Pimped my HF Bandsaw

[AlanWS]

jspelbring:

To elaborate on the soda bottle dust pickup (sorry, so photos)...


I cut the top off a clear 1 liter soda bottle, so the open end fit a 4" DC flex hose. The bottom end of the bottle I split to fit around the blade. It slips in under the table, lying on its side, and because it is flexible can just be pushed into place even though I was not terribly careful to make it fit when I cut it. If anything remains in the way, trim the bottle. Openings are not a problem, as they let in air to sweep the dust into the hose. It has a large opening at the top to let dust in. I was just careful not to leave too much of an opening near the blade exit at the bottom. Just don't make it so small that it's hard to place properly, because if the plastic rubs the blade it make a horrible racket.

To hold it in place, a piece of wire is wrapped around the hose, and the wire hooks over the table alignment pin. This holds the weight, and a magnet then easily keeps it from shifting position. Taking it off takes seconds, and replacing it only slightly longer as you bend the plastic around obstacles to get it in. If you use a bottom wheel takeoff as well, the two hoses are connected with a Y.

I hope this is useful,

[theminor]

I removed the middle pulley entirely - Straight from the motor to the wheel

I don't have the saw in front of me right now, but this seems like a good idea except for the fact that you'd lose some speed on the blade, right? by removing the middle pulley, aren't you taking out the extra drive that pulley provides? I could be remembering wrong, but I thought each pulley "torques up" the speed as each belt is attached to a small gear and the exiting pulley attaches via a larger gear. I could be wrong, but if this is right, wouldn't removing the middle pulley entirely slow your blade speed down?

[jspelbring]

Speed

I don't have the saw in front of me right now, but this seems like a good idea except for the fact that you'd lose some speed on the blade, right? by removing the middle pulley, aren't you taking out the extra drive that pulley provides? I could be remembering wrong, but I thought each pulley "torques up" the speed as each belt is attached to a small gear and the exiting pulley attaches via a larger gear. I could be wrong, but if this is right, wouldn't removing the middle pulley entirely slow your blade speed down?

I haven't measured the speed, but I remember someone on the board mentioning that they talked with the TimberWolf blade folks, and they recommended it.

According to HF, one of the differences between their single speed and 4 speed models is... well the speed. Specifically the top speed. The 4 speed model tops out at 2670, while the single speed runs at 3000.

From what little I've had time to cut since the operation, I have to say that it "feels" faster. With the link belt, it doesn't bog down, or slip like it used to when resawing either. YMMV.