Interesting ideas on table saw guards plus

[reible]

Hi,

One of my many ideas is to rework one of the shopsmith top blade guards, so while searching for some other information I came upon this pdf. Several things came to mind as I read it. It is from those other english speaking people so you will have to translate things like rebates but I think you will get the hang of it.

Towards the end they address "fixed spindle" machines. They have a couple of ideas I would like to explore, things that might be useful to shopsmith owners. They would have limits but they also might be very useful. The bevel cutting figure 8a... Think about having the shopsmith all set up with router table/extension tables/ and 5' tubes etc. and then having to do a bevel cut.... mmmm do I here some gears turning in fellow shopsmith users heads???

Take a look I'd like to hear what those gears are turning out. Sure it will not work for everything but it would work for somethings... another trick in the bag as they say.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/wis16.pdf

Ed

[allsas]

Shopnotes#103, current issue, has a blade guard w/ dust collection, as one of the items in a suite of Rip Fence accessories. Seems that the suite could be made for 500, 510, and 520 rip fences. Missing from the siute is an overhead fence. It looks like it is a candidate for the extremely hard to find 500 upper and lower blade guards or a upper guard that is used with the 500 Dust Chute.

[JPG]

Interesting approach. A jig would be easy to make for a fixed angle bevel of a fixed width. It would have to take the place of BOTH the table and the fence.

[reible]

Yes you would have to have a canted fence as shown, perhaps that can fit on the tapered portions... maybe using a simple 4 bar linkage??? And maybe a very limited number of angles 5, 15, 30 and 45... the width would be limited by what is needed below for support, the angles involved and when the width runs out of space... If and when I have sometime I'll look more a this.

Ed

Interesting approach. A jig would be easy to make for a fixed angle bevel of a fixed width. It would have to take the place of BOTH the table and the fence.

[reible]

Hi,

Sadly I had to terminate my subscriptions to magazines some years ago. If I happen to be in store and see some thing really interesting I might pick one up... so it is likely I will not get to see this issue.

I did however play with some above the table dust collection ideas last summer. I even purchased an extra top guard to modify... again sadly I was disappointed with how much was collected from the top. The major sawdust/chips seem to come from below... the better I could collect that (from below) the less appeared on the top. I plan to try a couple more ideas this coming season one of which showed some promise... on two fronts.

Perhaps someone here will be building and showing some of these ideas as done for shopsmith sometime soon????

Anyone that has the issue is that a clear plastic cover on the one being demoed on the front cover? If so it might be cool to watch... not while you're cutting but from the side as an observer... or maybe to video tape??

Ed

Shopnotes#103, current issue, has a blade guard w/ dust collection, as one of the items in a suite of Rip Fence accessories. Seems that the suite could be made for 500, 510, and 520 rip fences. Missing from the siute is an overhead fence. It looks like it is a candidate for the extremely hard to find 500 upper and lower blade guards or a upper guard that is used with the 500 Dust Chute.

[charlese]

...Perhaps someone here will be building and showing some of these ideas as done for shopsmith sometime soon????

Anyone that has the issue is that a clear plastic cover on the one being demoed on the front cover? If so it might be cool to watch... not while you're cutting but from the side as an observer... or maybe to video tape??

Ed

Happened to have that issue sitting right next to me. I had noticed that subject, but was more interested in reading the part about all of the various "T" tracks.

The blade cover is one of the "fence attachments" they featured in this issue. The cover is attached to the rip fence (they used one that looks like a Bessemeyer) After attaching a "T" track to the top of the rip fence, they made a couple of adjustable wood attachments that connect the blade cover to the fence. I was a bit amused, when the author said, "The main benefit is that this is just a blade cover. So that means you can use it on non-through cuts like dados and grooves."... Why???

The cover is made with three pieces - the outside of the cover (away from the fence) is 1/4" polycarbonate.

No I won't be making one.

[Ed in Tampa]

I have a Sharkguard blade guard made for Shopsmith, in fact mine is prototype. Sharkguard has a vac port built in and allows the removal of the upper blade guard so the riving knife can stay in place for non through cuts.

Reible is correct there is not a lot of dust the comes from the top, however I think through a combination of things when I use both the upper (sharkguard) and lower (SS lower blade guard) vaccum ports I collect about 99% of the dust. I think by having two ports open my DC3300 works more efficiently plus the extra vaccum and when I do this I usually make sure everything is properly adjusted, right blade height, lower guard properly positioned, upper guard proper position and etc. I think all of this works in conbination to catch most of the dust.

PS I really love the look of the Sharkguard with the Shark face on my upper blade guard. Makes my SS look customized!! Buying a Shark guard also supports a non SS manufacture that thought enough of SS owners to make a product to fit their machine.

[BigSky]

Reible is correct there is not a lot of dust the comes from the top, however I think through a combination of things when I use both the upper (sharkguard) and lower (SS lower blade guard) vaccum ports I collect about 99% of the dust. I think by having two ports open my DC3300 works more efficiently plus the extra vaccum and when I do this I usually make sure everything is properly adjusted, right blade height, lower guard properly positioned, upper guard proper position and etc. I think all of this works in conbination to catch most of the dust.

What constitutes a properly adjusted lower saw guard? You guys have a habit of throwing out these statements of fact and just leaving it hang. Please don't do that.

[Ed in Tampa]

What constitutes a properly adjusted lower saw guard? You guys have a habit of throwing out these statements of fact and just leaving it hang. Please don't do that.

Sorry!!! The lower saw guard on the 510/520 has the right hand side that can be moved closer or further from the blade. It is adjustable for Dado setups and for the disk sander. If the width is set too wide a vac has a bigger area to draw from and the some dust escapes. If the width is set too narrow it seems like some of dust slips pass the guard and falls outside it.

I try to set it to the exact opening of the table insert I'm using. Thus if it is normal SS insert the width is as close as possible to that opening. If the I'm using a zero clearance insert I narrow it up so the vaccum is more focused on the opening. If I'm using the Dado insert I widen the width up tryign to make use the an dust that falls through will go into the guard and eventually into the DC.

While I'm talking about this, one thing you always have to remember it to make sure you close the guard enough so the tie bar doesn't hit it. More than once I have tried to lower the table when it stops on something. I have to stop for a moment and think what is going on. I then remember the lower guard is out to far and the tie bar is setting on it. I feel stupid slide it in and all of sudden my table with once again lower.

[JPG]

Happened to have that issue sitting right next to me. I had noticed that subject, but was more interested in reading the part about all of the various "T" tracks.

The blade cover is one of the "fence attachments" they featured in this issue. The cover is attached to the rip fence (they used one that looks like a Bessemeyer) After attaching a "T" track to the top of the rip fence, they made a couple of adjustable wood attachments that connect the blade cover to the fence. I was a bit amused, when the author said, "The main benefit is that this is just a blade cover. So that means you can use it on non-through cuts like dados and grooves."... Why???

The cover is made with three pieces - the outside of the cover (away from the fence) is 1/4" polycarbonate.

No I won't be making one.

It protects you when stock exits the blade area. It also gets in the way!:D