Dan Forman
12-17-2006, 10:26 PM
Well, almost anyway. All that's left to do is enclose the upper part of the vertical extension thingy, and run the 4" spiral pipe from the wye off the main, over the heating duct, then come down to the guard with 4" flexhose. With a 5" pipe going to the cabinet, that shoud give the Gorilla something to munch on.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/Woodwork/P1010568.jpg
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/Woodwork/P1010569.jpg
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/Woodwork/P1010573.jpg
The heating duct running directly over the saw was both a blessing and a curse. I ended up making a u shaped piece out of 2x4 to straddle it, and screwed it to the ceiling joists. The joists were'nt in plumb, so I had to compensate for that with a few strategically placed wedges. The blessing is, that all of the adjustsments are now easily done without having to stand on anything or strecch unduly.
Most of the designing was done on the fly, as I don't seem to be able to visualize things in stages very well, which explains a few superfluous screw holes and such.
The swinging unit is two pieces of 1/2" maple, with a slot in the first and a groove in the second to accept a piece of 3/4" wide UHMW plastic, through which a 1/4" bolt passes, and is captured in the star knob, which locks the vertical arm in place. I thought I was pretty clever until I tried to lock down the knob, and realized that the head of the bolt was just spinning around in the UHMW, which was countersunk to accept the head. I ended up cutting a coulpe of small slots leading into the recess, and filling in those along with the space left around the hexhead with epoxy putty, which then locked it in.
The outside of the telescoping upright was a scrap of cherry, which was grooved with the dado blade to accept the nearly 1x1 purpleheart inner piece. The twin star knobs have pieces of 1/4 x20 threaded rod epoxied into them, and screw into brass threaded inserts embedded in the cherry. There is a piece of the cherry that was trimmed off that will be glued back on to enclose that part of the upright, but I wanted to wait and see if everything was going to work ok before doing that.
The upright has about 9" of horizontal travel, about the same amount of vertical travel, and the whole thing can swing 180* to get out of the way altogether if need be, or in dire circumstances, be removed altogether, though that would involve disconnecting the flexhose.
I had thought that the draw clasp on the right would keep everything tight when in the closed position, but it doesn't, so I ended up drilling a couple more holes, and just using short screws to lock it up tight. I don't know how often I will need to swing it out of the way, but the inconvenience of having to unscrew it is outwieghed by having it snugged up tight when it is in use.
Since the sliding vertical is only supported by the one bolt, it could swing like a pendulum, so I glued and screwed a short cross piece against the bottom, parallell to the solt, to keep it upright and perpendicular to the saw table.
The guard itself I pretty much copied from Jeffrey Makiel, it's made of 1/4" polycarbonate, with a 1/2 baltic birch plywood top. It took most of a 12x24" sheet of polycarb. . The sides were cut and screwed to the top, then the front and back were cut to fit, and glued to the sides. the short nose piece was done last, and it to was glued on. The glue ( I think more like a solvent really) is very liquid, and a bit got away from me which marred the front a little bit in one place. I then screwed the front and back in place, and figured while I was at it, I might as well reinforce the whole thing. So after trying it first on a scrap, I went to the drill press and drilled some holes for screws to secure the plastic parts to each other. Using a 7/64" bit, and 3/4" #4 squarehead screws (these have no taper), it was not necessary to tap the holes first, saving considerable time. This last step was probably unnecessary (can you say "anal?") but not being familiar with this plasic or it's glue, I didn't want to take any chances with it coming apart in action, and having any more plastic than need be flying about th room in case of any sort of mishap. Like jeff's, my guard will soon be sporting a "mustache".
The port I picked up at local woodworking shop, it's a piece designed to connect 2 pieces of 4" pipe together. I looked around at the Borgs for something first, but couldn't find anything with a 4" outer diameter, then ran across this, and it fits the bill perfectly.
Material wise, most of this was made of stuff I had on hand, scraps that were laying around. I bought the polycarbonate (about $14), the hinge, clasp, dust port, brackets to mount the guard to the upright, various knobs, threaded rod, that's about it, maybe $40 total.
As I said at the beginning, this was a trial and error process, with lots of each. It would be easier and maybe a bit more stable to use a couple of pieces of T Track for the sliding arm to run on, and if doing this again, I might try a beefier telescoping unit, but I think this one will be sufficiently strong.
I spent some time looking at various blade guard threads to see how others went about this, borrowed bits and pieces from them, and came up with this. My thanks go out to all of those who have posted their solutions to their particular conditions. I'll update this when I get a chance to use it, hopefully can get it hooked up tomorrow, need a few transitional pieces from my duct supplier.
