OK. I give up! I’m biting the bullet and having SWMBO give me a PSI TSGuard for my birthday. Never have used a guard but I figured the dust collection on top of the table justifies the pain of the guard. You can’t have too much dust collection.
AND I might save a visit to the ER!
Now, the problem. My ceiling is 11 feet high and I want to mount it to the ceiling. I talked with Bill Whitaker, Sales Manager, Woodworking Division, at Penn State, and he was very helpful and quickly responded to my emails and later my phone call. But according to Bill, the guard will not mount directly on an 11 foot ceiling without some sort of extension.
Therefore I am looking for someone who either has this guard mounted on the ceiling or who owns this guard and can give some advice on what might work. Bill said I will need to build some kind of extension.
Replies
Tree',
What type of 11' ceiling do you have - exposed beam, etc... I have an Exakotor Over Arm Guard (virtually identical to the PSI guard) mounted to the ceiling over one of the saws in my shop.
To mount a guard to the ceiling, it is done in much the same way that a garage door opener is mounted. Angle iron or square metal tubing is bolted into an A-frame configuration so that it can resist any front to back and lateral movement.
On my guard I move the upright mast and the T junction tube (which the lateral boom arm is attached to) down the boom towards the guard, and then attached it to the ceiling. I wanted the greatest support at the heaviest part of the guard. The other end is suspended with an A frame of angle iron, box tubing, and a u-bolt. (see enclosed graphic).
To extend this to your ceiling height, replace the stock mast (it unbolts from the T junction) with something longer. Or, leave the stock mast on, and bolt some sort of square tubing extension to what would normally be the foot of the mast (now its skyward). It has two holes in it for bolting it down.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Dan Kornfeld, Owner/President - Odyssey Wood Design, Inc.
Hi Dan,
Here's your pic resized for those on dialup.
Cheers,
eddie
Thanks for the explanation. The ceiling is sheetrocked with an external dust collection tube over the saw. I was wondering about which way I needed to brace against movement and if I understand your note, minimize the fore and aft movement. The dust collector is a 3 hp Delta cyclone so hopefully I will have sufficient suction. Will try to post a picture if I can figure out how. LOL
A bad day woodworking is better than a good day working -- yes, I'm retired!
81T',
Check out page 5 in your PSI guard manual. It shows the guard in a ceiling mounted configuration. From the picture, the first thing to do is remove the arm supports (the ones with the turnbuckles). They're too short to do you any good. get a length of 2.5" pipe, threaded on both ends, along with matching flanges. Bolt one flange to the foot of the mast (now pointed skyward). Bolt the other end to a square tubing cleat mounted on the ceiling going across the joists. You only need support arms going from approx. the center of the mast to the ceiling either on the left or right of the mast, and one from the center to the ceiling either back to front. When I suspended my guard upside down, I drilled a hole through both the T-junction (that the mast and boom attach with) and the mast - in one side and out the other. I installed a long bolt and nut through the holes. I did this 90 degrees to the factory knob fastener so that it could be used to take up any play in the fit of the junction.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.Dan Kornfeld, Owner/President - Odyssey Wood Design, Inc.
Thanks, your information is just what I needed. I'll do it your way and will post a pic if I can figure out how. LOL
A bad day woodworking is better than a good day working -- yes, I'm retired!
One thing to keep in mind is the position over the saw blade itself. Use a plumb bob from the ceiling to mark the center of the blade. If you use square tubing for the ceiling cleat, running perpendicular to the joists, you can move the entire mast forward and backwards just by changing the holes it is bolted to. The boom can be shifted left or right by loosening the locking bolt on the T-junction.
If your saw is on a mobile base, or is easily moved, the position of the guard on the ceiling does not have to be so precise.Dan Kornfeld, Owner/President - Odyssey Wood Design, Inc.
Thanks for the additional information. My Unisaw is not movable because the dust collection for the cabinet runs in the concrete slab floor. But the use of a plumb bob is definitely what I'll use to position the ceiling braces.
I really appreciate your inputs. Thanks again!
