shark guard on delta unisaw questions

[Mike Kees]

Hi I am looking at replacing the guard portion of a excalibur overarm blade guard with a shark guard. Has any one done this ? I am wondering if the 3 inch diameter hole for dust would work well or I should go bigger or smaller. I think the choices were 2.5'' or 3'' or 4''. this is mounted on a unisaw and I am in the process of hooking up dust collection to all my tools. I will probably run a 5 or 6 inch duct to the base of the saw. My dust collector is a 5 h.p. Grizzly cyclone. Any one with experience with shark guards please feel free to chime in. Also wondering about durability and ease of set up of the guard in general ,thanks mike

[John Lankers]

I don't have a black and white answer for you, it all depends on your specific setup.
You need to measure the airflow over the blade, 20 meters/second is the minimum for effective dust collection. If you get that, the 3" port on the Excalibur should be sufficient, it largely depends on the negative pressure the Grizzly can produce. I have a 5hp DustFX cyclone with 3600 cfm and 16" w.c. max. and get easily 20 m/'s through the 2" bladeguard on my Felder.
Overcoming the air turbulence caused by the saw blade is the challenge. If you don't have an anemometer, I bought mine for under $20 at Princess Auto - no need to break the bank for this.

[Dick Mahany]

It will to some degree be dependent on your overall dust collection flow capabilities. I had an Oneida V3000 with 6" ducting. I made the guards below from Lee Styron's free templates (possibly no longer available ?) on his Sharkguard site. I opted for a 4" above the table port and a 5" lower port on my Unisaw. It worked very, very well and I could throttle the upper port back if needed with a gate valve. The 4" hose connection was a little heavy and needed suspension support from above so as not to restrict guard lifting.

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[Mike Kees]

Thanks John for the info on the anemometer at Princess Auto, gotto love that store. Dick I did not see the templates on the shark guard site will have to check that out. Where did you position the lower dust port on your Unisaw ? Thanks ,Mike.

[Dick Mahany]

Where did you position the lower dust port on your Unisaw ? Thanks ,Mike.

I had a 1998 Unisaw with the rectangular dust chute opening below the motor cover and I used a Delta 5" dust port sheet metal accessory. I don't know if that part is any longer available or whether it would fit your saw. Here's a pic, (not from the best view however) and hope it helps.

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I also have seen some very well done home made versions such as the one here from a thread a few years back;
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncwoodworker.net%2F pp%2Fdata%2F500%2Fmedium%2FP5060064.JPG&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sawmillcreek.org%2Fshow thread.php%3F188775-unisaw-dust-collection&docid=uLios_k-Dp_mqM&tbnid=5ZC5klsQMdk3yM%3A&vet=1&w=800&h=600&bih=633&biw=1280&q=delta%20unisaw%20dust%20collection%20hood&ved=0ahUKEwizg6KO6ZTRAhXrzlQKHUNTDdUQMwhBKAYwBg&iact=mrc&uact=8

[Jim Andrew]

I have a unisaw with a 4" hose above the table, and it works great. 3hp cyclone. Also have a Hammer K3 Winner, which has a 2" hose to their overhead guard, both work equally well. The Hammer still sucks thin strips up the hose, as does the 4" shark guard.

[Mike Kees]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like I need to get the dust collector piping figured out and then play a bit.

[John Lankers]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like I need to get the dust collector piping figured out and then play a bit.

Mike, Ecco Manufacturing in Edmonton has an engineer on staff who can design a custom system and supply/manufacture all the spiral piping and accessories to spec if you supply them with a drawing of your shop layout, machinery and dust collector specs. I had all the parts delivered by freight within a week - no surprise considering how things are going in Alberta at the moment. For manual blast gates try BusyBee. For the price I paid and the peace of mind I didn't even consider going to Home Depot.
You might have to get in touch with a plumber, they don't sell factory direct as far as I know
FYI, I have a 110' 10" main trunk, 8 6" drops and a 4" floorsweep.

[Mike Kees]

Thanks John. I looked at Ecco but they did not have a location in Lethbridge and the guy I talked to in Mhat gave me the "are you a plumber". I found Alggin in Lethbridge but not sure if they can engineer a system or not. Thanks I will check out Ecco.