Shark Guard users (especially with 4" ports) come on in please!

[Grant Aldridge]

I think I'm going to get the ARK setup for my new to me unisaw and will probably go with the 4" connection on the guard. My saw doesn't have a cabinet port so I'm wondering if I'd even miss our with the 4" shark setup?
Thoughts and opinions are appreciated!
Thanks
Grant

[Johnny Barr]

Hi Grant

I owned a Shark guard with a 4" port but it really isn't 4" as it narrows down to about a half of that which forms a choke point delivering little suction. It is better than nothing. You really need a high powered (>3hp) dust collector for it to work well.

I ended up selling my table saw including that guard and bought a Sawstop whose guard is designed to redirect the dust to its port and it works well.

[Grant Aldridge]

Johnny did you have it on a high powered collector? I building Bill Pentz's design - custom cyclone & blower housing, 16" impeller with a 5hp motor. I'm tired of the fine dust

[Michelle Rich]

I like my sharkgaurd ARK for a 1980 era contractor. Have 2 1/2 hose on top which is powered by a vaccuum, and a 4 inch thru the cab that is powered by a 3hsp grizzly ..I get virtually no wood dust on the sawtop. Ripping can throw a little more than crosscutting.

[Matthew Curtis]

So is it worth while getting the 4" shark gaurd? Or is a smaller diameter one going to work the same? I could use a 4" hose and adapt down to smaller size. Is it worth the extra $15 for the 4"? Vs the 3" or 2.5".

[Ole Anderson]

I have the 3" on my G1023 with a 5" bottom. 2 hp Oneida SDG. Works fine. To me, having one with a honkin' 4" hose was just too big visually. Don't have the newer ARK version though. Had to look it up. Adjustable Riving Knife.

[Mike Kees]

Grant I have a 3'' port on my sharkguard. It works too well,sucks up small offcuts and plugs. I close the blast gate about halfway and it works great. If i was ordering another one I would get the 2'' or 2.5''. Remember that the port size also restricts your ability to rip narrower pieces. Mike.

[Mike Kees]

I bought a 5'' holesaw and cut a port in the bottom of my cabinet for dust collection on the saw. My dust collector is a 5h.p. grizzly cyclone and the sharkguard is the ARK. Love the riving knife,my only issue is I dont have a table insert for tilting with the guard yet. I am using a zero clearance one presently. Guard is very good quality aas well as a huge upgrade from the factory guard. Mike.

[Grant Aldridge]

Mike what size port is on your guard?

I bought a 5'' holesaw and cut a port in the bottom of my cabinet for dust collection on the saw. My dust collector is a 5h.p. grizzly cyclone and the sharkguard is the ARK. Love the riving knife,my only issue is I dont have a table insert for tilting with the guard yet. I am using a zero clearance one presently. Guard is very good quality aas well as a huge upgrade from the factory guard. Mike.

[Rick Moyer]

Grant I have a 3'' port on my sharkguard. It works too well,sucks up small offcuts and plugs. I close the blast gate about halfway and it works great. If i was ordering another one I would get the 2'' or 2.5''. Remember that the port size also restricts your ability to rip narrower pieces. Mike.

I think I may agree with Mike. I can't remember if I have the 3" or 4", 4 I think, but everything he says I have found to be true. I often take it off for narrow cuts as it CAN be in the way. I'll disagree with an earlier poster who mentioned a choking point. I have no issues sucking up dust, but it will suck up small off cuts with wide open blast gate. I do as he mentioned if there's gonna be small pieces so they don't get shot back to the impeller (2 HP Grizzy cyclone). One other thing though. You will still get debris in the bottom of the cabinet. The over-the-blade will remove much of the fine dust from sawing but some material will still accumulate in the cabinet.

[Jim Becker]

A larger port on an over-arm collector can certainly help with above-table collection, but IMHO, it doesn't eliminate the need for below table collection, too. The combination is more effective than either one by itself. Of course, you need the "real life" CFM from your DC system to make that work well...air flow matters.

[Grant Aldridge]

hopefully I'll have plenty of airflow, I'm building a Pentz cyclone and blower, 16" impeller from clearvue unless I find a different (less expensive!) option coupled with with a 5hp motor

Of course, you need the "real life" CFM from your DC system to make that work well...air flow matters.

[Erik Christensen]

I have a pentz 5hp (early clearvue) with 6" to TS base and 4" to sharkguard - am a fan of more air is better - even cutting MDF there is very little dust that escapes

can't say if 3" would be noticeably less capable - but like you I have the DC flow so why not use it???

that DC can run a 6" pipe to the jointer at the same time and not see any decrease in performance - nice to be able to leave both saw and jointer running to go from one to the other without need for messing with blast gates - IMHO got with 4" - dc flow is like tools: rarely do you hear "I got too much"

[Grant Aldridge]

Great info Erik thanks for chiming in! Is your main duct 6" or did you go bigger? I was planning on 6" with 5&4 running to the tablesaw, but could make the cabinet take 6"

I have a pentz 5hp (early clearvue) with 6" to TS base and 4" to sharkguard - am a fan of more air is better - even cutting MDF there is very little dust that escapes

can't say if 3" would be noticeably less capable - but like you I have the DC flow so why not use it???

that DC can run a 6" pipe to the jointer at the same time and not see any decrease in performance - nice to be able to leave both saw and jointer running to go from one to the other without need for messing with blast gates - IMHO got with 4" - dc flow is like tools: rarely do you hear "I got too much"

[Mike Kees]

Grant the port on my guard is 3'', 5'' ducting to my saw base off a 8'' main duct.

