Using a Shaw Guard on a Shaper

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, I was making some muntin stock for a cabinet, to hold some stained glass and thought I would post some photographs of how a Shaw guard system is used to safely machine the muntin stock on a shaper.

The completed muntin stock is 30mm wide X 20mm deep, with a 6mm wide X 14mm high rebate on both sides of the stock.

The cutter is a 125mm X 50mm carbide rebate head.

Here's a photo of the rebate head and safety bar installed. The safety bar prevents the workpiece from rotating into the cutter head.
Rebate cutter and safety bar.jpg

This is a photo of the safety bar illustrating how it supports the work piece.
Safety bar and work piece.jpg

This is a photo of the vertical hold down in the Shaw guard, it presses the work piece against the table.
Shaw guard hold down.jpg

This is a photo of the clear horizontal pressure bar/finger guard on the Shaw guard. It presses the work piece against the fence, and keeps your fingers out of the cutter area.

Clear Shaw guard.jpg

This photo is a side view of the Shaw guard showing both pressure bars in use.

Shaw guard side view.jpg

This is a photo of the completed muntin profile.

Completed muntin profile.jpg

Hope the above gives a good illustration of a typical modern shaper guard system...............Regards, Rod.

[Peter Quinn]

Interesting set up Rod, how do you advance the stock uninterrupted with the apparatus in place? I've always done that with a thick back fence held tight to a bridged fence with similar functionality to the metal bridges, basically a continuous plywood fence clamped over the main plates to close the gap so knuckles can't interact with spindle an support the part of stock not being cut. That way the muntins can't rotate even if the rebate is deep in proportion to the height of the stock. Add a long plywood pusher, one smooth shot past the cutter. I have a shaw guard but I've never figured out how to get the stock past the cutter in one fluid motion without pivoting around the guard, reaching from infeed to outfeed almost letting go of the stock for a split second, which is way longer than I'm comfortable doing so. Some of the bars I do have only 6MM left in the middle between the two rebates so the rotating issue has to be dealt with as they can easily teeter on that thin bearing surface, makes power feeding difficult.

[Larry Copas]

Rod, now that you have my interest up, do you have any pictures of what the vertical hex rod attaches to at the top? I might be interested in fabricating something similar.

[Martin Wasner]

A power feed seems a whole lot safer.

[Kevin Jenness]

Rod, thanks for the photos and explanation.. In my workplace we would normally do that job with a fence setup as Peter describes and a powerfeed. I would tend to run the stock with the uncut portion on the table for greater stability, especially if the rabbets were proportionally wider. When running parts of small dimension like sash bars I may fasten a strip corresponding to the rabbet profile to the outfeed fence to prevent rotation in the vertical plane and use a thin fingerboard below the powerfeed wheels as well. I like the looks of your fence, but have found wooden fence plates to be quite versatile and adaptable for special setups.

[Rod Sheridan]

A power feed seems a whole lot safer.

The Shaw guard provides a complete barrier to cutter access, so it's very safe.

I didn't use the stock feeder as I wanted to illustrate the Shaw guard as many people have asked about it.

If I had more than 4 pieces to run, I agree, the feeder would have been the way to go...................Rod.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Peter, the second piece pushes the first piece clear of the cutter and guard assembly. The guard does hold the piece immobile when you let go of it.

I like to run the cutter under the work if possible, however you're correct for some profiles you need to run above.

The aluminum fence insert bars I have are in two widths, one is small enough to support 6mm without interfering with the cutter......Regards, Rod.

[Ed Labadie]

Very nice.

Is the guard available as an aftermarket item?

Ed

[Peter Quinn]

Hi Peter, the second piece pushes the first piece clear of the cutter and guard assembly. The guard does hold the piece immobile when you let go of it.

I like to run the cutter under the work if possible, however you're correct for some profiles you need to run above.

The aluminum fence insert bars I have are in two widths, one is small enough to support 6mm without interfering with the cutter......Regards, Rod.

makes sense, you could certainly include a sacrificial piece to be the last in line should that be required. My thoughts concern bars with visible sticking molded into them run this way. It's been my experience that even minor starts and stops or changes in feed pressure can lead to visible defects in the surface which are difficult to sand out on complex profiles. The double fence sandwich lets you run a push board from above to drive each bar forward in one continuous motion which I like. Can you keep the lexan part that springs back against the fence up 1/2" to accommodate a horizontal push block made from 1/2" plywood?

[Rod Sheridan]

[QUOTE=Peter Quinn;2438868 Can you keep the lexan part that springs back against the fence up 1/2" to accommodate a horizontal push block made from 1/2" plywood?[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the comments peter, yes the lexan piece is fully adjustable in all 3 planes.......Regards, Rod.

[peter gagliardi]

Very nice.

Is the guard available as an aftermarket item?

Ed

Yes, pretty much standard/optional equipment on Martin machines, though they are branded Aigner. I'm sure all the Euro makers have a version of their own if not the Aigner.

[Frank Drew]

Very interesting; thanks for the post and pictures, Rod.

[Rod Sheridan]

Rod, now that you have my interest up, do you have any pictures of what the vertical hex rod attaches to at the top? I might be interested in fabricating something similar.

Hi Larry, here's the photo you requested..............Regards, Rod.

guard.jpg

[Larry Copas]

Thank you for taking the time to post a picture.

While I do run most of my work with a feeder I went for years without one. Its good to know other procedures when that awkward job shows up. Sometimes the best method is feed by hand, especially for just a couple of parts. If one knows his work, its no more dangerous to hand feed on a shaper than feeding by hand on the table saw.