up here. The vac connects to a Rockler fitting just as it used to. We added a wye fitting that splits to the factory port and to our modified vac doo-whopper. The doo-whopper positions a 3/4" x 2-1/4" suction port very close to the upper blade guides. Previous testing ad-nauseam revealed this to be the optimum combination. The spacing allows for up to a 1/2" blade which is the max I run on this saw. Collection improvement is at an order of magnitude; super good . 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnG Posted May 24, 2023 Report Share Posted May 24, 2023 Can you come do mine next? Same saw and I need to do all the same things to it! I’ve been ignoring the screeching for a while. on a more serious note, writing the blade length inside the case is genius! I always forget what size it uses and frantically search the internet to try to find out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted May 24, 2023 Report Share Posted May 24, 2023 When you said you always manage to get into trouble when bored, I was actually thinking of something more exciting. But, job well done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom King Posted May 24, 2023 Report Share Posted May 24, 2023 Thanks for this. I intend to copy it twice. I have two of those bandsaws, only they have Craftsman doors on them. I keep a 1/4" blade on one, and an 1/8" with Carter guide thing that I forget the name of on the other one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legenddc Posted May 24, 2023 Report Share Posted May 24, 2023 On 5/23/2023 at 10:34 PM, JohnG said: Can you come do mine next? Same saw and I need to do all the same things to it! I’ve been ignoring the screeching for a while. on a more serious note, writing the blade length inside the case is genius! I always forget what size it uses and frantically search the internet to try to find out. Thank you for pointing that out. Seems smarter than searching through my emails trying to find the size I ordered last time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gee-dub Posted May 24, 2023 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2023 Thanks guys. The snout is just an old unused shop vac fixture but it really has a great new life now. Writing the blade size or other critical info in the inside of a machine comes from dear old dad's teachings. Another example is the Allen and hex wrench sizes felt-tip-penned near rarely used adjustments. A real time saver for those once-every-two-year uses ;-) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legenddc Posted May 25, 2023 Report Share Posted May 25, 2023 On 5/24/2023 at 4:51 PM, gee-dub said: Thanks guys. The snout is just an old unused shop vac fixture but it really has a great new life now. Writing the blade size or other critical info in the inside of a machine comes from dear old dad's teachings. Another example is the Allen and hex wrench sizes felt-tip-penned near rarely used adjustments. A real time saver for those once-every-two-year uses ;-) My grandfather once spent some serious time convincing my mom she wanted to go to a makeup outlet near their house. This was pre GPS days so he went to give her directions. Turned out he was the one who wanted to go and buy cheap nail polish in various colors for the exact purpose you described. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gee-dub Posted May 26, 2023 Author Report Share Posted May 26, 2023 On 5/25/2023 at 6:40 AM, legenddc said: My grandfather once spent some serious time convincing my mom she wanted to go to a makeup outlet near their house. This was pre GPS days so he went to give her directions. Turned out he was the one who wanted to go and buy cheap nail polish in various colors for the exact purpose you described. I inherited some of Grandpa's stuff and there are marks with nail polish just as you describe. A different era, a different solution 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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