Shopsmith Forums

Fellow Forum Geniuses,

I just had my Mark V 500 Headstock completely restored by Alex Smith. Alex did an amazing job across the board. I am thrilled with the end results. I highly indorse him & his work.
Now we are dialing everything in, Squaring things up.
I seem to have a lot of play in the upper Saw blade guard. The movement is side to side. I don’t get a blade strike but if I pushed it, the guard would strike the blade. My pals and I have fiddle with the mount but there are simply no adjustments. We looked at the guard and exploded views to see if we did a parts swap would it null out the problem. I have not been able to discover a solution. Any ideas? I am not a big fan of safeties on saws. However, I like having all my digits attached. Any ideas on how to eliminate the side to side movement or play?
Thank you,
Thom Schuck
Portland, Oregon

This is my upper guard. The aluminum plate is the riving knife correct? So do I line up the splitter with the blade and just keep the clear guard up and out of the way? Or just remove the swing assembly leaving the riving knife and anti kick backs in place?
Thank you very much. No luck with a photo

Thomschuck wrote:Fellow Forum Geniuses,

I just had my Mark V 500 Headstock completely restored by Alex Smith. Alex did an amazing job across the board. I am thrilled with the end results. I highly indorse him & his work.
Now we are dialing everything in, Squaring things up.
I seem to have a lot of play in the upper Saw blade guard. The movement is side to side. I don’t get a blade strike but if I pushed it, the guard would strike the blade. My pals and I have fiddle with the mount but there are simply no adjustments. We looked at the guard and exploded views to see if we did a parts swap would it null out the problem. I have not been able to discover a solution. Any ideas? I am not a big fan of safeties on saws. However, I like having all my digits attached. Any ideas on how to eliminate the side to side movement or play?
Thank you,
Thom Schuck
Portland, Oregon

The upper guard does have some side to side play. There is no adjustment and none needed. In normal us it is just fine. The solution is just don't push into the blade just because you can.

This will only be a problem, if at all, if you are making a bevel cut with the tilted table. I use the riving knife rather than the full upper saw guard for those operations (really, I use the riving knife alone for a lot of operations). But that's not an option for an older Mark 5.

algale wrote:This will only be a problem, if at all, if you are making a bevel cut with the tilted table. I use the riving knife rather than the full upper saw guard for those operations (really, I use the riving knife alone for a lot of operations). But that's not an option for an older Mark 5.

I have put both of my upper saw guards on an upper shelf in the shop just so that I'll know where they are IF I should ever need them again. The riving knife alone does a great job - just keep my fingers out of the red zone.

algale wrote:This will only be a problem, if at all, if you are making a bevel cut with the tilted table. I use the riving knife rather than the full upper saw guard for those operations (really, I use the riving knife alone for a lot of operations). But that's not an option for an older Mark 5.

The 'option' for an older Mark 5 is NO guard. They originally came that way.
You had to pay extra for that accessory.

Hi Thom'
I am not sure which Mark V 500 Guard system you have. The most recent Upper Guard (top picture below) attaches to the table post and the older Upper Guard (bottom picture below) attaches to the Lower Guard. In both cases there is a lot of flat metal for the splitter that allows some flexing. As long as the splitter is aligned with the blade you will be fine when using it.

The picture of the more recent Guard system below is the 1-1/4" port not the 2-1/2" ports. Sorry I didn't have a picture of the revised version of this Guard System.

I just bought the saw guards for my ss v 500 and not sure how to install the guard. Can you give me any help

We need pix to ascertain which version you have.

jmenge,

Welcome to the Shopsmith Forum. Since the Saw Guards for the Mark 5/V 500 mount differently, knowing the version you have is needed to help guide you. Besides the two types of guards for the Mark 5/V with the original table system aka 500 shown in my previous post, there is an earlier type from the 1950's for the Mark 5. It is less common and is shown in the picture below.

_ .
As you may notice the dust chute is rectangular and not very good for dust collection.

The first guard shown in my previous post is the more recent Guard for the Mark V 500 which had an upgrade/change. The picture I previously posted was the one with the 1-1/2" single dust port. Later it was changed and an upgrade was made available to have two 2-1/2" dust collection ports and is shown below.

_ .
All of the Saw Blade Guards have the lower guard attach directly to the Quill. The earlier two versions have the upper guard attach directly to the lower guard. The more recent guard has the upper guard attaching to the back table post and tie bar. The upper guard is the same for both the 1-1/4" dust port and the two 2-1/2" dust ports.

Hopefully your not too confused yet.

It should be noted that the Mark V 510, 505, 520, Mark 7 and Mark 4 use a different Saw Blade Guard setup. It is the one shown below.

_ .
The Mark VII from the 1960's had a different lower Saw Blade Guard but used the same upper Guard as the Mark 5 in the lower picture in my previous post. It is shown below with that upper guard.

_ .
There was an additional Saw Blade Guard setup available for the Mark 2 and another for the Shopsmith Model 10E and 10ER.

With all of these Shopsmith Saw Blade Guards available you can see why it is important to know which one you have.