DIYbanter - Overarm blade cover & dust collector?

On Tue, 3 Aug 2004 17:47:20 -0600, "Guy LaRochelle"
wrote:

Hi guys,

I have had it with this dust that comes flying out from my blade. I looked
at the Excalibur which seems ok but has anyone had experience with it? Does
anyone know of a design that can be built at home? Any info is appreciated.
Regards. -Guy

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I have used an Excalibur Overhead guard with dust collection systemn
on my Saw for well over 10 years.....

Now the model I own is not the current model but so close functionally
I will say they are the same as far as the guard and DC are
concerned...

The overhead Gurad is one of my best purchases ever...so easy to use
and so adjustable that even lazy me uses in 99.99 percent of the
time...

The DC however is about useless... ! Over the years I have modified
mine by moving the pickup point of the DC from the rear top of the
guard itself to the front ... and I sealed the entire front..

Then I gave up sharing my 2 HP DC unit with both the saw cabinet
itself (Jet Cabinet Saw) and the guard.. I now use a small shop vac
mounted in the rafters with the hose comming down and connecting to
the front of the guard... Vac is turned on by a wireless switch on
the overhead arm of the guard... This works better (for dust control
on top of the saw) then splitting the DC between cabinet and guard

Better is however.... still NOT GREAT.... But the money I spent was
still well worth it because I love the guard very much... the half
assed DC port is just a bonus that came with a good guard..Hope I did
not pay more then $1.95 for that feature...

I had a long talk with the Excalibur Rep at a woodworking show years
ago about the rear vs front mounting of the DC port... He may know
his physics (lol) BUT in the real world of my own shop...He was dead
wrong...

Bob Griffiths