This past Christmas, Santa brought me a Shark Guard. I used it to complete Nathan’s crib, but knew I’d need to get it properly mounted before the next project. So I bought a 6′ length of 1″ square tube steel, a metal cutting blade for the jigsaw, and a bag ‘o 5/16 nuts, washers and bolts. I would have much preferred to weld it together, but since I don’t own the equipment or know anyone who does, that just wasn’t going to happen.
The overarm design is about as simple as they come and there’s really not much to say about its construction that isn’t fairly obvious from the photos. The arm hinges on a bolt through a couple mending plates attached to the fixed part of the bar and is held upright by an eyebolt inserted just behind the hinge point.
Hinge and Arm Lock
The trickiest part was bolting the dang thing to the brick wall on the right side of my table saw. The bricks are fairly brittle and soft and before this project I’d had mixed results using tapcon screws. Thankfully, expansion anchors did the trick.
The hose is held on by simple zip ties.
In position
Up and out of the way
Or, more accurately a “Shark Guard” by LeeWay Workshop.
Installation
I’ve only had the opportunity to install this today, so I haven’t really had a chance to put it through its paces. However, so far I am impressed. The improvised packaging the unit arrived in was demonstrative of its small shop origins; the actual contents, however, were not. Installation was straightforward using the directions provided on the site. They warned that some owners of my saw (Craftsman 22124) have experienced alignment issues. I encountered this as well — leading to a bit of extra time spent applying, as suggested, small bits of foil HVAC tape to the mounting bracket. A bit of trial and error and I was in business. That is, of course, only after applying the supplied “shark face” decals, natch.
The Shark Guard Installed On My Craftsman 22124
Impressive
Overall, this is a very impressive package. The unit I received is the version 9.4 — with the big 4″ dust port and anti-kickback pawls. It also includes 3 different splitter sizes. Two for use with the guard and one “Shorty Splitter” for cutting stock with the guard removed. Swapping out the splitters is a snap, quite literally, using the spring-loaded plunger. Pull a ring and lift out the current splitter and then just slide in the new one until it “snaps” into place. The snugness of the fit is adjustable via 4 small set screws using the hex key, provided (nice touch).
Anxious to try this out, I attached a 4″ hose to the dust port, locked the guard in place and reached for a scrap of MDF. With the DC running, I experienced 100% visible dust pickup. Awesome!
Time will tell just how practical this new device will be, but at this point I completely intend on making this a near permanent fixture on my saw, removed only when the cut demands. The next step will be to build a support arm for the DC hose that will swing away when necessary. My expectation is the Shark Guard will make for both safer and cleaner table saw cuts.
Thanks to Santa and Lee!
