Pictures and Ideas for saw dust collection/removal and uses.

Bandmill Bandit · September 25, 2012, 09:43:01 AM

Just an observation and a question for you guys using blowers; would it not make for a much better flow if you modified the standard wood mizer discharge chute so that the 45ish degree elbow was either straight or facing up to decrease pipe length and turbulence in the pipe there by increasing velocity and flow in the tube?

Also there is a flex tube that is used in the oil patch up here for vacuum handling of light dry materials. It has a wire coil in side a tough and slippery cloth that is impregnated with something that lasts and it is light too. will get a picture of the stuff.

Peder McElroy · September 25, 2012, 11:28:42 AM

I like the bucket idea.

Jim_Rogers · September 25, 2012, 11:42:34 AM

I hope to someday set up a blower and pipe on mine.

What size/brand/volume of air are you guys using?

Jim Rogers

pineywoods · October 01, 2012, 11:39:25 PM

I hate shoveling sawdust. My Mill is 100% fixed bandmill, sawdust is a headache.
I have spent a lot of time trying to devise a satisfactory system of sawdust removal. My setup shown in Okrafarmer's post works fairly well, but there are 2 problems with it..
1...Flex hose tears and breaks all too often, the stuff is expensive...Patch it with black duct tape, but after a while, there's more tape than hose.
2...I off load slabs on the operator side and place them in a rack alongside the mill. The Dang hose gets in the way and gets tangled with the slabs.

The following setup is an ongoing project. The object is to do away with as much hose as possible and get everything up out of the way. I'm down to 2 short pieces of hose, everything else is ordinary old cheap hardware store stove pipe. It's all above head high..

An overview..

There's 3 slipjoints used. One on the bottom of the blower (the intake) one in the middle of the pipe assembley, and one on the top of the chute attached to the mill. The white jug is a hi tech infinitely adjustable counter balance to keep the slip joint on the blower from binding. Add or remove water to adjust.. ;D
There's 2 bungee cords wrapped around the blower slip joint to help the intake pipe to rotate properly.

This is the slip joint in the middle of the pipe. Allows the pipe to bend as the mill travels along the track. The elbows are stove pipe el's.

The remainder of pipe and hose are suspended on a pulley that runs along a clothesline the length of the building.

Before somebody asks, here's how the slip joints are made. Cut out of sheet metal using a fly cutter on a drill press

All the parts..The brown piece is a thick fiber gasket. Inlet pipe is brazed to the leftmost piece. Outlet pipe brazed to the ring shaped part. Stack the pieces in the order shown and bolt together with 4 small bolts..

Lambee10 · October 04, 2012, 01:41:29 PM

hey guys- been a while:

anyone ever used a 4" pvc pipe with a T or Y in it so the sawdust can be directed into the pipe with a $8 yard sale leaf blower stuck in one end to blow the dust out the other? It will not move it far but seems like simple enough to get it away from the works.

I just reread this and not sure it make sense but if someone has done it, it will. Maybe, Kinda.

maybe a swtch in the electric cord to turn it on and off when not cutting.

what cha think?

beenthere · October 04, 2012, 02:39:05 PM

Lamb
Sounds like you have one. How does it work? and pics pls. ;)

Lambee10 · October 04, 2012, 04:11:03 PM

hey Beenthere:
Well, I wrote that kind of sheepishly because I was "NASA engineering" a system to move sawdust and was explaining my idea to a farmer I get my hay from (hoping he had a chain system lying around) and he said why dont you use a leaf blower and pipe. I musta looked confused (I was) and he continued to explain a simple design of putting the blower in one end and as the sawdust dumped into an opening in the pipe it would be blown out the other end.

huh.

so I saw this thread and threw it out there hoping someone had done it. I dont have it constructed yet but still thinking on it.

moandrich · October 04, 2012, 07:52:51 PM

Tried the bucket after reading here and love it. Keep a large wheel barrel next to me and just dump bucket when full on the return cycle. Only problem I have is it hits the tire.

Dave Shepard · October 04, 2012, 09:20:50 PM

At the mill I learned to saw on I installed a vac system. It consisted of a big tractor powered vacuum with heavy steel piping around the mill for the edger, planer and mill. I used flexible vacuum hose hanging from a cable for the mill, with a swivel made from an SDR 35 gasketed elbow with the gasket removed. I drilled each half of the swivel for a bolt and put a spring between them.

Homemade swivel:

Tractor powered vac, later converted to electric:

Here is a shot of the various piping around the mill. I cut a hole in the top of the exhaust chute and put that tan piece of steel pipe on to keep the piping out of the way.

hackberry jake · October 04, 2012, 10:08:46 PM

I have just been shoveling up til now but you guys have got me motivated. I have noticed that ever since I got a hydraulic log turner, I have a lot more bark under the mill thou. Don't think a blower is gunna handle that too well.

POSTON WIDEHEAD · October 04, 2012, 10:12:58 PM

Jake, I just take a rake and clean out all the bark under my mill. That's about the best way I have found to clean under a mill.
Unless you're like Magic.....just hook up and drive off. :D

Woodchuck53 · October 05, 2012, 02:39:24 AM

Morning all. My old homemade works fine but the neatest I saw was a converted Hammer mill that a friend got from a farmer. Changed it over to a 3 hp. electric motor and let her eat. Did well and also handled the odd piece of bark pretty good.

I promise to get some pictures of my rig this time I get back home.