Tired of eating sawdust

[charlie kapper]

I own a Delta Unisaw and I am looking for a blade guard that has good dust collection. I just started ripping some mdf and am now convinced I need some form of dust collection above the blade. I am open to suggestions.

Charlie

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Charlie, I had an Excalibur overarm guard for many years on a General cabinet saw. It worked great, I also had the Merlin removable splitter, no tools required to remove it.

I really liked having overhead dust collection, it really cleaned up my clothes, and the shop.

If you use your saw for cutting dadoes or rebates, you'll need an oberarm guard as a splitter mounted one won't work for that application.....Regards, Rod.

[William Long]

I love my shark guard.

[Erik France]

I don't have a Unisaw, but one of the best things I did for my saw was a Sharkguard. http://www.leestyron.com/sharkguard.php

Some folks like the 4" port. Mine is a 2 1/2 and I find that it has plenty of flow even for my smallish DC. Sometimes I'll need to close the blast gate to it a bit to keep from sucking small cutoffs up.

[glenn bradley]

I have the inexpensive Penn State Ind. guard. I use it only occasionally as I just don't do that much of that kind of work. I do really enjoy having it for cuts such as you describe. For a lot of ripping or large panel work it is a blessing. It has a 2-1/2" connection at the hood that expands to 3" along the mast and 4" at the drop-hose to the DC main. I would like it to be 4" all the way and if I did more of that type of work, I would modify it. HTH.

[Chip Lindley]

Overhead sawdust extraction is the only reason I use any blade guard on a TS. I have Biesemeyer and Exaktor over-arm guards. Both work Great!

[Philip Rodriquez]

I also have an Excalibur. IMHO, it is the best one out there. I was completely amazed how much it has reduced the amount of sawdust I have in my shop! Plus, it easily pivots out of the way when you do not need it. I am sure the shark guard is cool... but it is designed to mount to your splitter... so you cannot use it for any non-through cuts. Any overarm BG will not have that problem.

[Glen Blanchard]

I also have an Excalibur. IMHO, it is the best one out there. I was completely amazed how much it has reduced the amount of sawdust I have in my shop! Plus, it easily pivots out of the way when you do not need it. I am sure the shark guard is cool... but it is designed to mount to your splitter... so you cannot use it for any non-through cuts. Any overarm BG will not have that problem.

Well I have both the Excalibur overarm guard and the sharkguard made for the Excalibur. The sharkgurad seems to be more effective at collecting the dust than the guard that comes with the Excalibur. However, the primary benefit to Lee's sharkguard is visibility. There is no metal frame as there is with the OEM guard, improving visibility significantly.

[David Hostetler]

Another Shark Guard fan here... Lee also makes the Whale Shark (http://www.leestyron.com/whale.php) replacement guard for various overarm guard systems. Lee's stuff is top notch, and very well regarded in the woodworking field. He is a top notch individual to do business with as I found out first hand.

[Matt Meiser]

Another vote for the Shark Guard. I previously had an Biesemeyer overarm guard which worked OK for dust collection but the Shark Guard is fantastic (too good if cutting small parts!) The overarm guard's arm occasionally got in the way--for example when I had a router in my extension table I couldn't use a straight bit to flush-trim banding applied to shelf edges because they hit the arm. For the Shark Guard, I was able to run the duct work much higher so its out of the way.

[Ole Anderson]

Another vote for the SharkGuard, I went with the 3" collection hose size. The 4" just looked like overkill to me. Some dust will escape if you are ripping a sliver off the edge of stock.

[Jim Tobias]

+1 on Sharkguard!! Probably the best improvement I have made to my shop in years.
It is particularly obvious how good it works when yolu are cutting MDF.

Jim

[Erik France]

I am sure the shark guard is cool... but it is designed to mount to your splitter... so you cannot use it for any non-through cuts. Any overarm BG will not have that problem.My saw has a riving knife. The OEM guard and knife was a pain; all one piece, no dust collection, etc. It usually got left off the saw. Now with the Shark I always have a riving knife on the saw, unless using a dado or box joint stack. The guard comes off and on in seconds.

Most non-through cuts don't benefit much from topside collection anyways, unless you're doing some rabbeting, tenons, or the like.

[Prashun Patel]

I had a Sharkguard 4" port with my last saw (Jet Proshop). The above and below table ports were wyed together into a single feed from the DC. It's a great product. The DC was better with that set up than my Sawstop now with its 2" port + dedicated shopvac.

The Sharkguard will be 1/2 the price the other overhead guards. A nice feature on the SG's is that the guard is easy to decouple from the splitter or riving knife. Less hassle = more likely to use it when appropriate.

Another nice thing y'll find with the SG is the aftermarket support. Lee Styron is really helpful. I ordered the wrong kerf size splitter, and he was really accomodating in getting me the right ones. I'm happy to see him sell more product.

[Kevin Gagne]

Received my 4" Shark Guard two weeks ago and it is great. What a huge difference it has made. I cut a bunch of MDF the other day and I had to look hard to find any dust on the table saw surface. Previously I was not using anything dust collection on the top because I was concerned with seeing what I was cutting and the ease of use. Well I am totally satisfied with the Shark Guard. Very easy to see though, piece of cake to take off when making non through cuts and protects you from getting close to the blade. I would highly recommend getting one.

[Steve H Graham]

Well, thanks. This thread made me buy a Sharkguard. Now what am I supposed to do for fiber?

[charlie kapper]

Thank you all for your reponses. I ordered a SG with the 4" dust port.

Charlie

[John M. Johnson]

Ditto. I had the SG on my PM66 (downgraded to a Sawstop) and it turned the PM into a dream machine. I also loved that I had standard and thin kirf splitters w/ it.

[David Peterson MN]

...another one here who likes his sharkguard....

[Dave Lewis]

I also have a Shark Guard. Is your Unisaw connected to the cyclone from the bottom 4" port? It catches most of the dust - most noticable above-table dust is when cutting MDF though.