A bad day woodworking is better than a good day working -- yes, I'm retired!
Dan (aka jackiechan) and all,
Well, I finally got my new PSI T/S Guard ceiling mounted. I will try and explain my process. The first problem is that my ceiling is eleven feet high. The guard only reaches the nine foot ceiling height. The second issue is that my Unisaw is left tilt.
Picture One shows the length being checked. Picture Two shows marking the cutoff length. The ceiling mount pipe was too long when joined with the bottom pipe. Picture Three shows actually sawing off the length of the top pipe.
Picture Four shows the inner pipe being used to join top and bottom section together. Picture Five shows the twin safety screws on top and bottom pipe.
Picture Six show the ceiling mount. The 3/4 inch plywood is lag screwed to ceiling joists. The post is bolted through the ply. (Yes, I bought the HF air hose reel. Have not used it but I hope it works! It was cheap compared to others I priced. Have not bought much from HF except of nitrile gloves and such. We'll see!) Only one brace is shown running at right angle to the pipe. A second brace was also run toward to front for additional bracing against swaying.
Picture Seven shows the completed setup. Note that the pipe is LEFT of the blade. This is a left tilt saw and with the guard on the left side, it does not interfere with the fence, etc. I have underfloor dust collection for the saw and used only standard flex for the guard dust collection going to an overhead duct. The manual says to keep the guard about 1/4 inch above the board being cut. I have found out the closer, the better. Does a great job of MDF and is fairly good on oak. My dust collector is a 3 hp Delta cyclone so it should suck. <grin>
Picture Eight is a shot of the back of the guard mounted showing the dust collector hose and the location (left) of the blade.
The guard was installed for two main reasons. Knots people convinced me that after 30 years of woodworking, it was time to protect my digits properly. LOL. Actually, I now live 40 minutes from an emergency room! No longer a couple of minutes from a major hospital! I have never used guards but this old dog is learning a new trick. Secondly, I have been using a lot of MDF and the dust was killing me.
THANKS to all the Knots participants who have stressed safety, discussed their accidents, and helped on the "how to" discussions. Now it is time to get back to WWing. BTW. Also have new eye protection - no more looking through scratched plastic. Next is new hearing protection.
Suggestion??????
A bad day woodworking is better than a good day working -- yes, I'm retired!
Congrats on the new safety approach! I admire your tenacity in getting the unit ceiling mounted.
Hearing protection: Earmuffs rather than ear plugs, for sure. Ear plugs are a pain to put in/take out and get dirty. If you have folks trying to talk at you when you're machinery is going, there are muffs made for that situation. I really like my Worktunes by AO-Safety. Even if I don't have the radio on.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Mine is currently mounted via the conventional boom, but I've been thinking of doing the same. I have a 12' ceiling. 'don't have any ideas yet, but you can download the installation instructions from the PSI website and have a look at them yourself.
Thanks for the reply. I talked with PSI while looking at their instructions (pdf file on line) and they were nice but had no direct experience. Will try and post a pic if I can figure out how to do it.
A bad day woodworking is better than a good day working -- yes, I'm retired!
Tree
I was one of the first PSI owners and also wanted to mount it to the ceiling.
I also have a hi ceiling so I made a simple frame from the angle iron you get at a hardware store.
I simply attached it to the short pipe that PSI includes with the guard with some U bolts.
The dust pipe they supply isn't used, just piped right into my system with some flex.
I do find that that you need to keep the guard right on top of the wood for pick-up of dust. It's ok, not the greatest. (It also might be my system isn't strong enough.)
Jeff
Thanks for the information. In your opinion, would a 3/4 or 1 inch black iron pipe mounted to the ceiling with a pipe flange be sufficiently stong to prevent it from moving around?
A bad day woodworking is better than a good day working -- yes, I'm retired!
I don't think the pipe will work as it will flex and twist too much.
Jeff
I'll use either square steel tubing or angle iron box welded.
I also think 3/4 inch black pipe wil flex too much.
A bad day woodworking is better than a good day working -- yes, I'm retired!
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