Using Guard w/ Miter Gauge

[Gary Curtis]

Does a person use the blade guard when sawing a 45-deg miter cut with the miter gauge? My blade skimmed the left side of the guard.

The miter gauge is mounted in the left slot, so the cut was in the closed position, with the material tilted to the right. I guess the sidway pressure from the wood forced the guard over a bit.

I'm new at using the table saw, as you can tell.

Gary Curtis
California

[Jim Becker]

Personally, I don't use the guard whenever I'm using a miter gage or sled. They interfere with each other too easily.

[Al Navas]

Does a person use the blade guard when sawing a 45-deg miter cut with the miter gauge? My blade skimmed the left side of the guard...
Gary,

I had to replace the stock blade guard/pawls on my table saw (Unisaw). It had too much slop in the pawls, and made it very unsafe to use when I had thin waste cutoffs. In fact, one day I had a kickback - that same night I ordered a splitter with nice, tight anti-kickback pawls, plus an overhead blade guard.

Now I feel confident using the blade guard and splitter when using the miter gauge with the blade in all positions.


Al

[Julio Navarro]

Gary,

- that same night I ordered a splitter with nice, tight anti-kickback pawls, plus an overhead blade guard.
Al

What guard did you get Al?

[Al Navas]

What guard did you get Al?
I got the Penn State overhead guard, Julio. For the price it works quite well.

I am certain that the DC efficiency of the guard could be improved further by going to anything larger than the 2-1/2-inch diameter hose connection that the Penn State guard uses. But it does a pretty decent job.


Al