Thread: Laguna 14 inch SUV band saw.

John it will be interesting seeing how you solve the issues at hand. Great pic's.

I do love the huge depth of cut this saw allows. It will, however, make fitting the over-table dust extraction a bit more difficult.

IMAG0473[1].jpg

Congrats on the new saw - looks like no timber is safe now

Fitted the dust extraction system today. Decided to use a similar system to my old saw, given that it worked well. The system is comprised of three 4 inch lines.

First pic is the three way junction that is fitted over the 4 inch port at the bottom of the cabinet ... very tight fit.
aaaThree way junction.jpg

Second pic shows the machine from the front. The veneer hanging down is attached to the tensioning lever. When the blade is tensioned, the veneer rises level with the door. Just my attempt to avoid turning the machine on when the blade is not tensioned.
aaaFront (Finished).jpg

View from the back. One line draws air over the table adjacent to the upper guides. Another draws air from immediately under the table (around the lower guides). The third line is the port at the bottom of the lower cabinet. I tried the port Laguna put just below the top of the cabinet, but too much dust escapes from around the lower guides. I blocked of the port at the top of the cabinet.
aaaBack (Finished).jpg

Final shot shows the condition of the table after 40 cuts through a 10 inch wide 12 mm MDF board. Only a few specks remain, but the cyclone is only running on 50 Hz. It will draw 20% more air once I get another 15 Amp circuit and can run it at 60 Hz.
aaaClean Table.jpg

Pretty happy with the result. It is not quite as good as the old saw in terms of dust collection, but I am running a re-saw blade on the Laguna and am only running the cyclone at 50 Hz. Also, I have yet to fit a nozzle to the overhead line, which helped on the old saw.

Cool! Thank you for sharing with all the pictures. The above table extraction setup looks very effective considering that it is adjusted so close to the upper guide bearings and therefore to the top of the timber being cut. How did you attach the flex to the upper guide assembly? I think I see a block of wood there? Does the ducting get in your way? Again thanks.
Warm regards, david

Originally Posted by LuckyDuck

Cool! Thank you for sharing with all the pictures. The above table extraction setup looks very effective considering that it is adjusted so close to the upper guide bearings and therefore to the top of the timber being cut. How did you attach the flex to the upper guide assembly? I think I see a block of wood there? Does the ducting get in your way? Again thanks.
Warm regards, david

David,

You are correct. I fastened a small block of wood to the blade guide so the flexy is drawn up and down as the depth of cut is adjusted. A single self tapper with a mudguard washer holds the flexy to that block of wood.

The over-table flexy will not be a problem (it runs adjacent to the knob that adjusts cutting height) if you leave a little slack in it when the guides are fully down so your hand can push it aside as that knob is turned. Note how the PVC over the top of the machine allows plenty of clearance for the tensioning knob and the guide post, which protrudes by about six inches when the depth of cut is set to maximum.

On my old saw I put a PVC nozzle at the end of that flexy so the air is drawn more across the blade and upper guides. Will do something similar to the new saw one rainy day when I have nothing better to do ... maybe ...

The deeper the cut, the more dust I get over the table. When cutting thin stock, I get almost no dust at all. I think this is because the inlet to the over-table flexy is closer to the table and this keeps air velocity high in the area of the cut/blade. However, even on deep cuts, dust collection is pretty darned good.

EDIT: Saw a bandsaw yesterday that had two 4 inch lines. It had two ports in the same position as on my saw. The flexy from these ports went to a 4 inch wye, and a single 4 inch line went to the 3 HP dusty. There was plenty of dust around. First, dust escapes from around the guides. Second, each of the two flexy lines to the ports is only drawing half the air it should, because the system is throttled/limited by the single 4 inch line to the DC.

Thanks John. Sounds good and I would like to do something similar when I get a chance to sort out my ducting. As an aside, instead of the nozzle, would the "bell end" design suggested by BobL work better? If I understand what he is on about, the bell design minimises air turbulence and therefore increases the dust extraction (not necessary chip collection)... The pictures of the bell he made in a couple of other posts (I forget where) looks easy enough to make. Or do you think it would be too bulky?
Cheers.

Originally Posted by LuckyDuck

Thanks John. Sounds good and I would like to do something similar when I get a chance to sort out my ducting. As an aside, instead of the nozzle, would the "bell end" design suggested by BobL work better? If I understand what he is on about, the bell design minimises air turbulence and therefore increases the dust extraction (not necessary chip collection)... The pictures of the bell he made in a couple of other posts (I forget where) looks easy enough to make. Or do you think it would be too bulky?
Cheers.

David,

I think this is an "and" proposition. I plan to do both. I want to angle the nozzle so more air is drawn over the blade/guides, but also a bell end is a very good idea.

If you look over the posts there are suggestions that having two streams of air entering either side of a main duct can cause turbulence. Correct. However, if you look at the fitting at the lower back of my machine you will note I have done that ... because it kept things tidy ... because any alternatives I could come up with were bulky and clumsy, and because I'd already done that on my old machine, and I still got over 800 CFM even with 90 mm pipes (this time I have used 100 mm pipes).

