Question for Excalibur overarm guard owners

[Kurt Voss]

Is anyone using the Excalibur overarm guard with an Incra positioner system? The positioner arm extends to the right of the extension table for wide cuts and with the positioner arm being centered over the extension table would seem to make it likely to interfere with the mounting for the Excalibur. Anyone using this combination? If so, can the Excalibur be mounted "off-center" to accomodate the positioner arm? I am also looking at the Exaktor as it appears to be designed to mount further forward - near the forward corner of the extension table. The PSI unit looks OK except for a much smaller dust collection port than the Excalibur and Exaktor. I'd appreciate any insights and thanks.:)

[Jim Becker]

Kurt, you may be better off with a ceiling mount for use with the Incra system. Although I don't have that fence system, I believe you are correct that it will interfere with the positioning system as it's mount point is very close to the center of the table as you can see in this picture:

http://sawsndust.com/images/excallibur/excalibur-3.jpg

I don't know about the Exactor and PSI units (which are very, very similar since PSI originally was OEMing the Exactor).

[Dave Falkenstein]

I also have the Excalibur without the Incra fence. You could move the Excalibur forward or back a little, but I doubt you can move it enough to avoid interference with the Incra fence. At some point the blade guard will begin interfering with the blade, which is totally unacceptable. When I mounted my Excalibur on a Jet cabinet saw, I moved it back enough to avoid interference between the blade guard and a Biesemeyer splitter. I could move it back another two inches or so, but after that it will start getting too close to the blade. The newer models of the Excalibur have a round post, but I doubt the post design change would impact the amount of space needed to clear an Incra fence. The round post allows the entire guard and horizontal tube to be rotated out of the way for cuts that do not involve the use of the guard - a very nice feature.

[Chris Rosenberger]

Kurt,
Have you looked at the Biesemeyer overarm guard. It mounts to the back side of the table, so it would not interfere with the positioner arm. It costs more than the others but does work well.
http://www.biesemeyer.com/safety/index.htm

[CPeter James]

I have the Exactor and it can be moved some, maybe enought to clear your Incra arm. I can measure the offset from blade center for you this afternoon when I go to the shop.

Delta makes a UniGuard that would fit your needs and is a real nice unit. I almost bought one, until I happened on a "deal" of my Exactor.

http://www.sawcenter.com/delta_uniguard.htm

CPeter

[Jim Becker]

Delta makes a UniGuard that would fit your needs and is a real nice unit. I almost bought one, until I happened on a "deal" of my Exactor.

'Can't really use the UniGuard with the Incra fence because of the way it mounts to a rear rail. The Incra rear rail is not compatible. Further, the UniGuard has no "easy" remove feature...which is why I sold mine in favor of the Excalibur. It was always in the way when I needed to do something "vertical" or use the saw surface for non-sawing things...like extra assembly space.

[Ken Garlock]

Hi Kurt.

I just measured my Incra LS fence and the moving "bar" is 3 13/16" wide. I would want a 4 1/2" alleyway for it the travel in. One of the features of the Incra fence is that you are not locked into putting the "bar" in the exact center of the table. Everything is adjustable on the fence, it is up to you. Yes, most people will want the "bar" centered half way between the front and back edges of the saw top, but it is really up to you. The working part of the my fence that the wood goes against is not centered. The end closest to the operator is even with the rails, but it extends an inch or so over the rails on the out feed side.

My solution would be to get the Exactor blade cover and mount it as far to the rear of the table as the design permits, it might only be a inch or two. Then I would install the Incra fence to accomodate the blade cover mounting pole/brackets.

It's a piece of pie. :)

[CPeter James]

In these pictures of my Exactor set up, you can see that it is mounted about even with the back of the saw table. Because of the long table on the right of the blade, I keep the brace under the arm unless I need the clearance. It will work without it and I had this Exactor on my old saw with a 60" table on the right without the brace and it was fine. This one is only 53". I thought it would be better to relieve some of the strain.

Notice that in the first picture, the router is not yet mounted into the table.

CPeter

[Kurt Voss]

I sure appreciate all the responses (and pics!). It looks like the Exaktor is the "out of the box" solution right now. Anyone aware of any deals on this unit out there?