Above Table Dust Collection for the TS

[Andrew Kertesz]

Is it worth the time, money and effort to install and use above the table dust collection on my TS? Any recommendations for good, better, best price ranges?

[John TenEyck]

Mine wasn't much time, no money, and not that much effort.

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I modified an old guard I had from my Sears TS and mounted it to a cantilevered frame attached to a ceiling joist. A vacuum hose off the top of the guard connects at a Y fitting in my DC piping. It's spring loaded, or maybe I should say unloaded, so that the guard barely applies any down force. In use, it captures at least 90% of the sawdust when the board being cut seals both sides of the guard. When one side is open during the cut, the capture rate is probably less than 50%. Some of the commercial designs address this issue with brushes, etc. To me, it isn't that big a deal and I just vacuum afterwards.

John

[Doug Herzberg]

I installed the PSI Woodworking guard http://www.amazon.com/PSI-Woodworkin.../dp/B0006FKJ0U. It was a lot of work. It can be mounted to the ceiling, as I did it, or on the floor and attached to the right side of the saw. I'm from the era when the first thing you did with a new saw was remove and dispose of the blade guard. Since I'm not used to a guard, I find it cumbersome to use this one. It has a 2" hose from the guard to the 4" port which is too stiff to flex with the guard. If I can replace this, I may use the guard more often. Also, I have two table saws, back to back. One is used mostly for ripping and the other for dados and crosscuts. I should have put the guard on the rip saw, which is the one that throws the most dust in my face.

I know there are better guards out there, but this seemed to be the most cost effective to me. Since I don't use it much, I'm glad I didn't spend more.

[Brett Bobo]

Hey Andy,
Admittedly, I've always worked without the OEM blade guard on my saw but recently decided to build my own version. My primary reason was to add the above-table dust collection, followed by incorporating some additional safety by having a guard in place. While good, the commercial versions of what I was looking for were pricey, in my opinion, for setups like Excalibur, Exaktor, Biesemeyer, etc.

The blade guard is made from 1/4" polycarbonate with a 4" flanged dust port. The guard is bolted to perforated telescoping tubing, which is ultimately ceiling mounted, that has a lock pin to set the position above the table saw surface. Overall, the dust collection is very good. While not necessarily inexpensive for the parts at ~$150 all-in, it's certainly a robust setup that didn't take many build hours to complete--it took more time sourcing and planning the design.

[glenn bradley]

I ran the PSI guard for years and found it very useful for ripping or cuts in large panels. I would use it whenever it was safe to do so. Smaller / thinner pieces or using the sled of miter guage don't really work out well but, the guard easily swung out of the way. I used it on a couple of saws but, my latest saw came with one so, I sold the PSI to a forum member.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I love the Felder system, it mounts to the riving knife, and just works. Easy to take off for the few times you don't want it, and doesn't get into the way. I've wondered if anyone has a retrofit for an American style saw that uses the same idea. Of course I can't find a picture, I'll take one tonight if I remember.

[Rod Sheridan]

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This is the riving knife mounted guard Steve was mentioning.

My saw has the same guard and it works very well, the only issue is that you can't use it for non through cuts such as rebating or grooving.

Overarm Guard.jpg

The above guard is the model I had on my cabinet saw, it could be used for non through cuts as it was mounted to an overarm support.

Eventually I will replace my riving knife mounted guard with another overarm type.

Both types substantially reduced the amount of dust ejected from the blade, and any guard that you leave on the saw is much better than one you remove.

Regards, Rod.

[Doug Herzberg]

Andrew, your thread motivated me to try the thing again. I tried flexing the 2" tube by hand and it seemed like it was becoming a little more pliable when it broke about 8" from the end. (To be fair, it sat around for a year waiting for me to drywall the ceiling and my shop is not heated, but the plastic was pretty stiff even in summer.) The other part of the tube was long enough to try it out. I did a couple of crosscuts and then took the picture. You can see it didn't get all the dust, but it did get most of it. I'll probably start to use it when I can - it doesn't claim to be a blade guard, but I'm more worried about dust these days.
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If you do the ceiling mount, you end up with a lot of unused parts. Seems like they could sell a ceiling only unit for quite a bit less.

[Andrew Kertesz]

It seems like all the commercial ones available and the home made ones give up any sort of anti-kick back protection. While I understand the gaurd is there we all know how fast a kick back takes place. If it causes the guard to raise up you've lost the safety aspect.

[William C Rogers]

I have the Excalibur overarm. Got it off CL for $100. It was not hard to set up and is mounted to the side of the saw. I beats having saw dust thrown at you. It is easy to move out of the way. I would rather have it than not as I didn't have any guard on the saw before. I even had to make my splitter. I have a set of the board buddies that I use when practical. The board buddies are a pain, but work and greatly reduce kick back.

[Rod Sheridan]

It seems like all the commercial ones available and the home made ones give up any sort of anti-kick back protection. While I understand the gaurd is there we all know how fast a kick back takes place. If it causes the guard to raise up you've lost the safety aspect.

Hi Andrew, kickback is caused by the work rotating into the rear of the blade, if you keep the riving knife on the saw when using an overhead guard, you still retain the kickback protection built into the machine.

The "anti-kickback pawls" you see on NA type guards aren't used elsewhere, a riving knife and crown guard are all that's normally used in the EU.

The other protection from kickback is the short fence, which is used for ripping solid lumber, it ends at the start of the saw blade, so the wood isn't trapped between the fence and the blade.

The overhead guard is an improvement in shop safety due to dust collection, the ability to be used for non through cuts, and of course since it's convenient to use, it actually gets used instead of being removed from the machine.......Regards, Rod.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

That's the one Rod. Thanks for posting it. BTW, I have a long and short fence for my saw, and find that I use the short a lot more. Once you get used to it, it's a good idea. The Europeans are onto a good way to eliminate kickback.

[Ole Anderson]

Here is my setup: A 3" Sharkguard with 3" flex to 4" vertical blast gate to 5" horizontal into my DC. The guard gets lots of use as it is so fast to remove if needed, and just as quick to put back on.

[Loren Woirhaye]

Totally worth it. It reduces flying junk that hits you and keeps the air cleaner. Mine is just a 2.5" hose shunted into the 4" ducting overhead. I have a piece of cord with a loop of chain at the end to keep suspended from the rafters the hose from drooping. There's enough play that I can move the saw around quite a lot. My saw has a riving knife. If you don't have a good way to mount a guard to the saw you'll need to make or buy a boom and that's the largest hassle, assuming you have an overhead duct. I got the clear hose and plastic shunt at Woodcraft. Clear hose wasn't worth the expense but that's what the store had... it's never gonna clog anyway.

[Brian W Smith]

I like the overarm style that utilizes the tubing as main(over-table) DC port.Would prefer it to have a dedicated base,bolted directly to floor vs saws table.....admittedly a personal thing.But reason for post was about under table shroud.The higher developed the blade shroud and attatched ducting,the less above table problems there are.Our big saw will shoot dust out the lower port(it has two,one connects to under-table blade shroud,other evacs the cabinet)about a foot & a half when it's disconnected from DC.

Being easily entertained......it never ceases to amaze me to watch a handfull of dust/chips being sucked down into the shrouds duct,without DC turned on.IOW's,just the blades spinning sucks it down and out.