Keep or Sell Excalibur for Unisaw? Sharkguard Worth It? Cant Decide.

[Patrick Irish]

I have yet to use the 3hp Unisaw I picked up 2 months ago :mad: I had to buy, build and tape 2x3 steel tubing for the front rail. It did not come with a splitter BUT has the white Beisemeyer splitter mount. It was only $700 AND came with the big yellow Excalibur overram thing AND the Beisemeyer t-square overram guard.

I NEED a splitter of some kind. Was gonna make one from a saw blade BUT am deciding if the $240 for the Sharkguard, new manually adjustable riving knife, dust thing, kickback pawls, and 2 knives in thin and standard kerf is worth it.

I can sell my Excalibur and Beisemeyer overram units. The big yellow Excalibur is nice but I'll have to build a mount for it etc and only have a ridgid shop vac so far.

The **** riving knife looks weird. Another guy on Lumberjocks makes a complete system that requires taking the top off and is a real riving knife but seems mounting is more time consuming and mechanical then I want. I plan to have this saw for a couple years then upgrade to a used Sawstop or slider.....plan at least.

[Sean Troy]

IMHO you need to get a dust collection system before anything else.

[Eric Commarato]

The Shark is worth it. Lee Styron is great to work with. I would go for the adjustable riving knife ARM. I actually bought Shark only about 3 months ago, before Lee marketed the ARM, so I have the three splitter set, But if I had to do it over again I would get the ARM. I will still probably opt for the $90 ARM upgrade...

[Patrick Irish]

The Shark is worth it. Lee Styron is great to work with. I would go for the adjustable riving knife ARM. I actually bought Shark only about 3 months ago, before Lee marketed the ARM, so I have the three splitter set, But if I had to do it over again I would get the ARM. I will still probably opt for the $90 ARM upgrade...

I think I'm just going to order it and be done. It's collecting dust just sitting there as my previous saw is a Bosch jobsite. This Unisaw is a big transition and little intimidating using without the splitter.

I should be able to sell the excalibur locally for a couple $100 I think .

[Rod Sheridan]

I would stick with the Excalibur as it can be used for non through cuts.

I have a Shark type guard (stock guard on my Hammer B#) and it's good except when you're doing a non through cut, then it has to be removed.

Keep the Excalibur..............regards, Rod.

[David Kumm]

The overhead is nice but my Excalibur tube was fairly low and always seemed to be in my sight. More personal pref than actual as I like the tube high above the table. The guard was also too wide compared to the 2" or so I prefer. It does balance well. If you need to remove a splitter for non through cuts, you might as well remove the guard so I don't see that as a big negative for the Sharkguard. Dave