Thread: Home made blade guard - show us yours please

I bought an old tablesaw that had a broken splitter and no guard. I originally made a guard vaguely based on a Shopnotes design. It was heavy, but sort of worked until I tried a narrow cut when the side of the guard got tangled with the blade and broke off and shot across the room in a most impressive manner. I'm glad I had been reading up on TS safety and was standing to the side of blade path in case of kickback.

After watching a Kelly Mehler video 'Mastering your tablesaw' I thought the Brett Guard style was worth a try. In need of a quick fix I knocked up this one using some tubing, threaded rod and a post stirrup. Seems to work OK so far and much better than the previous pivoting off the splitter attempt.

guard.jpg

The guard i got with my lower end cabinet style T/S was next to useless and at times a hinderance and hence a safety issue.
I use various methods to ensure blade safety.....I don't have a one guard approach. My philosophy is that the aim is to guard against coming in contact with blade either over the top (example reaching over) or from pushing wood and forgetting about your hand/finger position (usually from hurrying or daydreaming)!!!
So attached are some of what I use now and have been for some time.

happy cutting

image.jpg

I assume you use the blade guard on the left when ripping then swap it over to the rhs when cross cutting, right?

Also, the guard seems to be good for keeping your fingers out, but would it help in stopping kickback?

Cheers
Arron

Originally Posted by Arron

I assume you use the blade guard on the left when ripping then swap it over to the rhs when cross cutting, right?

Also, the guard seems to be good for keeping your fingers out, but would it help in stopping kickback?

Cheers
Arron

Yes that is right.....I can also put the guard on other side of fence when using with dado blade for rabetting, etc... The plastic guard is quite thick (6mm I think) and can be adjusted up and down.

kickback is easily controlled by use of three things, riving knife (or splitter), good push stick and featherboards, especially vertically placed such as the one shown in pic above. The gripper covers all. But above all the riving knife and push stick are your best friend.....that's why I always have it installed and use a push stick that has a hook and a handle that you can bear down with onto the material being cut.

Ok, thanks for clarifying that. I did cop a massive kickback once - 3mm ply right in the lower abdomen - that lead to massive bruising but thinking about it I was operating deficient in all three of the requirements you mentioned.

Another question. Are the three mag switches on your guard really necessary. I note that they are not cheap so was wondering if it would work just as well with two?

Thanks
Arron

This is my JET supersaw. Originally the blade guard was mounted to the top of the riving knife. I removed the blade guard and trimmed the riving knife to just below the height of the blade. This allows me to cut grooves without removing the riving knife. The home-made poor-man's blade guard is mounted to ceiling. It has an adjustable height and can be easily removed when needed.

P1050002.JPG

P1050003.JPG

P1050001.JPG

P1050004.JPG

Originally Posted by Arron

Another question. Are the three mag switches on your guard really necessary. I note that they are not cheap so was wondering if it would work just as well with two?

Yep....I've got the smaller ones and definitely the 3 is minimum to hold the weight of the Perspex and some push down weight if my hand goes on it. If you have the larger mag switches then you can get away with 2 I guess.


Wongo....yes I have been considering an overhead free standing guard .....more so because I would like some dust collection from the top as well.
need to look into this.......

cheers

Originally Posted by simops

....yes I have been considering an overhead free standing guard .....more so because I would like some dust collection from the top as well.
need to look into this.......

Here is a link to my overhead guard. It's adapted from a spare "Dust picker arm" but that part could be easily made out of wood like Wongos.
Those photos were taken in 2006 when I only had a 1HP DC connected to it and only about 150 cfm running through it.
Since then I have a new shed and shortened the ducting so that using a 3HP I get about 350 CFM though it.
I have also added a pulley system and counter weight so that it sits at more or less where ever I put it.

Hi Arron, I have modified, removed or cursed every blade guard I have used.
My enduring solution is the humble Triton guard. It is robust ( the one in the pic is 10 years old & has appeared on 2 previous saws), covers the blade well, is height adjustable, has a dust extraction port & great anti kick back pawls. One pic shows a template for the Proshop & the other shows the mod to the factory guard. It feels safer now with a clear view of the blade & better control of the cut.
Pete