Saw guard systems - show and tell

How many of you have a tablesaw that looks like this, an exposed blade and no guard mounted to it (I used to)? Guards that are inconvenient, get in the way more than they should, just don’t work as you need?

Well I tried an overhead guard and though it worked, it caused as many problems as it solved: interfered with tendon jigs, not enough clearance etc

After some consideration of what to do, I turned it into this:

But it doesn’t stop there. I designed it so that it was basket independent. You can use the basket of choice, like a Whale Shark (if a mount point can be made, it probably will work – I’ve tried 3 so far)

But it doesn’t stop there. remember that Tendon Jig, well this one lets you clear the saw tabletop quickly with simply pulling a release (there are a total of 3 different methods available also)

And when you need total clearance, just lift the arm off completely without any more effort that pulling the release the same as if you wanted to swing the arm.

You noticed the dust collector hose on the Whale Shark, you don’t even have to disconnect the hose from your dust collector to swing or remove the arm. Dust collection is dependent on your basket having provisions for it.

But it doesn’t stop there: You can mount it to a wide range of contractor/hybrid/cabinet saws. It’s designed so it can be floor, mobile base, back/rail, surface or even ceiling mounted

And virtually every mounting method allows for some method of clearing it off the saw table when needed (couldn’t swing it fully, it was hittimg my overhead lights when the picture was taken)

It doesn’t stop there. If you have a wing mounted router, there’s that cutter that’s always partially exposed no matter your fence, well what about something that allows that to be covered? The basket/cutterguard is different but the rest of the parts are the same as used in the saw guard system. I did use a different swival arm as my regular arm proved too long for my setup but it’s easy to make. I know someone will comment on the mount near the wing in this case. Remember it can be mounted off either side of the saw and the parts are reversible. There’s even a double-ended mount so you can have a mounting point on both sides of the saw – lift it off the right and slide it into the left. Just reverse the main pieces and you’re back in business.

Or what if you happen to have a shaper or router table, does panel raising make you pucker? What if there was something that could cover up that exposed cutting surface yet work like a saw guard? Notice it’s the same parts used for the wing mounted router with a different mount point on the shaper table surface.

This is my prototype. Dust collection is available in virtually every setting (I haven’t fitted a port to the router/shaper guard yet) and though the prototype only uses 2” pipe (due to bending availability at the time, the next one is going to be 3”. The way it’s configured, it will do saws with about 26”-42” to the right or left of the blade. It was good to 60” but I had to cut the arm down due to space issues in my shop, I did say it was scalable to fit many situations.

Because this was designed as a modular system, there’s no need to use or get any more pieces than fits your particular setting. You can mix and match parts to provide protection in any given situation. Unless you use more than 1 tool at any given instant, you can relatively quickly move the parts from one to another as desired, or do more than one system setup for each machine if that’s your choice. Obviously you always want to use a splitter or riving knife. I’m using a couple in the development but I like the Push-Pull one the best, at least in my setup.

I’m hoping that I’ll be able to license this to be produced or another option may be selling plans for people to make their own systems if desired – so you know this may go commercial one day (I hope).

Thanks for looking – any thoughts are always appreciated.

Paul