Table saw guard

[Ron Kellison]

I'm the proud owner of a new X5 5HP left tilt Unisaw. I installed a Biese splitter and a Ridge TS2000 blade. The saw is aligned to within a gnat's butt, the 40" extension table is installed and I'm working on the outfeed table. The only thing missing is power...the electrician who was supposed to install the 60 amp panel and wire my shop for 220V has been missing in action for the past two weeks! All I can do at the moment is tinker!

That said, I'm debating adding an overarm guard, mostly for dust collection. If I do this, it will probably be the Excalibur if only because I can pick one up locally here in Ottawa for around $400 Canadian...about $330 in real money. My question relates to something I heard somewhere that, if a saw is aligned properly, there shouldn't be much dust thrown back at me by the blade. The cutting will be done by the front teeth. According to the theory, if there is dust being thown at the operator it's because the back teeth are touching the wood.

I would appreciate your thoughts on the theory, and your opinion(s) about overarm guards.

Regards,

Ron

[Jim Becker]

I disagree with that theory...chips and dust are still caught by the teeth and brought up off the rear of the blade, even for a "perfectly aligned" blade. That's the one reason I like overarm guards or those that mount to the top of a riving knife...they catch that "splash", for the most part. The downside to the guard is visibility and sometime interference with stock handling using push blocks, etc. I'll never run my saw without the riving knife/splitter on it, but do tend to have an "underutilized" guard...not that it's the absolutely safest practice.

[Jason Beam]

That's an interesting theory. I'm afraid it's false, though. Unless you're sucking about 1000cfm RIGHT AT the blade as it comes under the table surface from cutting the wood and it manages to actually pull the chips away immediately, yer still gonna get a rooster tail.

The theory sounds just credible enough to believe, though, doesn't it? I'm almost sure that there might be more dust if the blade actually was hitting wood in the back, but if that's happening, I don't want to be near the saw to begin with. If the back of your blade is hitting enoguh wood to toss a roostertail, it's about 10x more than enough of a grip to kickback atcha.

Sounds almost believable, though... i could see how someone may figure that made sense.

[Dave huber]

FWIW, I recently looked around for a guard with good dust collection.
I ran across the Shark Guard http://www.leestyron.com/default.php
I bought one, but have not received it yet.
It is not overarm, but attaches to the splitter mount.
Good luck.

Dave

[Frederick Rowe]

Ron-Congrats on your new Unisaw, hope your 220 service comes soon. I agree with Jim that sawdust is carried by the gullets of the blade and thrown forward. I use a zero clearance insert on my Unisaw and am amazed by the volume of sawdust thrown forward when ripping long pieces. I thought about the overarm dust collector but was put off by the cost and small dust collection hose size. Like Dave, I've ordered a Shard Guard with the 4" dust collection port. It comes with a stub splitter for daddos and quality seems high. Lee emailed me that he was several weeks behind shipping due to volume of sales, but will post results after it arrives.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

I built my own overhead dust hood that uses a full 4" dia duct. There is also a 4" duct to the lower port on the saw cabinet.

I can honestly say that an overarm dust hood helps with dust collection but only to a certain point. I still have dust on the tablesaw's top and on the floor in front of the tablesaw when I'm using the overhead hood.

Then there are times when I don't or can't use the overhead hood. like when ripping narrow stock, raising panels, using Grrippers on short and narrow stock, making corner splines and making tenons.

However, when cutting MDF board, it's practically a requirement to use the overhead hood. MDF creates flour like dust that goes everywhere. In fact, the hood works well when cutting any sheet good.

I think it's important that an overarm hood have a large port (3" minimum) and can be easily retracted out of the way for those often times that it gets in the way.

Just some thoughts...Jeff :)

[Darrin Davis]

I just got a blade guard from sawstop ($28) and am currently modifying it to attach to my biesmeyer splitter so that it will work like the sawstop tablesaw. I will only have dust collection under my table and am hoping that most of the dust will be directed under the tabletop. I have an excalibur and it's nice but there is still dust that the overarm guard doesn't catch. I split my hose at the overarm guard and have 1 hose attached to the gaurd and one going under the table. If you do this I would recomend having seperate dust hoses coming to the saw to generate better CFM. I am using a 5HP woodtek dust collector and this baby pulls the air and I mean pulls! Even with this it just doesn't get the dust from above the table like I thought it would.

[Tom Jones III]

I've got the excalibur and it is OK but not great. I expected better DC for the price. If I can figure out how to attach a mustache to it then the DC will probably be acceptable. Right now I wish I had bought the shark guard instead.

[Rod Sheridan]

I have an Excalibur on a General 650, and the dust collection works well when the entire guard is over the work piece.

It works well for sheet goods, not so well for cross cutting small pieces, or for ripping when the workpiece isn't as wide as the guard.

I have a 3" hose attached to the guard from the ceiling, and a 4" hose to the port on the cabinet saw.

The guard has dramatically reduced the amount of dust ejected forward from the blade, however as I indicated above, it works better on some shapes than others. When it is in use, you can see a stream of dust come off the front of the blade, and curve rearwards to the dust port, and then up the hose. I tried to eliminate the slight amount of dust that escaped from the front, by adding a small brush.

That modification made it worse due to reduced airflow through the front of the guard. I later removed the brush.

