Danger, Will Robinson, Danger

[Alex Leslie]

Very dangerous with no guard. I always use push blocks, even with the guard.

[Will Overton]

Part of your question which seems to have been mostly overlooked is why someone would remove the guard. Aside from rabbeting which was mentioned, face jointing a board wider than a jointer's stated capacity can be achieved by doing half, turn the board and do the other half. The standard style guard has to be removed.

That said, my recommendation is, Do Not Use Your Jointer Without a Guard.

I congratulate those who prefer the challenge of working without a net, (guard). They are obviously very focused, and whether they believe it or not, VERY LUCKY

[Bruce Seidner]

Don't use a jointer without a guard, period.

This is the ideal time for you to make a bridge type guard for your jointer, in my opinion they are much better than the old pork chop type guard.

The bridge guard could be made out of wood, nothing fancy is required.

It would have to be able to move straight up and down, perhaps a simple vertical stick, and it would have to move left to right to allow for edge jointing so a simple slot with a knob to lock it in place.

Regards, Rod.

All ten of my fingers and countless born and as yet born blood corpuscles appreciate the outpouring of technical advice and personal tribulations. With sinus surgery several years ago and better dust control, my nose picking has decreased markedly. (I too try to see a sliver lining in life lessons.)

None the less, I have been looking for examples of the European fence-bridge fence guard and am coming up short. There is a 10" Grizzly that sports one but I am unsure if it sells separately but suspect I could buy the parts from Grizzly.

I will set out later tonight for a more thorough search but if there are some DIY solutions out there I am all about making my own stuff. Thanks in advance.

[Bruce Seidner]

Ok, I see how this works. So there are likely plans out there for these. But it does not look like it is dynamic. Do you raise and set the guard for the thickness of board or is there a spring and some way that pushing on it will raise it. It's hard to tell from the picture.

[John Mark Lane]

Ok, I see how this works. So there are likely plans out there for these. But it does not look like it is dynamic. Do you raise and set the guard for the thickness of board or is there a spring and some way that pushing on it will raise it. It's hard to tell from the picture.

Wow, I like that. It looks like it pivots on the left side of the guard, via a pin/spring mount in that arm piece. And you can lift the whole thing out of the way and rotate it down to the front of the jointer. That's cool. Would love to know where that came from.

[Bruce Seidner]

Wow, I like that. It looks like it pivots on the left side of the guard, via a pin/spring mount in that arm piece. And you can lift the whole thing out of the way and rotate it down to the front of the jointer. That's cool. Would love to know where that came from.

http://www.codesmiths.com/shed/workshop/reviews/

scroll down to the Axminster CT150

and

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product-A...ner-370404.htm


And a question in return. How does one create one word links instead of cut/pasting whole URL's? I would like to have replied, "The guard is from this review." Guard would be underlined and a click on it would take you to the review.

[John Mark Lane]

http://www.codesmiths.com/shed/workshop/reviews/

scroll down to the Axminster CT150

and

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product-A...ner-370404.htm


And a question in return. How does one create one word links instead of cut/pasting whole URL's? I would like to have replied, "The guard is from this review." Guard would be underlined and a click on it would take you to the review.

Thanks. Looks like it doesn't work quite the way I imagined. You adjust the cover over to the side to allow room for wood to move next to it for edge jointing. Still, I like my idea -- a pivot point on the right side of the guard, sort of like a traditional jointer guard, but the ability to lift the whole thing out of the way, kind of like some TS guards. I shoulda been a inventor.

[Lee Schierer]

And a question in return. How does one create one word links instead of cut/pasting whole URL's? I would like to have replied, "The guard is from this review." Guard would be underlined and a click on it would take you to the review.

You highlight the one word with your cursor and then click on the create a link tab. It will automatically insert the link in the word. Or when you insert the link and hit OK there will be some text highlighted. You can type in the link name to replace the highlighted text.

[Rod Sheridan]

Ok, I see how this works. So there are likely plans out there for these. But it does not look like it is dynamic. Do you raise and set the guard for the thickness of board or is there a spring and some way that pushing on it will raise it. It's hard to tell from the picture.

Yes, you set the height of the guard over the cutterhead so the work can just be pushed under it.

For edge jointing you set the gap between the end of the guard and the fence a little bit smaller than the wood.

