Overarm Guard for TS (where to buy?)

[Rob Will]

Hey all,
I've been out of touch with you woodworkers this summer....it's good to be back online.

Anyway, I want to buy an overarm blade guard for my TS that automatically pushes up and back when stock pushes against it. A swing away feature would also be helpful.

So, where are some places that have overarm guards in stock?
Who currently sells the Excalibur?

Thanks!
Rob

[Dave Sweeney]

Here's the Penn State (http://www.pennstateind.com/store/tsguard.html) version of one.

[Doug Mason]

I bought the Exalibur; but replaced it w/one I built--which I like much better. For me it wasn't a build/buy scenario--the custom version suited my needs better (although it ain't as pretty as the Excaliber!). It was only after the fact that I realized this.

[glenn bradley]

I have the PennState and it is very acceptable, especially for the price. I do wish the hose was 4" all the way to the head piece but for a fraction the cost of others, I am very happy.

[Jesse Cloud]

I got the Exaktor thru Rockler. I'm happy (but not ecstatic) with it. It performs either at about 90% or 0%. When it works, it works very well - four inch pipe all through. It works great for rips and that makes it worth the money. For crosscuts, I usually use a sled, which gets in the way of the mechanism. Its easy to move it out of the way, but then it doesn't do anything. Bottom line is at the end of the day, there's still a pile of dust at the edge of the saw.

I suspect my complaints would be applicable to any overhead device though...

[Samuel Velleca]

I have a Shark guard, it does a good job and doesn't break the bank. Only problem, I had to wait three weeks for it as Lee is a one man operation.

[Jim Kountz]

Do some serious thinking about this before you buy. I had the excalibur then built my own and both of them drive me nuts. They seem to be more in the way than not. And I believe they add an element of danger. When you have an overarm guard you naturally want to use the darn thing. Trouble is when ripping narrow stock it really is uncomfortable. Its just such tight quarters there with the guard your fingers and the fence. Using a push stick helps but you're still in there trying to clear the guard and watch the cut and all. Nerve racking to say the least. When you use a sled the thing is useless, tenon jig its useless, tapering jig guess what......useless. Mine just sits there hovering above most of the time now. In a word............Mostly useless. (ok that was two words!! LOL)

[Rob Will]

Do some serious thinking about this before you buy. I had the excalibur then built my own and both of them drive me nuts. They seem to be more in the way than not. And I believe they add an element of danger. When you have an overarm guard you naturally want to use the darn thing. Trouble is when ripping narrow stock it really is uncomfortable. Its just such tight quarters there with the guard your fingers and the fence. Using a push stick helps but you're still in there trying to clear the guard and watch the cut and all. Nerve racking to say the least. When you use a sled the thing is useless, tenon jig its useless, tapering jig guess what......useless. Mine just sits there hovering above most of the time now. In a word............Mostly useless. (ok that was two words!! LOL)

Thanks for the direct talk Jim, I see what you mean.
Regardless of what I end up with here's one of the problems that I'm trying to deal with:

I have a PM 74A 14" TS equipped with a Woodworker II blade. For some reason, this saw throws a massive amount of dust right in your face. Maybe it's no worse than my old Craftsman saw....except now I have 7.5hp and the volume of chips is greater.

Thanks for this and any other suggestions.
BTW: who sells the new model Excalibur? Woodcraft does not show it on their website nor does Amazon.

Rob

[Jeff Norri]

I have the Shark Gaurd. It was easy to set up, works well and not too hard on the pocket book.

the 4" dust collectionon it works great.

I just hang it on hook when not in use. But I find I use it more often then not as it is easy to setup and its nice to not have chips all over the place


I would recomend this tool to anyone.

[Dan Lautner]

See if you can retro fit one of theses babies from martin.

Dan

[Rob Will]

See if you can retro fit one of theses babies from martin.

Dan

Just as soon as I get my Ferrari F50 paid off........... ;)

Rob

[Kyle Stiefel]

Do some serious thinking about this before you buy. I had the excalibur then built my own and both of them drive me nuts. They seem to be more in the way than not. And I believe they add an element of danger. When you have an overarm guard you naturally want to use the darn thing. Trouble is when ripping narrow stock it really is uncomfortable. Its just such tight quarters there with the guard your fingers and the fence. Using a push stick helps but you're still in there trying to clear the guard and watch the cut and all. Nerve racking to say the least. When you use a sled the thing is useless, tenon jig its useless, tapering jig guess what......useless. Mine just sits there hovering above most of the time now. In a word............Mostly useless. (ok that was two words!! LOL)


Jim,

I found my Excalibur to be about as useful as you did. It is funny because the main reason I bought it for was for safety and after using it for while I found that I felt more at risk trying to work around it. I had mine over the saw for 4 months (mainly trying to justify the money I spent). It has been in the attic for the past 10 months. If anybody is in SE Alaska, desires an Excalibur TS guard and is taking the ferry or shipping freight via the barge lines back to OCONUS I will give you a very fair price.