I have looked at the Shark Guard on the internet, however it seems to have the same dust collection problem as the Excalibur, namely it has to cover the entire workpiece to develop an adequate seal at the edges to collect the dust. Perhaps people who have used a Shark guard and an Excalibur could provide more info?

I certainly do like an overhead guard however, as I can now use it when cutting rebates or grooves.

Regards, Rod.

[Ron Kellison]

Thanks to all for the input! I have any number of other things to tinker with before the electrician arrives to install the breaker box and power. He came by today for about 10 minutes and greatly expanded my list of projects to complete in the short term.

He started by pointing to my ceiling and said "You know, we have to get a permit and an inspection for this job. The inspector is going to notice the chopped up orange extension cord connecting the flourescent fixtures in the ceiling (I have 10 of them!) and insist that you either run metal conduit or BX cable with proper couplings. He's also going to insist that the wiring in your basement be brought up to code by moving the wiring (installed by the previous owner) to conform to code. Damn...at this rate I won't get the saw fired up before next winter. BTW, the lights were also wired up by the same previous owner who also did a lousy job of drywalling the garage! Looks like I'll be busy for awhile longer!

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Ron, sorry to hear about the problems with your wiring. There's nothing like legacy problems to drive you crazy, especially when you are itching to get your new machine running.

As an electrical specialist, I'm always amazed at what you can find in some houses, it's amazing that there haven't been more electrocutions and fires.

A neighbour of mine came over because he was having problems with his basement wiring. He had wired all the light fixtures with single conductor T90 wire he had swiped from work. The conductors were run through the mounting holes in the boxes, and stapled to the under side of the joists.

His main problem was that the fuse blew every time he turned the lights OFF. It turned out he had wired the switch in parallel with the lights!

It took half of an hour to convince him to rip it all out, and he then ran the correct wire, and I made the terminations for him. The work passed inspection and every one was happy.

Later in the year, he asked for help changing a faucet cartridge. He wasn't afraid of being electrocuted, or burning down his house, just afraid of having a water leak.

Best wishes on your shop wiring, and your new saw.

Regards, Rod.

[Fred Craven]

... I'm debating adding an overarm guard, mostly for dust collection... My question relates to something I heard somewhere that, if a saw is aligned properly, there shouldn't be much dust thrown back at me by the blade. The cutting will be done by the front teeth. According to the theory, if there is dust being thown at the operator it's because the back teeth are touching the wood.



...Unless you're sucking about 1000cfm RIGHT AT the blade as it comes under the table surface from cutting the wood and it manages to actually pull the chips away immediately, yer still gonna get a rooster tail.


When I bought my INCA, about 10 years ago, it arguably had the "best" dust extraction available (in a non-slider table saw). Under the table, the lower 7" of the 12" blade is tightly tightly shrouded, directly ducted, and there is an airfoil to help guide the the dust into the ducting. Then, attached directly to the underside of the table top there is a "dust guide" that slides into the shroud. That's about is close as you can get to "right at the blade." :)

At the time, I asked why the INCA SUVA guard did NOT have any dust extraction connected to it--when most of the after market products did. The answer I got was as written above, "The SUVA guard is a guard, not a dust collector...when properly connected to dust extraction, it's not needed above the table..." I didn't believe him.

Ironically, I've never had my saw attached to a proper dust extraction system. After getting the saw, my job situation changed, and...my INCA went into hibernation. :( To date, the best I've been able to do is hook it up to a make-shift separator and Fein Turbo Vac II. That being said, I've never had any rooster tails coming out of my saw, and I get very little, if any, dust coming up from the saw, so I think it is possible with a lot less than 1000cfm.

I do have problems when I leave the shroud off, or if the ducting gets clogged, but the dust oozes from the bottom of saw, not from the back of the blade.

Through the dark years, when I only occasionally used the saw, I noticed that certain tasks created top side dust issues. E.g. using a cross-cut sled, creates a gap between the saw leaving the wood, and going under the table top. Also, any trimming of an edge without a cut-off piece spews dust all over the table table (as one might expect). I don't know if having dust extraction in the guard would help here.

Now things are changing for me, and that saw is actually helping me to make money so, a real dust extraction system is, again, in my future. It's been a while, but I'm really curious to find out how much cleaner my work environment will be when things propperly suck.:cool:

I noticed that some recent saws, like the SawStop, have a similar shroud covering the blade, I would curious to know how well they perform (in under table dust colection). But I'll keep my saw. :D

[Ed Falis]

Aw, too bad. At first i was thinking I could persuade you to part with the Inca. Enjoy!

[Fred Craven]

Aw, too bad. At first i was thinking I could persuade you to part with the Inca. Enjoy!

Part with my INCA!?:eek:

Several years ago I considered it. It just didn't seem right for such a nice tool to go unused. But now It won't go anywhere, unless I manage to upgrade to a fine combination machine with a sliding table, and even then it would be hard to give up. When I was a a younger lad, I verily did desire this mystical items found in the Garrett Wade catalog. Large and black(ish) with massive arbor and 12" blade, and a "riving knife" ooo, Ahhhh. The descriptions in the catalog made it seem so delicious. (I haven't mentioned the rails) Sure I would probably never be able to afford a Lamborghini Countach, but the INCA table saw? Then I grew older, earned money...and the day it arrived was a day of great rejoicing.

I still don't have a Lamorghini.

[Ed Falis]

I'm sure the Inca will do ;-)