James Baker SD
04-03-2011, 10:06 PM
I have had a SharkGuard for almost a year now and really love how much cleaner the top of my saw is. I replace the original 4" port in the saw's cabinet with a 6" point (previous thread) and a 4" branch up to the SharkGuard. The hoses are then connected to a 5hp Oneida Cyclone.
I found two very minor problems with the SharkGuard and decided to attempt some modifications.
1. I often cut off a very short section of a rather large board (say 1" from a 2x4) and the suction at the SharkGuard's port is so strong that the cutoff is sucked into the cyclone--don't like the sound of that. So first mod was a piece of 1/2" grid fence screen that limits the size of pieces that can get into the cyclone.
2. The original bolts and wingnuts that held the pieces to the splitter sections protruded a bit farther out from the guard than I liked. This limited getting more rip fence close, but more importantly forced me to move my mitre gauge's fence away from the guard giving me less support near the blade. My second mod was to replace the standard bolts with 1/4-20 Quick Connect Hardware from Lee Valley. I used the bolts caps and large headed bolts. I had to shorten the bolts and retread the end as well as modifying the original bronze bushings that came with the SharkGuard. Result is that I can now get right up to the edge of the plastic guard on either side.
James
I found two very minor problems with the SharkGuard and decided to attempt some modifications.
1. I often cut off a very short section of a rather large board (say 1" from a 2x4) and the suction at the SharkGuard's port is so strong that the cutoff is sucked into the cyclone--don't like the sound of that. So first mod was a piece of 1/2" grid fence screen that limits the size of pieces that can get into the cyclone.
2. The original bolts and wingnuts that held the pieces to the splitter sections protruded a bit farther out from the guard than I liked. This limited getting more rip fence close, but more importantly forced me to move my mitre gauge's fence away from the guard giving me less support near the blade. My second mod was to replace the standard bolts with 1/4-20 Quick Connect Hardware from Lee Valley. I used the bolts caps and large headed bolts. I had to shorten the bolts and retread the end as well as modifying the original bronze bushings that came with the SharkGuard. Result is that I can now get right up to the edge of the plastic guard on either side.
James