Replies

1. 
   xmike | Jan 14, 2009 10:27pm | #1

   I have the e
   Excalibur (sp?) and it works fine, swings out of the way when I need to use my sled, and guards nicely. One point that you might consider at install time is to be sure that you get the vacuum pickup portion more over the blade than not. Mine does a fair job of collecting dust, but I'm not sure if it would'nt do better if I had it set so that the center of the dust pickup was directly over the blade.

2. 
   dgreen | Jan 14, 2009 11:19pm | #2

   I have the Biesmeyer and have used the Excalibur. Of the two I prefer the Excalibur.

    

    

   ................................................

   Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
   ~ Denis Diderot

1. 
   wellsy | Jan 15, 2009 03:20am | #3

   Thanks to you and Mike D for sharing your experience with the Biesemeyer and Excalibur guards. I have to say that in looking at these different guards, I have felt that the Excalibur looked like the best set up overall. I would still like to hear from anyone who might be familiar with the PSI model...the frame and hose work looks much smaller than that of either of the other two units, but I don't know that for a fact.Thanks again for your input.

1. 
   zolton | Jan 15, 2009 06:26am | #5

   I have the PSI overhead blade guard and have it mounted on my ceiling. It works pretty well. I bought it on sale for about $135.00 or so. If I had paid more I might have been upset because it's a really simple piece of kit that one determined to save a few bucks could rig up relatively easily. You can purchase just the blade guard alone from PSI for under 30 bucks - and that would be the most difficult thing to fabricate.

   There just wasn't enough room in my confined shop space to mount the boom arm to the side of the saw so the overhad option was a reasonable way to go for my situation. Even then I had to move it back further over the saw than was recommended. I had to do that so the supporting tube would miss the overhead garage door when the door is in the "up" position. It's tight in here.. 

   The dust collection works very well when the guard can be set down close to the work. That's a big advantage over anything else I've worked with on a tablesaw. I'm not so worried about it as a blade guard because I work safely and always have. I  mostly wanted it for the dust collection. The "blade guard" aspect of it is just a little bonus.

   The main gripe I have with it is that the guard is very wide. That's great for dust collection I suppose. But it makes it difficult to rip narrow pieces. I have to set the guard up onto the saw's fence in order to do those types of cuts. Though I've been advised by Sarge here on Knots (and some others too) to make some special push sticks to snake under the guard when ripping narrow stock, I have yet to do so. Next time I'm faced with that situation I will though.

   Is there anything you'd like to ask about this device that I can answer? If I go out to my shop tomorrow morning with my camera I'll take a few images to post here so you can see what it looks like. The temp is going to be below zero though, so don't look for anything too early. It's going to take a while for the heater to chase off the chill...

   ZoltonIf you see a possum running around in here, kill it. It's not a pet. - Jackie Moon

1. 
   wellsy | Jan 15, 2009 07:13pm | #10

   Thanks, Zolton for the input. I probably would have to mount the thing from the ceiling beam as well, due to space constraints. Glad to hear that overall you feel it works pretty well. In looking at the setup, I too am wondering if I couldn't just rig the thing myself by purchasing the guard only. Seems as if the counterbalance and swing assembly wouldbe the only tricky part.Any thoughts on that?

3. 
   matt calnen | Jan 15, 2009 05:48am | #4

   I know your not considering the Brett Guard but I just wanted to say that I have used both the Biesemeyer and the Brett and the Brett guard does a poor job of collecting dust and it has poor visibility, compared to the biesemeyer.

1. 
   boilerbay | Jan 15, 2009 06:09pm | #9

   Matt,The Brett must be pretty bad then, I have the Biesemeyer on one saw and it's safe--thats' all. poor visibility and horrible dust control. PITA to move out of the way. I think Mr. Biesemeyer's original design was as a guard only. The dust and movability was added by the idiots later. Boiler

4. 
   81treehouse | Jan 15, 2009 07:17am | #6

   I suspended a PSI from the ceiling.  Do a search for my posting last year.

