Customer Reviews

PSI Woodworking TSGUARD Table Saw Dust Collection Guard

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The only flaw I can find with this unit it that the blade guard is not designed to sit flat against the table and ride the work piece as you push it through the saw. You have to set it above the table at just enough distance for the piece to pass under it. The guard also sits a little cockeyed due to the somewhat rigid hose pushing down on it. But that's all I can complain about. The unit is made of some pretty heavy gauge steel and I suspect it can take some abuse.

Before adding this over arm system to my saw I was getting a face full of saw dust, and I was more than a little concerned for the safety of my saw due to the absence of the blade guard. I use a dado blade frequently and the fixed blade guard was a nuisance to remove and replace, so it just remained removed. Now it's nice to have a little something covering the blade. It's also a pleasure not having to gear up with full facial armor to ward off the steady jet of saw dust that made a bee-line for eyes and nose. I got everything I needed in this unit for about $300 less than every other model.

Set up was easy, despite the fact that I had to make a platform to fasten the base to. There is room to get creative in the way you secure this to your saw if you don't have the traditional cabinet saw with an extension table. Just think outside the box a little and you will have this unit up and running in about an hour.

It was delivered in good time and the packing was appropriate. The item arrived in pristine condition with all the parts.

I recently installed the PSI on my Delta contractor saw with little effort ~ 1hour. The unit itself works fine especially considering the low price ($162.80 delivered from Amazon). Piping is made of heavy guage steel and is very sturdy. The unit works well at reducing and or eliminating the fine dust being thrown into your face. I have it hooked upto a Delta 50-760 1.5 hp DC piggybacked with my table saw dust port. When cutting sheet goods (plywood,mdf,particle board,hardboard, etc) the PSI is excellent at containing and eliminating ~95 % of the dust. When cutting thicker stock (1.5 or greater) the efficiency went down as expected but the unit was still very useful in stopping the dust from being propelled into the air towards your face and lungs. Efficiency probably went down to the 65% efficiency range for the larger particulates (>3-5 microns)and to about 88% for the smaller particulates (And yes I am qualified to estimate percent capture of fine particulates due to the nature of my degrees,training and work experience). This drop in efficiency is due to the fact that you will loose the "vacumn effect" as air is being sucked in from all sides of the unit due to it being raised above the table - thus reducing the "suction". This will occur no matter what unit (exaktor, biessmyer, excalibur, shark guard, etc)is used. Key is max air flow (cfm's).To help offset this pressure loss I "choked up" the 2.5 ports to 4 inch ports where possible. Not as good as if all the ports were originally sized 4 inch but this helps increase the effiency of the unit by increasing the air flow. (Yes the airlow is restricted at the reducer but it stll increases the over all air flow).

Several reviewers hit the nail on the head. With a little simple tweaking this unit performs well and is certainly worth the price. I can not justify spending almost $300 more for another unit.

Some of the minor adjustsments made were: converting port size to 4 inch (also need to use matching 4" hose); sealing the swinging back stop (pictured in red)with packing tape along the seams, sealing the swing front stop with packing tape along the top downward portion of the seams - make sure you do not seal it in a position that would interfere with or make contact with blade !!!-; cut both interior and exterior tubes to the fit of your table extension (once the "nested tubes" or adjusted to your table, lock in place and carefully cut both tubes at the same time, then file or grind to remove any burs. In my case it reduced the air turbulence\friction travel by 14 inches, which may not seem like much but the pressure gradient change over a foot can be signicicant depending upon the cfm.s of your collection system; also did the same custom cut of dust hose to reduce distance traveled and efficiency loss due to friction and turbulence.

The height adjustment \counter balance arm works well and effortlessly. Very easy to move up and down. The entire assembly swings out the way when needed but mine is a little stiff. Hopefully it will loosen a little with time - but not a concern either way.

Now on negative side - many are the same as other reviewers -
written instructions are worthless, use common sense and the visual depictions to guide you; packaging is horrible, box bottom torn badly, box looked like it was in a fight, one item (worm gear clamp)was missing -aggravating but did not hinder assembly; several areas of small scratches on tubing do to the items bouncing everywhere during shipping - again annoying but not bad -it is in a shop not my house - it is going to get scratches anyway.

