Anyone ceiling mount a Brett Guard?

[Harish C. Mathur]

After reading about some of the recent accidents here, I decided to finally purchase a blade guard. I decided to go with the Brett Guard. Amazon had a good deal on the the following package:

http://www.amazon.com/HTC-10A-M30P-Brett-Guard-Table-Guard/dp/B0001LQXI6/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1223069948&sr=1-4

I purchased it and was planning to buy the hardware from HTC to ceiling mount the guard vs using the "c" bracket (I have a 50" table with a router insert so it would not have worked) as follows:

http://www.htcproductsinc.com/bgce.html

I would have to rig something up to mount the HTC hardware between exposed beams in my shop.

Then I started wondering if I have to rig something up anyway, why not just just flip the "C" bracket upside down (and the pipe that holds the blade guard) and mount that to the ceiling?

Has anyone done this? Any got-ya's? If so, can you post a picture please?

Thanks, Harish

[Bob Ross]

Hi Harish,

I use a guard I made following a ShopNotes design. I also have a router table top plus an extra extension to the right and a sliding table on the left so I hung mine from the ceiling.





http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b202/bacsibob/SawSlider003.jpg

I used 1" galvanized pipe. At the ceiling it is screwed into a stanchion plate which is attached to a 2x6 spanning two joists. You can see the rest in the photo. I like it this way because I can swing it clockwise to move it out of the way.

[Mark Osgood]

Harish,
I mounted a Brett Guard to the ceiling using a homemade pivoting system that you can see in the photo. It consists of an oak clamp that allows for some pivoting movement of the post/arm assembly. I later hinged the oak post so the guard could be hoisted out of the way for shaper operations etc(that's my old Rojek Combo). For the hinged post, I used a heavy duty hinge and latch.
Also, I later replaced the standard Brett dust hookup tube with a 4" plexi tube.

[Harish C. Mathur]

Bob and Mark, thanks for the replies and pictures!

Bob, well thought out design. Looks pretty slick.

Mark, are the brackets at the ends of the oak post from HTC or did you buy/make them?

I my case, I ended up getting the "c" frame for a 30" table in the package I bought. I was kicking around the idea of mounting it to the ceiling some how. That way I get a little more horizonal movement of the guard and don't need to go back to HTC for any brackets.

[Mark Osgood]

Harish,
The brackets are indeed from HTC.

[Wade Lippman]

I am confused; what hinged post are you talking about? It looks to me like you just mount the housing to the ceiling post instead of to the tubing. Is it more complicated than that? And couldn't you have just screwed a wood plate to your ceiling posts and bolted the wood plate to the housing? Is there some advantage to the HTC parts?

I bought one and find it would be in the way of my right wing router table; so I am looking into either flipping the tube over and left mounting it, or dropping it from the ceiling.

[Mark Osgood]

Wade,
I made the post so it hinged about 18" from the ceiling sometime after these photos were taken. That way the Brett assembly pivots towards the wall in the photo and is clipped there by a carabiner/cord arrangement. The "pivot" apparatus consists of some bolts and a 1 x 2 x 8" piece of oak which is partially visible in the first photo. This allows the Brett assembly to pivot in the horizontal plane which is an adjustment that the standard Brett assembly doesn't allow for. That way you can line up the blade cover with the table saw fence.
I found the Brett brackets a fast and sturdy solution to the ceiling mounting, but from your comments you may lean towards building something yourself. This worked well for me and I will reinstall it when I get my new shop squared away this winter.