    

   A bad day woodworking is better than a good day working -- yes, I'm retired!
1. 
   wellsy | Jan 15, 2009 07:18pm | #11

   I looked up your postings on the ceiling mount you did. The posting is very helpful, and I appreciate the amount of documentation you provided. With input from you and others I am getting a much better feeling about this setup. Thanks

1. 
   81treehouse | Jan 19, 2009 05:32am | #19

   Good luck if you decide to tackle this issue.

    A bad day woodworking is better than a good day working -- yes, I'm retired!

5. 
   forestgirl | Jan 15, 2009 10:32am | #7

   I, too, have the PSI overhead guard.  It's advantages are price, ease of installation and real-time adjustment, dust collection.  The only drawback I've seen is the width of the guard.  There are ways to deal with that, none of which I've gotten around to trying yet, such as an L-shaped aux. fence, shop built push-block that would work with the guard but keep your fingers safe.

   I'm not sure I'll be able to make mine work with the "new" Unisaw, it may not reach with a 52" fence.  With the old Jet, it worked well to provide DC to my router table, on the left of the saw.  Just slip one hose off, slip the other one on.  Kewl......

   View Image

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 
   

   
1. 
   zolton | Jan 15, 2009 03:34pm | #8

   FG,

   I'm stealing that dust collection hookup idea for the router table! I'll just boldly come out and say it - I'm stealing that.

   It looks as though you've got a very similar arrangement to the one I have, with the router table to the left of the blade. It seems like many saws with router tables attached have them on the right. I like it on the left though, and the way you've got the dust collection set up it makes it easy to pop a hose from the PSI over to the router table's fence for collection there. Nice idea. Thanks for posting that photo.

   Right now I've got my router table's fence set up to accept a hose from a Shop Vac. It works fine, but adds minutes to the setup because I don't have a dedicated Vac sitting there under the saw ready to go if I need the router table. I have to drag the Vac over from the other side of the shop, plug it in and rout the hose. The PSI hose deal would eliminate a lot of that hassle.

   ZoltonIf you see a possum running around in here, kill it. It's not a pet. - Jackie Moon

1. 
   forestgirl | Jan 15, 2009 08:13pm | #14

   Zolton, I originally hung that router table on hinges off the left side, the big advantage being that it served as additional stock support, but could be dropped if I needed floor space.   The dust collection got added later when I built that primitive box-on-legs.  Love the extra support over there on the left.

   PS:  If you didn't already figure it out (not likely), that Y-fitting is to send dust collection to the under-router box.

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 

   Edited 1/15/2009 12:14 pm by forestgirl

1. 
   zolton | Jan 15, 2009 08:19pm | #15

   "PS:  If you didn't already figure it out (not likely), that Y-fitting is to send dust collection to the under-router box."

   That was my next question. Thank you for answering it for me.

   I don't have a secondary, under-table dust collection system on my router table. The one on the fence works to capture nearly all the dust and chips. I don't even wear a mask anymore when routing. Of course this is only for edge routing, which seems to be the only type I do on my router table. I'm going to post some photos of my setup in a little while. I'm downloading the photos I took earlier this morning..

   ZoltonIf you see a possum running around in here, kill it. It's not a pet. - Jackie Moon

2. 
   forestgirl | Jan 15, 2009 08:19pm | #16

   Ooops, didn't get the pic attached.

   View Imageforestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 

   
1. 
   zolton | Jan 15, 2009 09:02pm | #17

   Here's how it looks in my shop..

    

   View ImageIf you see a possum running around in here, kill it. It's not a pet. - Jackie Moon

   
1. 
   forestgirl | Jan 16, 2009 12:42am | #18

   Very cool!!  Thanks for showing the overhead mounting of the guard.  I think I'm going to have to do that.  The Unisaw is too big for the side-mount to work unless I cut into the extension table.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 

2. 
   wellsy | Jan 15, 2009 07:24pm | #12

   That is one nifty setup for the table mounted router. I've currently got my router set up to the right side of the fence, enabling me to use the same fence for both tasks. However, I don't see why I can't adapt your idea to work in that manner as well. Thanks for posting the photo, and thanks very much for your input about the guard.

1. 
   forestgirl | Jan 15, 2009 08:06pm | #13

   Glad it helps! 

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 

   Edited 1/15/2009 12:09 pm by forestgirl