I’m not exactly sure where to post this, but it seems like if I post it here, the people who need to see it will. 
I am really enjoying everything about ASMBLY so far. Great work y’all are doing here. I was using the available bandsaws a couple days ago and while they did do a reasonably good job for the purpose I was there for, I did notice that the machines themselves were built before dust collection was standard on them. I was just wondering if there was any talk about maybe getting more modern machines with dust collection? In case it isn’t clear, I would be I favor of that.
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Hi @Scott
This place is fine for your questions. It’s what Discourse is for. Here, or Woodshop category. Either way…
Bandsaws: Right now we have 4. Soon we will have 3. We are in the midst of replacing the Grizzly G0513 17 inch bandsaw with a Grizzly G0568 24 inch band saw. This is a significant upgrade, moving to a 7HP 3 phase motor. The old Grizzly was our workhorse for resaw. The new one will be the same, but with far more capability.
Dust collection: The old Grizzly is set up with dual ports, attached to the DC system. The new saw will inherit those attachments. All of the saws actually have ports for DC, so they’re not that old… 
But we do not plan on extending dust control to the other saws. The Laguna DC already has a considerable amount of equipment on it, and is probably stretched to beyond it’s capability, particularly when several tools are running at once, which does happen.
Resawing produces the most dust, as it tends to cut a significant amount of wood in a single pass. That’s why we chose that saw for the DC attachment.
The rest was a choice of either or. Jointer and planer require DC to keep the equipment running. Same with sanders. Table saws are dust bombs. Bandsaws just get messy (oversimplified, but…). They can get degraded if not cleaned up, but people should be cleaning up, regardless of DC attachments.
The biggest problem with the bandsaws is not DC attachments. It is people not opening the cabinet under the saw and cleaning it out after every use.
Here’s a photo from a couple of weeks ago. You can see a few different species of wood dust in the layers. The neglect here was from multiple people. Dust collection would help some, but it doesn’t keep equipment clean.
Thanks for the reply Charlie. I’m looking forward to seeing the big new Grizzly working. Do you know if the smaller machines can hook up to any of the portable dust collectors?
The small machines have 4" ports. We don’t have any 4" inputs to the portable DC carts. The portable carts are mainly for sanding and small tools, so that’s what the adapters cover. There are probably some adapters you could get for 4".
What would those adapters cost? I’m about to start using the bandsaws a good bit and if they’re anything like the adapters I have in my shop for DC (sub $10 ea at Home Depot), I wouldn’t mind kicking in for a couple that could live on the bandsaws for hooking up to the portable DC carts.
This one is $21.98.
https://www.amazon.com/POWERTEC-70297-Modular-Step-Adapter/dp/B08Q7CPLM5/ref=sr_1_3?crid=386JRY14R63HQ&keywords=4+inch+dust+adapter+for+1+1%2F4&qid=1685464929&sprefix=4+inch+dust+adapter+for+1+1%2F4+%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-3
It tapers down to 1 1/2 inches. The portable carts are set at 1 1/4 inches.
I know the shop vacs at the bottom of the carts started larger, but that is not what they are now. Bypassing or modifying the carts is not acceptable. I say this from experience at having to disassemble the shopvacs to repair them, when used improperly or overfilled. Again, the portable DC carts are adapted for small tools.
That said, if you can get an attachment like this to work, with the current version of the portable DC, great. Please empty the bucket and clean out the bandsaw when you are finished.
I’ll take a closer look at the portable carts when I’m out there tonight and see if I can think of anything. The one I used to clean up the large CNC after my class with James last weekend I thought had a larger hose on it (typical ~2.5" shop vac style), but if they’re currently adapted to 1-1/4", it may take some adapter gymnastics to make it work.
Either way, I’m curious to check it out, even just to see what would be possible.
Yes, there is a 2.5 inch hose from the vac to the bucket. My point is to not modify the carts. There are not any 2.5 inch hoses to attach to the bucket. This is on purpose. The buckets should never be bypassed.
I see how these are set up now. I couldn’t remember if there was a 2.5" hose from the bucket to an adapter or not. That’s how I’ve got mine set up at home. Looks like the adapter is right on the bucket here and then a smaller hose out from there.
Aside from just having a 2.5" hose coming out of the back of the bandsaws that you could stick on the bucket in place of the adapter and smaller hose, I don’t know if it’s worth the hassle to try to rig something up to the band saws. Not too surprising, or it would probably already be happening. 
Better kept simple.
I did some resawing tonight and with how fast it is to pop the door open and just suck out what’s in there, it seems like the current setup is a-ok.