I have struggled with dust collection to my bandsaw, a Hammer N4400. The outlet is a 120mm (close to 5") port that is linked by 5" hose to a 2 hp dust collector via a Super Dust Deputy cyclone. The DC is the next planned upgrade, but it does a decent job of sucking dust (but more power, suction and large impellor would not go amiss).
The dust port ...
My plan was to add a hose near the source of the bandsaw dust, that is, where the cutting takes place at the blade. Not sure how to attach the hose, I did a little research ... and came across a video on YouTube by Rob Cosman. I am not sure if the idea is his, or whether he borrowed it (I did come across another that was made several years before). Suction in this case would be via a Festool CT26E.
The idea is very simple. This is the construction of the dust collector ...
Just a bit of 2" PVC tubing, with an end cap (I planned to lock the end to the bandsaw with a spacer, but this was unnecessary). The tube is sawn half way for the blade (in this case, a 1" Lenox) and opened up a the top (for sawdust).
Behind the dust collector is the holder. The holder is attached on the Hammer here (red arrows) ...
This is half the holder attached (with bolts) ..
This is the other half of the holder, with recesses for the bolt heads. Obviously, the pieces are screwed together.
This the collector attached ...
I made up a connection via 2 1/2" hose to a Y-connector and 5" hose into the outlet at the base of the bandsaw ...
With all dust collection switched off, this is the result after sawing 1500mm of MDF ...
Now I tried a few variations after this: removing the end cap for increased air flow/ventilation (the cap off was better), and taping up the blade kerfs in the tube (this was slightly better). Essentially, these all resulted in this ...
Bottom line: I think that the little dust in the corner is a dead spot for cleaning. The system is working so much better than ever before, and now it only needs one switch at the DC to get it going.
Regards from Perth
Derek