Kyle

[Jim Kountz]

Jim,

I found my Excalibur to be about as useful as you did. It is funny because the main reason I bought it for was for safety and after using it for while I found that I felt more at risk trying to work around it. .

Kyle

Exactly Kyle! Thats what I was trying to say but you said it much better. Somtimes I cant say what I need the way Id like! :confused:
I think the main reason is having to reach around the thing behind the blade. You push a piece through and either do it one handed which doesnt lend much control, or you have to reach around the guard to assist the other hand which is very awkward and feels downright UNSAFE!!

[Chris Parks]

So what if the guard was only slightly wider than the blade, after all that is what we are trying to isolate with a guard so why make it hugely wider? The reason they are so wide I guess is to accomodate the dust control line. That can be accommodated in other ways.

[Chris Rosenberger]

I have been using the Biesemeyer for several years & have been very happy with it.

[Jim Fox]

I have the Shark Gaurd. It was easy to set up, works well and not too hard on the pocket book.

the 4" dust collectionon it works great.

I just hang it on hook when not in use. But I find I use it more often then not as it is easy to setup and its nice to not have chips all over the place


I would recomend this tool to anyone.

Jeff, what's the removal procedure for these? I always hated the ShopFox version as 3 bolts had to be loosened, one of them under the plate. I know, big deal.......3 bolts.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, I've had the Ecalibur on the saw for four years, and really like it.

Yes, when you're using a tenoning jig, you cannot use an overarm guard, of course you can't use a splitter mounted guard either.

When dadoing, grooving or rebating, you can use the overarm guard, something you cannot do with a splitter mounted guard.

I use the Excalibur with my Jessem mitre gauge, or with my home made sled.

As to ripping thin strips, I only rip those from wide boards, or use a feeder, so I can use the overarm guard.

The second best thing about the guard, (being able to have a guard for non through sawing was the best thing) is the dust collection.

When sawing melamine panels, plywood, or ripping stock, I no longer wind up with an apron full of dust.

Regards, Rod.

[David Duke]

Very interesting thread, I've been wanting to buy/build an over blade guard mainly for the dust collection when ripping but now I'm rethinking.

[Phil Clark]

I too have the Excalibur and am very disappointed with it. the only thing positive I can say is that it keeps the sawdust down on the table which is what the original saw guard did. Useless as a dust collector.

[John Thompson]

I purchased my sheild separately ($25) from Penn State from their over-head guard to get the 2 1/2" dust port capacity for my Uni-saw. I modified it on a band-saw to get a better slope in the front so stock meeting it allows it to rise on the crown easily as it is pushed through.

I added a Euro style "crown gaurd" (made from a piece of scrap hard-wood) to the existing splitter after slotting it so the "crown guard" will adjust up and down to stay close to the blade regardless of what height you raise or lower.

The "crown guard" (with sheild attached) comes off in seconds as it is held on by 2 T bolts with star head handles ($2.00). The shield comes off separately (if desired) in seconds as it is held on by a single bolt through it and the "crown guard". So.. both can be removed in under 30 seconds.

The entire splitter can be removed in about the same as I replaced the forward bolt with hex head with a quick turn T handled bolt. Two turns releases the forward mount. I replaced the ridiculously long rear bolt that secures the rear with a shorter star head handle bolt that about 5 turns dismounts the rear anchor instead of 3-4 minutes fooling with a wrench.

I added an over-head dust hose arm by cutting up two existing old pipes from pipe clamps and a few fittings from the box ($2.00). $8.00 worth of 2 1/2" hose leads from a 6 HP Shop Vac under the right extension table up the swinging arm and down to the shield. The rear port has been modified to accept 6" direct pipe from my PS cyclone.

The results: Literally dust free.. cheap.. and with the imperative ingredient of operator awareness, improved safety!

Sarge..

[Doug Mason]

I replaced my excaliber w/my homemade version primarily so I could run my six inch DC piping as close as possible. In addition, since I have it mounted to the cieling above the saw, to lift it out of the way, I simply slide it up above the saw and problem solved. A search here will reveal all kinds of neat ideas. Mine was based primarily on Jeffery Mickel's (spelling??) version (w/the exception that mine is mounted to the cieling).

