Replacement Blade Guard

Hi Neal
Before you go out and buy one, have you considered making one? I made a SUVA-style guard for my tablesaw. I paid £10 (about $15) for some LDPE and a couple of quid for a Bristol Lever. The rest was scrap from the workshop.

It mounts onto the far right corner of the tablesaw and is supported by a shoe fixed to the top of the tablesaw rip fence. I’ve very pleased with its performance, and, because it is not mounted on the riving knife, I can do non-severing cuts like tenon shoulders, too.

Since taking that photo I’ve swapped the V-shaped arm support for a U-shaped one, and I’ve added a top plate with a vacuum hole in it, but apart from that it is identical. If I made it again, I’d keep the pan-handle part shorter and increase the length of the pan, so that more of the rear of the blade is covered, too.

Cheers
Steve

-- http://www.workshopessentials.com - The Ultimate Tablesaw Tenon Jig and more.

Steve,

I’m glad you posted that. When I saw Neal’s question I immediately thought of your blade guard.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

Steve, that is a fantastic solution even if one doesn’t NEED a replacement guard (but then again… it’s not surprising coming from you).

I’d definitely second Steve’s line of though – you don’t have to get ‘THE’ replacement guard, there are also 3rd party options, and homemade solution that will cost you much less – as seen in Steve’s solution, this is almost at no out of pocket cost.

-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

Steve,
Nice looking guard. I’ve saved the pic for future reference. Another nice solution to someone’s problem. Nice work.

Neal, Shop notes had a really good looking and very functional, much like Steve’s now is, going by his description, a few issues back I’ll post which one after I go out to the shop and locate it. Again its home made but the article includes planes. You may have to alter dimensions to fit your saw but still should be a lot better the the options you have right now.

-- RTB. "dumb animals are not stupid they simply can't talk "

Steve, thanks for the suggestion. Initially, I was looking at replacing the whole blade guard assembly, because I don’t have a splitter installed either and I was thinking I’d need to replace the whole assembly – that’s when I would need a couple of additional bracket off the back of the saw. However, I now see I can just get a replacement splitter and might not need to worry quite so much about the guard and brackets. Then I can look at building my own.

Does anyone know if I would have any problems with the currently available Delta splitter (1349941) on this older saw? It looks like it might just drop into the existing mounting bracket, but I didn’t know if I might run into some alignment problems.

-- Neal

Why not make a zero cleance throat plate and add your own splitter to it?

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

I have bought power tool and machinery parts from toolsandmachinery.com so you could try there or toolspartdirect.com also carries parts.