The guard then pushes the wood against the bottom of the fence, keeping your fingers up higher.

The bridge guard is great to use, I really like mine (It's the standard guard on EU machines).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUFKxSMmVv4

The above video shows the guard being used between the 3 and 5 minute mark. (It's the jointer/planer I own).

Regards, Rod.

[Brendan Plavis]

Why is it that it seems that the Euro tools and tool designs are always safer.... First they engineer the saws so that Dados cannot be used... and outlaw them..... then they create the confounded guards that act as featherboards too..... dang.... I am surpised OSHA hasnt made things like that mandatory....

[Rod Sheridan]

Why is it that it seems that the Euro tools and tool designs are always safer.... First they engineer the saws so that Dados cannot be used... and outlaw them..... then they create the confounded guards that act as featherboards too..... dang.... I am surpised OSHA hasnt made things like that mandatory....

Hi Brendan, I think that it's an approach to working that's more disciplined than our North American attitude.

My Father in Law is a cabinetmaker who obtained his journeyman certification in England in the late forties, and then moved to Canada in the seventies.

He was astounded to see people remove the guard from a tablesaw to make a rebate in the edge of a piece of wood, when there was a shaper in the shop.

You see, in his view, the table saw sawed, and the shaper did edge treatments because they were set up with guards to do those particular jobs safely.

You didn't use machines for things they weren't designed to do safely, and you certainly didn't remove guards from machines.

A very different outlook on how you work, as a trained professional.

I think one of the other issues is that for the most part, in North America we no longer design or produce wood working machinery, so innovation has been left to those who do.

(I'll leave Saw Stop out of the discussion, even though I feel they're the only significant NA innovation in wood working safety in decades).

In my shop 4 pieces of General machinery have now been replaced by 2 pieces of Euro stuff. What a difference.

Oh, the dado isn't illegal in the EU countries, they are sold.

The 2 issues however is that most machines cannot use them because they don't have a guard that works with them, and stacked dado cutters have problems with the mandatory blade brakes.

Regards, Rod.

[Frank Warta]

I know this is maybe a little off topic, but has anyone around here retrofitted a pork-chop style jointer with a custom euro guard? I like them a lot more conceptually and if it was a reasonable task I'd like to switch mine over.

[Brendan Plavis]

Ahh I see... I had read this(posted below) which stated that they were illegal to use on a saw without a permenant guard...

"
Yeap, dado blades are forbidden by law all over the EU on table saws without “permanent guard” (a blade guard that needs the usage of a tool to remove it)...
As you know, the EU safety regulations are more strict and changing very frequently mainly, because the “Unions” are demanding it from the governments…they want the workers to come to work in one piece and come back home in one piece and they don’t care how much it will cost the “Boss” to supply safe machines or how much time is lost because of those safety procedures…
The story starts somewhere at 2000~2001…till then a dado blade was permitted while using an overhead blade guard (“the blade guard must be installed for any operation on the table saw”)...
After accident survey, it was discovered that many “Contact with the blade” happened during the long blade run-down time…so, a new regulation was born “The blade must stop within 10 seconds”...
But stopping the blade so fast created another problem…naturally, the dado blade mass is greater than a 10” blade and the inertia forces (deceleration) involved could cause the opening of the blade Arbor nut so…
No dado blade…most of the new generation table saws are also made with short arbor that will not accommodate dado blade..
On my TS the blade stops in 6 seconds and I’m very happy with this feature…
PS – Pommy, you can buy dado blade in UK it’s just illegal to use it on a table saw with a motor brake…
http://www.rutlands.co.uk/cgi-bin/psProdSrch.cgi/@cSaw%20Blades%20-%20Dado@b::0::user::1,0,0,1::"

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Brendan, I should have mentioned that the saw arbour has two metal pins so the blades cannot spin on the arbour during braking.

A dado cutter such as the Felder type looks more like a shaper cutter, and it has the holes bored in it for the pins of course.

My saw and shaper have the electric blade braking and it's pretty impressive to see it haul a large shaper cutter or 12" saw blade down from full speed in a few seconds.

regards, Rod.

P.S. Is it hot where you live? We're experiencing 30 degree C days right now, which is very hot for this time of year.

[Brendan Plavis]

Ah yea.... very warm... it was about 95F last evening... I am glad I waxed the tools I just derusted... or I would have been very annoyed....