Bandsaw Dustcollection

  
The bandsaw can be one of the most difficult pieces of equipment to efficiently connect to your dust collection system. The connection chute on most saws, if they give you one at all, is not very good. Delta makes a great 14" bandsaw, but their chute options are poor. There are a number of shop made solutions out there that can improve dust handling. The most popular involves cutting a big hole in your lower blade guard to connect the hose. I cringed at the thought of disfiguring my saw, so I came up with this design. In the end I did do some cutting to the lower guard but in a less obvious manner.  
   
Here is my bandsaw. It's a Delta/Rockwell model 28-380. Don't let that throw you. This is a metal/wood cutting bandsaw, has an oil bath gear box drive with high and low speed gears. Most saws have similar construction so you should be able to adapt this to your own saw. Notice the 4" PVC pipe below the saw table. This connects to your dustcollection hose. Mine wraps around to the rear where I located the blast gate.
Here is a closer view showing the angle cut on the pipe. You want this angle to closely fit up to your saw and the angle will vary depending on how you mount the pipe. This whole assembly needs to be quickly removeable. You'll need to remove it when changing blades or if you rotate your saw table down more than about 30 degrees. I used magnets to hold it on the saw casting. This quickly drops away when needed.
Here is a view from the other side. This just shows the way I bridged around the saw frame. Note in the next picture where the magnets are located.
These magnets were purchased at Home Depot. They are a couple of bucks for a set of two and are suprisingly strong. Four holds the unit well on my saw, but use as many as you need. The magnets are glued with gap filling Hot Stuff. Notice how the pipe fits into a cove which I cut on my tablesaw. Then it's screwed into place.
This shows the only modification made to the saw. The gap between the guard and the saw casting was just too narrow to effectively collect the dust. I'm always thinking of resale value, so I hated to cut my saw. But I saved the piece that was cut out and it could easily be welded back if needed. Notice the pipe elbow near the bottom of the saw? That's the oil fill port for the gear box on this saw. (Gloat intended :-)
   
Although not the prettiest thing I've ever built in my shop, it is very effective at it's intended purpose. Give it a try on your saw. If you don't like it you can still cut a big ugly hole in the side of the guard.