Dan
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/Woodwork/P1010568.jpg
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/Woodwork/P1010569.jpg
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l279/T-Caster/Woodwork/P1010573.jpg
The heating duct running directly over the saw was both a blessing and a curse. I ended up making a u shaped piece out of 2x4 to straddle it, and screwed it to the ceiling joists. The joists were'nt in plumb, so I had to compensate for that with a few strategically placed wedges. The blessing is, that all of the adjustsments are now easily done without having to stand on anything or strecch unduly.
Most of the designing was done on the fly, as I don't seem to be able to visualize things in stages very well, which explains a few superfluous screw holes and such.
The swinging unit is two pieces of 1/2" maple, with a slot in the first and a groove in the second to accept a piece of 3/4" wide UHMW plastic, through which a 1/4" bolt passes, and is captured in the star knob, which locks the vertical arm in place. I thought I was pretty clever until I tried to lock down the knob, and realized that the head of the bolt was just spinning around in the UHMW, which was countersunk to accept the head. I ended up cutting a coulpe of small slots leading into the recess, and filling in those along with the space left around the hexhead with epoxy putty, which then locked it in.
The outside of the telescoping upright was a scrap of cherry, which was grooved with the dado blade to accept the nearly 1x1 purpleheart inner piece. The twin star knobs have pieces of 1/4 x20 threaded rod epoxied into them, and screw into brass threaded inserts embedded in the cherry. There is a piece of the cherry that was trimmed off that will be glued back on to enclose that part of the upright, but I wanted to wait and see if everything was going to work ok before doing that.
The upright has about 9" of horizontal travel, about the same amount of vertical travel, and the whole thing can swing 180* to get out of the way altogether if need be, or in dire circumstances, be removed altogether, though that would involve disconnecting the flexhose.
I had thought that the draw clasp on the right would keep everything tight when in the closed position, but it doesn't, so I ended up drilling a couple more holes, and just using short screws to lock it up tight. I don't know how often I will need to swing it out of the way, but the inconvenience of having to unscrew it is outwieghed by having it snugged up tight when it is in use.
Since the sliding vertical is only supported by the one bolt, it could swing like a pendulum, so I glued and screwed a short cross piece against the bottom, parallell to the solt, to keep it upright and perpendicular to the saw table.
The guard itself I pretty much copied from Jeffrey Makiel, it's made of 1/4" polycarbonate, with a 1/2 baltic birch plywood top. It took most of a 12x24" sheet of polycarb. . The sides were cut and screwed to the top, then the front and back were cut to fit, and glued to the sides. the short nose piece was done last, and it to was glued on. The glue ( I think more like a solvent really) is very liquid, and a bit got away from me which marred the front a little bit in one place. I then screwed the front and back in place, and figured while I was at it, I might as well reinforce the whole thing. So after trying it first on a scrap, I went to the drill press and drilled some holes for screws to secure the plastic parts to each other. Using a 7/64" bit, and 3/4" #4 squarehead screws (these have no taper), it was not necessary to tap the holes first, saving considerable time. This last step was probably unnecessary (can you say "anal?") but not being familiar with this plasic or it's glue, I didn't want to take any chances with it coming apart in action, and having any more plastic than need be flying about th room in case of any sort of mishap. Like jeff's, my guard will soon be sporting a "mustache".
The port I picked up at local woodworking shop, it's a piece designed to connect 2 pieces of 4" pipe together. I looked around at the Borgs for something first, but couldn't find anything with a 4" outer diameter, then ran across this, and it fits the bill perfectly.
Material wise, most of this was made of stuff I had on hand, scraps that were laying around. I bought the polycarbonate (about $14), the hinge, clasp, dust port, brackets to mount the guard to the upright, various knobs, threaded rod, that's about it, maybe $40 total.
As I said at the beginning, this was a trial and error process, with lots of each. It would be easier and maybe a bit more stable to use a couple of pieces of T Track for the sliding arm to run on, and if doing this again, I might try a beefier telescoping unit, but I think this one will be sufficiently strong.
I spent some time looking at various blade guard threads to see how others went about this, borrowed bits and pieces from them, and came up with this. My thanks go out to all of those who have posted their solutions to their particular conditions. I'll update this when I get a chance to use it, hopefully can get it hooked up tomorrow, need a few transitional pieces from my duct supplier.
Dan