Overall good unit and exceptional value for the price when compared to other units. I would by it again.

This supplements a dust collector through the bottom of my cabinet saw -- and cuts way down on fine sawdust put into the air from above. I use it with a Fein vac (my main dust collector is only a Jet 1.5hp unit piped some distance away) and find the combination works well.

I also use this with a Biesemeyer splitter in the back and find the combination to be safe and unobtrusive. The construction on this is adequate -- in my case I added some bracing from the ceiling. Bottom line -- with a little work this does the job at about half the price compared to some alternatives.

I have a Powermatic 2000 with a zero clearance insert hooked up to a 3hp cyclone dust collector, and don't use the supplied blade guard. Because I was still getting dust off the blade, I thought this type collector would do two things: 1) catch more dust, and 2) provide some additional safety. It helps with the safety factor (unless I have it swiveled out of the way), but is only marginally effective in gathering more dust.

Although connected in the recommended fashion to the dust collector, in practice, dust exiting the blade continues to move primarily horizontally across the board towards the user - NOT sucked vertically into the collector. This is because the unit conflicts with either the fence or the miter gauge*, effectively preventing the unit from riding close to the surface. As I spend more time working with it, a better way to operate may become obvious, but at this point, the dust collection improvement isn't significant.

NOTE *: the unit can be horizontally adjusted which would change the relative position with the miter gaure/fence and allow lowering it to the wood's surface. Doing this might help improve the collection effectiveness, but adds a step to the process.

Regarding the shipping: the unit came poorly wrapped/packaged - taped and torn, and material barely contained within the box. Although the pieces were all there (except one hose clamp), some were scratched. Others have previously commented on this - with no apparent improvement by the mfr.

Regarding the construction: seems to be sturdy, easy to adjust the vertical movement; wouldn't pay more for one of the higher priced units if they are similarly effective. I have mine mounted to be able to swing away from the table, and it easily handles the movement without problem.

The 3-star rating is based on the limited additional collection perceived, and the poor shipping method.

I have been looking at this item for a few years now. I am a woodworker with 40 years of experience and was getting concerned over my fingers and the spinning saw blade. Probability and statistics will catch up with you. I reviewed all the comments and decided to purchase the item even though many of the comments were negative. Here are my findings after installing and using the guard. First, the item arrived intact with no damage to either the box or the parts inside. The parts are well made and should last for many years. Second, the instructions were not the greatest but there were several valuable pieces of infomation in them which should be followed to help insure a properly installed and functioning unit. I would suggest that you read the instructions a few times before you begin any installation. I would not follow some of the advise which told you to throw the instructions away. Third, have a plan before you begin. I changed the basic installation plan by combining the ceiling and floor mount together. I moved the floor mount to the center of gravity of the horizontal red dust tube and suspended it from the ceiling. This resulted in a rigid installation with zero sag on either end of the long red tube. I then connected the end of the long red tube to my central 2hp cyclone dust collecting system duct at the right hand side of my saw using the supplied adapter and 4 inch hose which feeds into a 5 inch pipe. I mounted a 2.5 dust gate to the other end of the red tube and then mounted a 2.5 inch Rockler swivel between the gate and the 2.25 inch supplied dust hose. This reduced the amount of force it took to raise the blade guard since you were not twisting the 2.25 inch hose. The guard assembly now moves freely up and down with no sag or binding. The blade guard assembly was installed per the instuctions. This total installation provides 78 inches of clear space to the right of my saw blade. By paying attention to the air flow and keeping all the flexible hoses to a minimum, the system works great. There is no problem with the airflow in the long red tube. The clear plastic blade guard provides great visability while still keeping you fingers away from the blade. Would I buy this unit again? The answer is definitly yes. Would I spend three or four times the amount for another brand which basicly does the same thing using the same principles--definitly no. Hope this helps-Retwoodeng

