Overarm Guard/DC Ceiling Mount for TS--Scissor Arm?

[Chris Padilla]

http://thesteampunkhome.blogspot.com/2008/05/scissor-arm-lamps.html

Googling around with "scissor arm" got the juices flowing in what's left of my brain.

I'm thinking to make something like this out of wood in order to mount an overarm guard/DC to my ceiling for my TS. I want the ability to move it up and down pretty easily and I can do a homemade guard/DC for the biznitch end.

Is there anything commercially available that might save me a month of work (because in reality, it would take me that long)?

Other ideas welcomed as well! :)

[Doug Shepard]

I'm thinking that there was a post here somewhere roughly 4-8 months ago that had pics or a link to a retractable overhead guard of some sort. For some reason I'm thinking that the maker was in England but I could be way wrong on that.

[Gene Michael]

I saw something on YouTube that may be what you're talking about. The device I'm thinking of looked like it was difficult and time consuming to put in place or swing out of the way. There were several styles of home built TS dust pick-ups on the site - some of them looked like they worked pretty well.

[Doug Shepard]

I'm drawing a big blank trying to find this with the normal search methods. I seem to recall that the maker had a pretty basic website set up just for this product and not much else. From what I remember, there was a portion of it on a fold-down rack of some sort that attached to the ceiling. Once down, I think the guard and DC pickup may have extended down via some sort of telescoping extension rather than an a scissor arm. The only reason I even recall it, is that I looked it over pretty good as a possible setup for my GaShop but dismissed it because I didn't think it would work out for a TS on a mobile base.

[Charles Seehuetter Panama City]

Chris,

Go ahead and spend a month building one :):). There have been several posts here about arms folks have built. Here is one.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=68448&highlight=overhead+dust

Or get one of these which says it can be ceiling mounted.

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/TSGUARD.html

Hope this is better than a scissors type which would move side to side to much.

Chuck

[Jim Kountz]

You can find the one I built here http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=98059&highlight=cantilever+guard
Rock solid and works like a charm. Dust collection could be better though.

[Chris Padilla]

Chris,

Go ahead and spend a month building one :):). There have been several posts here about arms folks have built. Here is one.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=68448&highlight=overhead+dust

Or get one of these which says it can be ceiling mounted.

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/TSGUARD.html

Hope this is better than a scissors type which would move side to side to much.

Chuck

I saw Jim O'Dell's great post on this and that is what got the ideas going. I have a 12' ceiling in my garage (follows the angle of the roof) where I would place this sucker so I have a lot more ceiling height to deal with than most, I think.

I've looked over the PSI one and Amazon has it for $125 and it does claim to allow a ceiling mount but the reviews on it were split on Amazon so I dunno. For $125, it might be an excellent starting point and I could refine it over time.

I just have a decent amount of MDF TS work ahead of me and that stuff just spews right in your face w/out DC over the blade.

I was thinking the scissor type would also have too much lateral movement issues as well.

[Chris Padilla]

You can find the one I built here http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=98059&highlight=cantilever+guard
Rock solid and works like a charm. Dust collection could be better though.

Jim,

I copied your pic over to this thread. Is that yellow piece square metal tubing or a piece of wood? Can your design be moved up and out of the way? Any more deets or snapshots? :)

[Jim Kountz]

Chris, thats square metal tubing and the lower portion is aluminum. The aluminum part slides up in the yellow tube plus the scissor action lets me push the whole thing up about 20" above the table. Its proved to be more than enough for most operations. Also the fact that the yellow tube is mounted behind the saw blade allows you some room too. For example: I was cutting box joints using a sliding jig, the pieces were 24"x 38" and of course had to be run through standing straight up in the jig. There is a lock knob on the other side of the yellow tube that allows the adjustment of the lower tube and also lets me remove the lower tube altogether if I want to. Anyway, removing the lower tube was enough for me to run the pieces through since the yellow tube is behind the blade. Make sense? Sounds harder than it is!!

[Jim Kountz]

Also when I mounted this, my ceiling was still exposed. I put a 2x4 block up between the ceiling joists tight to the subfloor above. (2 story building) Then a ran another one across the bottom of the joists as you can see in the picture. This gave me two mounting points abou 10" apart and the thing is rock solid. When I tugged on it the joists moved back and forth before the thing deflected! If I were to change anything it would be a third section to the telescoping tube. This would allow me to push it even further up and out of the way. I used 1" aluminum for the lower tube and I think 1 1/8 or 1.25" for the yellow upper tube. If you would use a third section of tube say 1.5" and shorter sections of each I think that would be even better.

[Eric DeSilva]

I was thinking the scissor type would also have too much lateral movement issues as well.

I think that would be my big fear... Hit the thing wrong and send the blade guard into the blade... Could get ugly. I ended up with Bies' set up, which is pretty easy to use and very stable. But, since I got the Unisaw used, I think it doubled my investment in that piece of hardware...

[Chris Padilla]

So I decided to go with the PSI since I kinda need it before the holidays and Amazon had it marked down a tad further at $119.41. It was $125 yesterday. Strange.

I also picked up Chris Schwarz's workbench book.

I'm pretty sure I'll end up modifying the PSI unit but for now, it will suffice for what I am doing.

[chet jamio]

I'm considering trying to make my own using Stay Put Hose found here: http://www.ptreeusa.com/dusthose.htm

I'm not sure if it's stiff enough for this application. If it's not, I'm sure I can find other applications for it. At $15, it's worth a try.