[Grant Aldridge]

Sorry Mike I see now you had already typed that earlier. Thanks for the info!

[Peter Christensen]

Grant since you have the chops to fabricate your own Cyclone I would think that you would be capable of making a guard along the lines of the Excalibur dust arm (same as the new SawStop one) to collect the dust from the blade. You could still have the ARK mounted most of the time and when you have to remove it, use the one you make for the narrow or blind cuts. With the 16" impeller you are basically making a CV-Max so could easily put a 6" pipe to the base and a 4" above and even have another 6" with bell mouth somewhere above to scrub out even more escaping dust should you feel the need. Are you riveting or welding your cyclone together?

[Grant Aldridge]

Yeah I'm thinking of building a guard, at some point I need to cut some wood though lol and the cost savings are much greater on the cyclone than the guard. My unisaw came with no splitter or guard so I'm not positive what I'm going to do, shark guard seems to get the highest marks on dust collection though.
I'll probably weld the cyclone, my dad and I are good friends with guys that own and run a commercial hvac shop with a plasma table so that definitely helped me decide to move forward on this path!
I'll make sure to post all about it in the shop made machines forum - this will be a major upgrade from my harbor freight dust distribution device lol

[Peter Christensen]

Look forward to seeing it. I had thought about making one from bending plywood and wood staves but decided to buy from CV. If you find the ARK isn't enough you can always make a guard then.

[Carlos Alvarez]

I've had my Shark for only a week, and feel stupid that I didn't buy it 10 years ago. I have the 2.5 version however, not sure if that can compare.

[Allan Dozier]

I have a Sharkguard on order. I talked to Lee and found out I can order both the 2.5 and 4 inch for an additional $15. I am in the process of getting my CVMAX set up and figure I will use the 4 in with it. In the meantime though I am using a 1100 2 hp collector hooked to the lower port and figure I can hook my DustCobra to the 2.5 guard until the cyclone is hooked up.

[Erik Christensen]

all my pipes are 6" pvc S&D pipe all the way to the tool - I bent PVC fittings, made wood/epoxy adapters so it is 6" at the tool itself - that DC just plains works - you will be amazed - only time dust is an issue is due to user stupidity - forget to open blast gate or over fill trash can, etc

[Paul Wunder]

I have an older version of the 4" Sharkguard mounted on a Sears Craftsman 10" zipcode saw (22124). I have 4" flex ducts connected both above the table and to a 4" cabinet port. Both 4" ducts connect via a 6" wye and then to a Clearvue 5hp cyclone which runs a 6" main. The upper keeps the table top very clean however dust still accumulates within the cabinet. Perhaps the cabinet port would benefit by being enlarged to 6". I also run an overhead room filter which is kept on at all times. With all of the above my dust counts are very low when I measure with my Dylos.

[mark mcfarlane]

382807

I have a 4" SharkGuard connected to rigid ducting mounted on the ceiling, with the last 18" being flex duct. ~20' of 4" rigid duct into 10' of 8" duct into a 5HP DC.

I keep the blast gate on the SharkGuard closed 1/2 way or more, to avoid sucking up fairly large offcuts. Fully open, it will lift a 2' * 2" *3/4" offcut off the table, and 'quicker than you can say snot' it will suck a 2"*3" square offcut into the DC. I just emptied my DC this weekend and found a lot of offcuts.

If I was cutting a lot of MDF I might like the 4" for the additional airflow, but for my needs I think a 3" port would be fine.

FWIW, the SharkGuard is well engineered and well built. Very easy to remove when needed, and I even use it to vacuum off the top of the table for those times when I make a cut and forget to open up the SharkGuard blast gate.

My only problem is I occasionally hit the knobs holding the SharkGuard onto the riving knife with the knobs on the stops on my Fritz/Franz jig, when making very narrow cuts (like 1"). I need to rebuild the stops on my F/F jig to move the lock knobs further to the left so they can't hit the lock knobs on the SharkGuard.

[Chris Parks]

I can't see that going bigger than 4" is any advantage as all the guards including the shark guard cannot supply enough air even at 4". It has been have found that a three sided guard with no back is way better and no dust escapes at all as the open back supplies the air. Of course this means it has to be mounted from an overhead boom but it also means it can be pushed sideways for fence clearance if the mount is designed correctly.

[Robert Hayward]

Of course this means it has to be mounted from an overhead boom but it also means it can be pushed sideways for fence clearance if the mount is designed correctly.

Where can I see a picture of a set up like this ? I have the overhead DC pipe run up in the garage attic with a stub though the ceiling over the table saw. Then I stopped working on the project because I was unsure of what I wanted to make. What you describe sounds good to me.

[Chris Parks]

Go to the Ubeaut Australian woodworking forum and look in the dust extraction sub forum. Either have a search through there or post and ask the question. There is a ton of useful documented work on all sorts of issues to do with dust extraction for the woodworker, the most anywhere in the world as far as I know.