My unit arrived in good condition. I have used it on a table saw bolted to the ceiling for 18 months and my only complaint is that it gets in the way of lumber taller than 9" and my head when I want to check alignment from above the blade. The dust hood and suspension assembly can be removed but this takes a minute and is therefore not convenient. To solve this I see I can change the TSGUARD to the floor mounted option where there is a built-in swivel at the top of the main mast tube that will allow it to be easily pushed out of the way.
This unit operates easiy and the counter balance works well. The reason it is not a 5 star is the 2-1/2" flex tube size restricts the air volume, in this regard the Exaktor with 4" tubing is better -but $220 better? Perhaps this has as much to do with the 1-1/2hp dust extractor I use being marginally sized? If I were to do this all over I wonder if I wouldn't simply build something from scratch as there is nothing particularly complex about the components.

Update June 2010 - 6 months ago I upgraded my dust extraction to a 5-hp cyclone unit by Clearvue and I moved the TSGUARD to floor mount. The 2-1/2" flex tube does restrict air but if the guard is close to sitting on top of the wood being cut I do not see any dust escaping, only larger wood fragments thrown forward from the blade on some dense but brittle hardwood. I have 7-foot rails on the table saw fence so the reach of the TSGUARD when floor mounted is just over 6-feet. It took some steel diagonal bracing on the vertical member to keep the horizontal tubing even close to horizontal. I don't think any reasonably priced design could correct this amount of flexing, but to fix this I added a hook and chain from the ceiling above the blade which supports the horizontal tubing right at horizontal. For the times I want more blade access I unhook the horizontal tubing and push it away. All in all I am very happy with the TSGUARD. In writing this it occurs to me that the 45-degree bracing I used on the mast is actually doing most of the flexing, that if I stiffen this bracing I might remove much of the flexing. I will have to play with this some more.

I've had this hooked up to my contractor's saw for over a year now. I screwed it into the floor of my shed, then attached it to the side of my table saw's extension table. I attached the dust collection hose directly to the blade guard. It works. It might not sense the thickness of the wood I'm putting through and automatically adjust... nor does it go down automatically (not sure if it's designed to). But it lifts automatically with a touch of my finger, and it locks in position after tightening the knob. I'm happy.

Took about an hour to hook to my Powematic 66. For the price its a good deal. Box it was shipped was tore open but no parts were missing just scratched up (they should package better). Tiawian Manual Terrible so just use some common sense to assemble. Had to add a tiestrap at hose and blade guard to keep it level. There is a lot of sag on the boom at 50" so I will add some support for it. Cover is nice and works fine, keeps dust from flying into my face even without vacuum hooked up. If you want the bare minimum in a dust cover then this adequate. If I would have had more money to spend I would got one of the others. The cover lifts easily to adjust to board thickness and stays put so I am happy for what I got. I have been using my saw for 20 years without a cover but I decided to reduce my risk by trying out a cover. I feel safer and cut some boards with it with no inconvenience. I use the Beismeyer splitters and this cover fits over it fine.

Package arrived in good shape, no damage. some of the parts did have some paint missing but nothing to cry about I didn't get it for looks. The instructions (if you would like to call it that) leave a lot to be desired. You will need to be good at figuring out things for your self. I had to be creative with my set up as I have a long extension table and fence. Some extra support had to be used because I had it extended all the way. They include some rubber O rings to seal the connections where the pipes sit one inside the other, I recommend sealing with some tape. The plastic used on the hood is very brittle, a piece that holds the hood to the arm broke when it slipped of the pipe and hit the table saw top. I just made a new piece out of some scrap 1/4 plywood. its a lot stronger now. When the plastic piece was in, it would bend. With the Plywood it stays level in the up or down position. Over all this is a good piece of equipment, but don't expect it to work perfectly out of the box. It takes some tweaking and creative enhancements to get it right.

This is a good product for the price and works as good as the more expensive ones. The only problem is the instructions may as well be thrown away. I suggest going by the pictures only. You will have to adapt this unit for your saw but its not hard and will only take about an hour for you to figure it out.