[Jeffrey Makiel]

I agree with those that say that an overarm guard often gets in the way with some cutting operations. However, when cutting sheet goods like MDF, dust collection capability is a must. Especially for folks like me that have a woodworking shop within our home.

-Jeff :)

[James Mudler]

I have a Shark guard, it does a good job and doesn't break the bank. Only problem, I had to wait three weeks for it as Lee is a one man operation.

I have the shark too. I bought it from ebay. Later learned Lee has a site too. Paid around $50, as it was a old model - 2.5" port and did not have the steel tail. Link below shows the removal process.

www.leestyron.com/tailhook

[Dan O'Connor]

What is anybody's take on the Delta Uniguard?

[Brad Townsend]

This is an interesting thread. I myself had a Penn State guard and replaced it with a Sharkguard, which I am very happy with. The question I have is how many of the various options mentioned are actually going to fit. That's a lot of saw! I would suspect that anything that attaches near the blade, like the Sharkguard, is out of the question, and even the overarm options could be iffy with the extra blade size, depending on the size of the shield.

[Jim McFarland]

...
Who currently sells the Excalibur?
....


I have the Excalibur and like it/use it despite the already stated faults. I believe Excalibur is now owned/sold by General. Google "50-EXBC" to find some sources (Tools-Plus appears to be least expensive -- hard to call $349 cheap!).

[Cary Swoveland]

Lots of interesting views in this thread.

After having an overhead guard in the past, I don't want another, for reasons given by other posters. I am interested in reducing the amount of airborne sawdust, however.

Has anyone done any tests on the amount of sawdust thrown into the air, depending on type of blade or height of blade above the stock? If, for example, one does not make a through cut, nearly all the sawdust presumably would be collected or remain in the saw cabinet. Would positioning the blade just above the stock generate less dust than having it a lot higher than the stock? I realize that there could be a trade-off with quality of cut.

I've mused whether compressed air could be used to remove sawdust while a spinning tooth is below the table; i.e., to blast the sawdust into the dust pickup.

Cary

[Jim Kountz]

I replaced my excaliber w/my homemade version primarily so I could run my six inch DC piping as close as possible. In addition, since I have it mounted to the cieling above the saw, to lift it out of the way, I simply slide it up above the saw and problem solved. (w/the exception that mine is mounted to the cieling).


Mine too is mounted to the ceiling and is homemade. I can loosen one knob and slide the whole thing up. This doesnt sound like much and I guess Im just lazy but its such a pain after a while. I will admit though that the DC is good with it. I just hate "fiddlin" with stuff all the time!:D

[Jeff Norri]

Jeff, what's the removal procedure for these? I always hated the ShopFox version as 3 bolts had to be loosened, one of them under the plate. I know, big deal.......3 bolts.

The gaurd itself, just lifts off the splitter, after you flip a "lock" out of the way. I may take less then 3 or 4 seconds to do.

The splitter is held in place with a quike release lever, about 5 or 6 seconds to remove the splitter.

What does take time is changing splitters, as you need a different splitter for thicker stock (I think over 2") to do this you have to take the gaurd off, the splitter out and then remove the gaurd holder form the splitter and put it on the longer splitter, then put eveythign back. It takes about 30 seconds to do the whole thing. A bit of pain, but I rarely need to do it, and 30 seconds isn't a huge deal to me.

Nice thing about the shark gaurd is once it is installed it is completelty tooless to do anything with it.

[Jim Eller]

Another vote for Lee's Shark Guard. I looked at the overarm options and saw some in use. When I came upon Lee's Shark Guard the contest was over. Just my opinion, but it does the same job with less hassle.........and of course the cost.

The reason I really like it is...because I use it!

Jim

[Vernon Taylor]

Have the uniguard-HATE it.

[Rob Will]

Thanks for the replies. Actually, I have ordered a new Excalibur for my TS.

Of those who do not prefer overarm guards or find that they are "in the way", I was just wondering..... On your previous guard did you have a quick "swing away" feature?

Is the shark guard a splitter mounted setup?

Why do some say that overarm guards do not function well as a dust collector? Do the guards not have adequate airflow? Could some small holes drilled in the guard provide more airflow?

Thanks,
Rob

[Jim Eller]

My Shark Guard takes away all the dust and chips from the top of the saw and has splitter and kick-back pawls.

Jim

[Oscar Mueller]

Check Wood-Net Forum.One is for sale,4150.00

[Oscar Mueller]

Check Wood-net Forum.One is for sale,$150.00