Shopsmith Forums

I am considering upgrading my original aluminum upper saw guard for my 500 to the clear guard, in hopes I will use it more if it is easier to use and works better than the original. Problems I have with the original upper guard include what seems to be a lot of "slop" in the upper guard, where it moves too easily left or right, with the front edge moving or able to shift up to 1/2" in either direction. The inside width of the guard is only 1", so it seems inevitable that the guard could slide left or right enough to cause it to hit the blade. It also doesn't seem to allow using stock thicker than about 3/4". I have never seen the upgraded upper guard in use ... can anyone tell me how well the upgraded guard works in comparison to the old original, any additional benefits or improvements in the upgrade, etc. Thanks in advance.

I have never used the old style guard...my 500 came with no guard and I added the plastic one years ago. It works pretty well, but not without some issues. The splitter makes ripping much, much safer but does need some fiddling to get it in line with the saw blade, and I had to shim it to get the splitter truly co-planar to the blade...not a big deal, but unshimmed the angle of the splitter was enough that even with the front of the splitter in the saw kerf the tail end of the splitter would try to shift the workpiece sideways. I used a thin washer on the mounting piece to keep things aligned. And, yes, there is some side to side play in the upper guard but not enough to cause a problem. As far as thickness, I have cut 2 by stuff no problem. And I really like the anti-kickback pawls. So I would say on balance its a good thing.