Do you really have a guard on your table saw?

[Chuck Burns]

I've never used a guard on a TS. Always have the riving knifeinstalled onthe SS though. Always use push sticks. I ought to put the guard on just to see how it works. It's never been on my saw. But then I've seen very few TS that were actually used a lot with a guard.

[Eric DeSilva]

Hmm... I bought my unisaw used, and it didn't come with a blade guard. The splitter came w/it, and that gets used. In all my early days of working on a table saw (my Dad's saw and a HS shop), none of them had guards or splitters. The HS shop teacher did a little demo each year cutting a 2x4 or something with the fence and the miter gauge, launching a piece of wood backwards... Since there was a metal door behind the saw with substantial dents from years of "demonstrations," it was sort of a graphic reminder and people obeyed the rules pretty religiously.

I was actually searching posts on SMC the other day, thinking about a blade guard, but wanting one with a long arm, since I run sheet goods through my saw. Thought the Bies T Square system looked good, but then I discovered it would cost what I paid for the saw to begin with! Maybe I'll look into the Shark guard... That seems to be getting good reviews here.

[Matt Meiser]

I use a Biesemeyer overarm guard. They are expensive, but it is easy to use and doesn't get in the way, which means I actually use it. Same with the splitter, mine's the Delta Removable Splitter which stays in the saw unless I'm doing non-through cuts.

[Dave Falkenstein]

Ever since I cut the end of my thumb rather badly 14 years ago, using a saw with the guard removed, I use a guard and a splitter. I have an Excalibur overarm guard, with a Shark Guard clear plastic accessory and a Biesemeyer removeable splitter. Sometimes the guard gets in the way, but that's a whole lot better than spending six weeks sleeping in a recliner with your arm elevated so your thumb won't die!!!

[Steve Clardy]

I just use a splitter.

The guard that came with my saw in 1995, got thrown in the trash.
Never installed it.

[Bruce Volden]

???Hate to sound dumb...but what's a guard???

Bruce

[Lee Schierer]

I used the guard that came with my Craftsman when I first got it, but it isn't very effective and the splitter is a joke. Consequently it doesn't get used much anymore. I do know exacty where it is. I also have numerous pursh sticks and feather boards that are always handy and always used. I still have all parts of all fingers.

I agree with the previous posters that advocate tuning up your saw to rpevent kick backs is the best solution.

[Richard Dragin]

???Hate to sound dumb...but what's a guard???

Bruce

You must not hate it too much.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Yep, my gaurd is on my saw unless I am using the tennoning jig, crosscut sled or dadoing. I timed how long it takes to remove it including walking over to the bench to get a screwdriver and a wrench. It was 50 seconds. It took slightly longer to put it back on including the same walk to the bench at 1min 10 seconds. I wasn't in a hurry and the rear bolt on my unisaw is under my outfeed table.

~1 min is well worth the safety it provides. I have never wished I didn't have the gaurd on that there have been times I wished it was.

[frank shic]

i've got the sharkguard mounted on mine and VERY RARELY ever remove it. the portable table saws that i purchase all have toolless bladeguard. why should i subject myself to unnecessary risk in a potentially dangeous hobby?

[Don Henthorn Smithville, TX]

I have been working wood for over seventy years. Like Bob G. said there were no guards on table saws back then. I worked in home shops and in commercial places and never had a guard and frequently worked without fences. Cut myself once while production cutting xylophone keys in a factory, but that was repetitious, hum drum, sleep inducing work. I worked in a house trailer factory in Indiana in the forties and cut mucho plywood panels without guards and without fences. I have done every dangerous thing there is on a table saw, just because that is how it was done then. I always use shoe type push sticks when needed and don't take what, for me, I consider chances. I learned to hear the saw, to feel the tensions and releases in the wood, and to handle the wood accordingly. I am much more uncomfortable with a guard than without, and so that is the way I work. BUT, given the situation today and the lack of real on the job training most new woodworkers get, I would encourage the use of guards for anyone who has the slightest doubt about his/her ability to work safely otherwise.

[Bob Feeser]

Same goes for your circ-saw. Don't rig your guard to stay open. Don't buy the story that circ-saws aren't dangerous. A sharp awl is dangerous if we don't all take care.

Glen,
I couldn't agree with you more. I have a friend who had a defective guard on his circular saw, and when done cutting a piece of wood in an odd position, gravity drew the saw down, and it glanced against his thigh. With the guard getting stuck, the blade was free to tear up his leg. I never thought about someone intentionally rigging their guard to stay open, that's even worse.
Personally I find a circular saw more danerous than a tablesaw. Why? Because oftentimes the wood is not secured, and a slight shift in a piece of plywood will kick the saw out of the slot, and go dancing backwards toward the operator. Also if the cut starts to go off the mark, correcting it binds the blade a little as well.
I always try to get behind the cut, and exert enough force on the circular saw so if it tries to kick, it jams. I have a Bosch gear driven with a rear handle that enables me to really get behind it. I know a full time framer would be laughing at what I have just said because they are up on a ladder sometimes, making all kinds of wierd cuts. I don't have that kind of experience with a circular saw.
If you read the Bosch web site, they instruct you to cut sheet goods down on the ground, resting between two 2x4's so you can prevent the workpiece from shifting.

[John Thompson]

29 years no... but after having stock launch rear-ward and penetrate two sheet rock walls 20' to the rear of my shop, I changed my tune. The last 6 years always with the exception of non-thru cuts which I try to avoid on the TS.

My Uni-saw guard has been modified to similar to Lee's excellent "Shark Guard". I'm just cheap and couldn't afford the down time it takes to get one. I run a Euro style home-made crown guard with a modified Penn State shield to catch over-head dust. Modified the Uni so the crown or entire guard comes off well under 30 seconds.

Also use a home-made short fence and have put Red-Lines on my saw that I do not allow my hands to go over. Push sticks take it from that point.

To each his own...

Sarge..

[glenn bradley]

When I ran the drag bike I probably made well over 2000 passes and never dumped the bike once, but I wore full leathers and a very expensive helmet, why...just because $hit happens.

Al offers an amazingly insightful and very correct statement. The powers that be have ordained that the time I don't take care is the time Murphy will strike. I have grown to accept this fate and live my life accordingly.

[Bill Ryall]

Nope.

Never on either one of my shop TS's. Don't have one for either as both are much older than I am. I have an overarm guard half built for when I overhaul my bigger saw in the spring.

My jobsite saw has one that sits on the saw until I need to use it...

I use push sticks and featherboards religiously however.