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Features, Construction and Quality:

The Dust Be Gone frame is constructed from 1 3/4" and 1 1/2" square steel tubing and is painted using a grey plastic powder coating. The workmanship of both the welds and painting is outstanding.
Click on the pictures on either side of this paragraph and look at the quality. I've not seen much in the way of steel products which have looked this good, definitely professional quality.

The scissor assembly is 1 1/4" square aluminum tubing and the dust guard is a clear polycarbonate. Like the steel the aluminum weld looks to be of very good quality. The guard/dust hood is glued instead of in a frame like many other guards. Unlike other guards the plastic has a lifetime warranty. Also notice the nice hefty hose coupler, nothing is going to break there.

Here is the advertised list of features of the Dust Be Gone:

Use:
Blade guards by their nature get in our way....tough, that's the way it is. If you want to lower your risk of injury then a blade guard is a good investment. This blade guard also provides the additional feature of helping to reduce the amount of sawdust in your lungs and shop.

I figured I'd take this picture before I turned on the saw so you could see what the guard looked like....clean. Notice it is more than tall and long enough to work with my Biesemeyer splitter.

In the photo at right you can see that with my fence riding push block I rip about a 3/4" wide piece. Anything smaller than that and you'll need to raise the guard and use a different method.

Speaking of another method for ripping small pieces. I like to use the GRR-Ripper for that however the Dust Be Gone guard is in the way. It is easy enough to loosen the knob which holds the scissor assembly and remove it (left). The hose just slips off and can be positioned out of the way and as you see in the photo at right, there is plenty of room to use your favorite jig.

The Dust Be Gone guard is designed to be locked down over the work. This design assures maximum sawdust pickup as well as offering protection from some forms of kick back. As shipped to me the scissor assembly used two knobs to lock the guard into position. I felt there were a couple of problems with this setup. First, the knobs were too small and my knuckles would hit the frame. And second, positioning the guard required three hands, one to hold the spring loaded guard in position and the other two to tighten the knobs. At my suggestion Steve from Segi Inc. tried and liked the Rockler cam clamp. So did I. Now I can position the guard with one hand and lock it in place with a simple flip of the cam lever with the other. The lever can be mounted on either side at your preference. I can't guarantee that the exact same Rockler clamp will ship with future units but certainly some similar kind of cam lever clamp will.

In actual use the Dust Be Gone performed as advertised. In my dust collector setup I have my Delta 50-850 collector wired for 220v and connected to an X10 remote module. For the top side collection with the Dust Be Gone, it was easier for me to use one of my shop vacs (Fein) so I connected it to the hose and plugged it into an X10 appliance module, and addressed them the same. When I use the remote to turn on the DC the vac connected to the Dust Be Gone also fires up. Of course you can also hook the Dust Be Gone directly to your dust collection duct work.

When I first tested the dust collection abilities I noticed that there was actually more sawdust left on the table when using the Dust Be Gone than not. At first I was perplexed and then I realized what was happening. When not using the guard the sawdust from the blade shoots forward and hits me in the belly but leaves the table pretty clean. With the Dust Be Gone my shirt is clean and the small amount of sawdust left on the table is just what escaped the guard, but didn't have enough velocity to travel very far. All in all the Dust Be Gone sucks up the majority of sawdust coming off the blade above the table.

I can also attest to the Dust Be Gone's ability to protect from kick back. While I was testing the dust collection abilities by making cut after cut in some MDF I got a little sloppy and you guessed it, bang! I had the blade set to about half the gullet depth and it lifted the MDF, hit the guard fairly violently and since I was using a GRR-Ripper as a push stick, I was able to get control of the piece and turn off the saw.

The MDF hit the plastic guard with enough force that it raised it about 3/4 of an inch and even if I had not gotten it under control, it bought me enough time to react and get out of the way.

Conclusion:
The Dust Be Gone worked as advertised and I think sucked up dust better than I had expected. As a blade guard it served its purpose well and was simple to remove when you had to perform an operation where it was in the way. At present the Dust Be Gone has only one mounting option which is the rear rail/table but as demand increases for other options, Segi Inc will support them. We even devised an optional floor support during the review process which will be available upon request.

It may not be as fancy colored as some guards out there but it is fully functional, durable with high quality and workmanship at a reasonable price.


For info email Steve
at Segi Inc.
(502)494-2822
Price: $200 plus shipping
Other colors available, $15 plus 15 day lead time.

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20 June 2005
Copyright © 2005 , Bill Esposito.
All Rights Reserved.