Overarm Blade Guard

[Tom Hamilton]

Welcome Jack:

The Creek is a great place to learn and share info. Hope you enjoy it as much a I have.

I'm not familiar with the overarm design you mention, but will share one that I have used for a couple of years.

Warning: it is not pretty, but it works very well.

The third shot is with the overarm raised to clear the cross-cut sled with a similar dust collection concept.

Hope this is helpful. Best regards and welcome again, TJH

[Wes Bischel]

Jack,
If this is the one over on Woodcentral, I think the telescoping support arm that goes to the ceiling would allow plenty of room for blade changes. Replace the bolt with another T-knob on the lower square tubing and slide it up out of the way.

Just food for thought,
Wes

[Jim Becker]

It's good that you are aware of the need to raise the guard up out of the way and I'll add that you'll also want to make sure you can "completely remove it from the scene" if necessary...like when you have a, umm...design revision...on a fully assembled cabinet and need the headroom. DAMHIKT! (This was one of the reasons I bagged the UniGuard a few years ago and moved to the Excalibur...the latter is easily removable from the saw; the former is not)

[Jim Hinze]

Jim, I have to completely agree with you. One of the draw backs to this design is it is not easy or convienent to completely remove out of the scene and yes I've needed to due to ummm... "Design Revisions" as you tactfully put it

It's good that you are aware of the need to raise the guard up out of the way and I'll add that you'll also want to make sure you can "completely remove it from the scene" if necessary...like when you have a, umm...design revision...on a fully assembled cabinet and need the headroom. DAMHIKT! (This was one of the reasons I bagged the UniGuard a few years ago and moved to the Excalibur...the latter is easily removable from the saw; the former is not)

[Don Frambach]

Not sure if this is relevant but I have an Excalibur overhead blade cover and I can move it to the side for blade changes. It is also fairly easy to completely remove the guard but trivially easy to move it to the side. Could that feature be incorporated into your design?

[jack christensen]

Hope I'm doing this right.

Thanks for the input and for throwing out the welcome mat.

The picture Wes showed from Wood Central is the guard I was referring to. I was intending to mount it to the floor instead of the ceiling.

I could use longer arms to raise the guard but I don't want to make it wobbly. I lost a finger and ruined another one in an accident earlier this year, and if my GI contractor saw's guard had been a little more flimsy my whole hand would be in serious shape.

Jim; Is your setup not stiff enough because it's hanging from the ceiling, or is it the lower assembly that moves?

[Jim Hinze]

Jim; Is your setup not stiff enough because it's hanging from the ceiling, or is it the lower assembly that moves?

I beleive that it *IS* due to the fact it's mounted to the celing. It's probably not mounted as stiffly as it could be. It's not been such a pain that I feel compelled to fix it as of yet, but it is on my eventual *TO-DO* list.