Who makes a good Overhead Blade Guard?? Pics???

[Bob Dodge]

Here's a discussion that appeared elsewhere,

Question
I'm thinking of getting an overarm blade cover to help with dust in the shop. I've looked at Excalibur, Exactor and one offered by Penn State. Does anyone have feedback on these? Are there other ones I should consider? Are there other ways to deal with dust off the table saw that would work better? Any suggestions would be appreciated
Forum Responses
(Dust Collection, Safety and Plant Operation Forum)
From contributor R:
I have two of the Excaliburs and one Exactor mounted on cabinet saws. They are in use daily, so I guess I can give you an honest opinion of these two particular brands.
Excalibur - Good to excellent dust collection, difficult to remove from saw in the event that you need clearance to mill large parts. Very nicely designed dust hood, which is easily manipulated to provide optimum safety and dust collection.
Exactor - poor dust collection. I bought this model because of price ($249 three years ago) and while I do not totally regret the purchase, I have not been very impressed. They advertise as having a 3" dust collection boom, but in reality it is much less because the boom reduces from 3" to 2 1/2" and then even further down to 2" at the dust collection hood. On the plus side, the boom does swing completely out of the way for milling large parts, but I have to say this is the only plus. The dust collection hood is very difficult to adjust and is somewhat flimsy, where the Excalibur's is solid. But here is the final proof of which is better... On any given day doing equal tasks on PM66 saws hooked up to identical 3HP dust collectors, the Excalibur will pick up one full dust collector bag and in that same amount of time, the Exactor will have only picked up about 1/8th of a bag.

[glenn bradley]

After reading some of the comments I'll add some; my PSI rides over the wood very well. You do have to balance it correctly but, once set I have never changed it. One thing I did do is put thin plastic washers at the pivot points as PSI relies on the metal to metal joint to be OK, it's not. I guess the main benefit to this thing is it's about half the price of better ones and it swings easily out of your way as some don't per the comments here. I haven't seen a good guard that can be in place for narrow cuts although that would be nice! So, in a nutshell it's OK for a cheapee. Remember the old adage; buy quality and you cry once, buy cheap and you cry again and again. I was a cheapskate but, it's doin' OK.

[Bob Dodge]

Glenn,

That post I added above, may give a misleading impression. I think a little "reading between the lines" is in order.

The guy says his Excalibur's fill a bag of waste, while the other unit pulls 1/8th of a bag. Obviusly, the Excalibur is a better overall performer, but, that doesn't necessarily mean the other oa-bc isn't doing a reasonable job of keeping the shop-air clean. Sure, it may not capture any of the larger waste escaping that hood. That's the stuff that has the density and escape-velocity to spit-out from the leading edge of the hood. That stuff won't hurt you anyway. It's messy to be sure, but, it won't float in stagnant air like the "fines" will.

Those fines are very low density waste. Even though the tip-speed of a 10" blade is roughly 103 MPH, that low-density waste sheds it's velocity so rapidly, that the hood's incoming airflow controls it. (to some degree). Depending on this individual's dc, that 1/8th of a bag of waste may be only the heavier waste that was captured by the smaller oa-bc. The ultra-light waste, may have simply blown through to the filters.

The point is, using almost any overarm blade-cover, is a heckuva lot better than using none, especially if you routinely work with dirty materials, and use thin-kerf blades. Actually, any situation where the blade-plate may vibrate, causing shearing at the rear of the kerf as the teeth rise into the hood.

One commercial shop I visited, did a lot of work with MDF and HPL.(high-pressure laminates). They had fabricated a home-made dc for the table-saw, using an old furnace blower. The sealed up all the openings of the blower, then created an inlet, 4" in diameter. Connected to that 4" intake, they added a 4"x4"x4" "T". They then ran a cheap 4" clothes-dryer hose to the base of the saw, and a second 4" hose to a shop-built oa-bc. From an air-flow perspective, this has to be the worst set-up I've ever seen anywhere. Their "filter", was an old wool blanket, stapled to one side of the "dust-collecter" body. That thing was huge. Looked like a 7' tall refrigerator with a blower on top, and three sides made of wood, and that blanket on the remaining side. There was a huge waste drawer in the bottom, and it was full. One employee told me he had never seen anyone ever emptying that drawer in over two years.

Did it "work"???? Well, yes it did. (to a degree) The difference between using it, and not using it, was night and day, as far as the 'fines" were concerned. When they didn't use it, the "fines" totally permeated that shop's air, including the front office. The printers were all jamming due to dust accumulation. It was a mess when they didn't use that oa-bc.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

I've posted this before, but here it is again!

I made my own. It works well. Three important features go into its design...

1. It boasts a full 4" dust collection port. Anything less, I felt was a compromise.

2. It swings away. I found that about 25% of the time it cannot be used (ex: tenons and ripping narrow pieces). But it's nearly effortless to swing out of the way. No lifting, which is good news for my crummy back.

3. It can be set to glide over the work piece, or hover over the piece at a set height, or do both. Hovering is a nice feature when using the panel cutting jig or miter gauge.

However, I do not consider it as a guard. It does nothing to prevent kickback...that's what the splitter is for. It may provide some modest protection from accidentally putting my hand near the blade. But, as I said above, it's often removed for some tablesaw operations.

Here's a few pics. If you interested in a little instruction booklet of how I built it, send me an email at khumnji@msn.com.

cheers, Jeff

[glenn bradley]

Point taken Bob, I'm with you. I didn't mean to imply the PSI and "lesser" devices weren't better than nothing. My PSI is a god-send for just the reasons you state. I do get some "escapees" but breath much easier. I wouldn't want to give up the overarm after experiencing the advantages.

Jeffrey, I always enjoy checking out your shop made rig. That is a sweet overarm.

[Bob Dodge]

Jeffrey,

What a great job you did on that oa-bc. I hope you don't mind if I show that pic to a few folks who'd like to make their own.

Don't think I didn't spot that Excalibur fence too , That's one of the nicest fences I've ever used. Smooooth as silk, locks fore and aft, longer than most, and great infeed support with that added front-of-the-table overhang. Very nice.

Bob

[Ted Baca]

I am curious about all the Excalibur owners. What is that you don't or didn't like? I have been planning to buy one for a few years. I am in the final decision phase on a new tablesaw and the Excalibur was next. I have had an Excalibur fence for years and love it. I will be interested to see what turns out to be most popular here.

[frank shic]

i'll second the sharkguard made by lee styrone. although the exactor/excalibur/psi dust collector/blade guard systems are nice, i just wanted to buy ONE product and i didn't want to deal with all the ridgid hardware that would make moving the blade guard a pain. the sharkguard includes THREE different height splitters that are easily removed by just flicking a toggle lever. the clear blade guard attaches on top of this and has a 4" mouth!!! connecting the hose is fairly easy as well with a couple of nylon ropes looped over the garage joists. i noticed the drastic difference it made recently when i was cutting a bunch of mdf. the suction is so great that it will lift your table saw insert unless it's fastened well. the downside to this is that if you're performing a trimming operation, the cutoff can sometimes get partially sucked up and partially block the next cut. well worth the money, but be prepared to wait a little while...

[RichMagnone]

I've been looking at this:

http://nhwoodworker.com/bladeguard/index.html

it seems interesting - I'm torn between waiting for an overhead shark and the dust be gone.