Cheerio!

John

Originally Posted by John Samuel

The ports have bulky grates (to protect impellers). Because I have a cyclone I have removed mine, but people operating a dusty might like to consider replacing these grates with a finer item that provides less resistance. (See pic) .

There is little chance of anything big enough getting into the spaces where this air is drawn from that will damage an impeller - I would not recommend putting any grate back even for regular DC owners.

The vent going to the bottom cavity will suck very little air if the door is closed - are you planing to insert a vent or just leave the door opened?

This was how I mounted my top collection duct. The PVC fitting has keyhole slots cut into it so it can be easily removed from the bolts

Originally Posted by BobL

There is little chance of anything big enough getting into the spaces where this air is drawn from that will damage an impeller - I would not recommend putting any grate back even for regular DC owners.

The vent going to the bottom cavity will suck very little air if the door is closed - are you planing to insert a vent or just leave the door opened?

This was how I mounted my top collection duct. The PVC fitting has keyhole slots cut into it so it can be easily removed from the bolts

Bob,

As mentioned in an earlier post, the instructions say we need a minimum of 1,000 CFM of air for effective dust extraction. It's a bit of a giggle, because we are never going to pull that much air through one and a half four inch ports. In addition, there is no way for the air to get INTO the cabinet, so I have set it up with the door ajar, and air now gets in ... same as the old machine. Maybe some day I'll install a proper vent ... but I said that about the old machine.

Loved your PVC fitting for the over-table air inlet. When I get around to it I'll angle the nozzle so it draws air from around the blade/guides and from where the blade enters the work, but have put that on the back burner until I build a jig that places even pressure on the work piece to hold it firmly against the fence when cutting 200-350 mm veneers. In fact, off to Bunnings and Carba Tec right now to test an approach developed this morning.

Have fun!

John

Hi John

Nice bandsaw but it needs a bit of fixing up!!!!
It will be much better when you get the angle grinder and cut that inlet off under the table and fit a proper inlet up higher. Also a 5 or 6 inch outlet cut at the bottom of the lower wheel guard will improve flow. A few slots in the door will surely let more air in. Just joking!!!!!

By the way what do you do for Bandsaw Blades. I have a Bandsaw Blade Welder and buy my blades in 100Ft/30m rolls. Works out a whole lot cheaper than buying commercial blades. There is a good buy on ebay at the moment for 3/8 4TPI 100ft rolls. Many other sizes also turn up. I have a fair selection if you are interested.
Cheers
Ron

Originally Posted by ronboult

Hi John

Nice bandsaw but it needs a bit of fixing up!!!!
It will be much better when you get the angle grinder and cut that inlet off under the table and fit a proper inlet up higher. Also a 5 or 6 inch outlet cut at the bottom of the lower wheel guard will improve flow. A few slots in the door will surely let more air in. Just joking!!!!!

By the way what do you do for Bandsaw Blades. I have a Bandsaw Blade Welder and buy my blades in 100Ft/30m rolls. Works out a whole lot cheaper than buying commercial blades. There is a good buy on ebay at the moment for 3/8 4TPI 100ft rolls. Many other sizes also turn up. I have a fair selection if you are interested.
Cheers
Ron

Still fine tuning it Ron.

I have a Laguna Re-saw King blade on it now ... it is very good. I kept the old saw so I could keep the re-saw blade on the Laguna and avoid fiddling with guides and drift too much on the new saw. Smaller blades will go on the old beast. Thanks for the offer ... I will keep it in mind, but for now I have five blades for the old machine. Should keep me out of trouble for a while.

Currently making a second fence with six ball rollers on its face. The purpose of this jig is to keep the wood pressed firmly against the main fence when cutting wide veneers. Here's hoping it works!

Have fun!

Hi John
The Laguna bandsaws have had good reviews. I particularly like the ceramic guides which are supposed to give very good support to the blade
Did you buy it to cut Veneers?

You mention a Resaw King Blade. What is the profile of the teeth and construction? Is it a Bimetal or Tungsten Tipped blade? What width & TPI?
Finally if I may ask what did the blade cost?

I am still looking for some 16 or 19 mm 2 or 3 TPI blade stock for resawing on my saw. I managed to buy 100ft of 1inch 3tpi but when it came it was not flex back and is a bit rigid for my saw. Really suits a much bigger saw than 19" Oh well I will keep looking and something will turn up.

Have not done much more on Clearview installation over Xmas. Must get a move on since I sold my old DC and have no collector at the moment.

I desperately need some 150mm flanged pipe fittings to upgrade the outlets on my table & band saw. Any idea where they can be obtained. No body seems to supply larger than 125mm.
Cheers
Ron

I made a flange for my table saw by using an 8x8 inch piece of 18mm MDF and cutting a 6 inch hole then pushed a piece of pipe in and sealed it with silicone. I then cut a 6 inch hole in the saw cabinet and bolted the unit on. Seems to work very well.