Anti-kickback pawls

[Garasaki]

As a new woodworker, I find it amazing the amount of thought that you experienced guys put into something as (seemingly) simple as a blade guard.

However, after using my BT3k for the first time over the weekend, I was able to see and understand many of the issues I had read about regarding kickback prevention discussed here. I personally was happy to have the prawls, as they give us inexperienced users a nice sense of security (sort of feels like there is a second set of hands holding the wood down on the outfeed side of the blade).

It seems to me, the major design flaw in them is the lack of surface area on the teeth. I was thinking about the possibility of making some sort of attachment for them to spread out the force of the teeth, to relieve the marking problem. Like a wide piece of plexiglass, that follows the curve of the teeth. Perhaps with a slot in the plexiglass where you would slide the teeth into as an attachment method.

[LCHIEN]

As a new woodworker, I find it amazing the amount of thought that you experienced guys put into something as (seemingly) simple as a blade guard.

However, after using my BT3k for the first time over the weekend, I was able to see and understand many of the issues I had read about regarding kickback prevention discussed here. I personally was happy to have the prawls, as they give us inexperienced users a nice sense of security (sort of feels like there is a second set of hands holding the wood down on the outfeed side of the blade).

It seems to me, the major design flaw in them is the lack of surface area on the teeth. I was thinking about the possibility of making some sort of attachment for them to spread out the force of the teeth, to relieve the marking problem. Like a wide piece of plexiglass, that follows the curve of the teeth. Perhaps with a slot in the plexiglass where you would slide the teeth into as an attachment method.

The problem with plexigalas is that its's brittle and shatters and not all that strong. If you had a kickback situation the impact load on the plex would probably shatter it and add to the shrapnel.

Covering the pawls with a few layers of masking tape is ugly but it would not shatter, and when impacted, the pawl points would cut thru the masking tape and do their job. Yet under just normal spring loading the tape would protect the finish of your wood and throat plate.

[wardprobst]

Guess I'm a belt and suspenders guy but I like the pawls on both the original and the Shark Guard. Of course I've been doing wood full time for over 30 years and my brain cell tends to wander occasionally- see http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=23740
for a good example- thanks again Lee.
Advantage of pawls is for straight kickback- the cut that ate the Shark push stick did not move at all back toward me and the stick save my left hand. Working way too late one night is my only excuse.

Pawls are us,
DP

[Stytooner]

Trust me on this, those pawls have to be extremely strong and sharp. They are mostly all made from hardened steel. I actually use saw blades for the shark pawls. They simply won't dig in if they aren't sharp. Even the ones on saws like the Saw Stop and the PM 2000 are very pointed even though they are thicker steel.
As Loring again points out, plexiglas won't do it. I personally think it has no or very little use in machine guarding. Better materials in the order of cost and strength are cast acrylic, Pet G and then polycarbonate.
Cast acrylic is like 7 times more impact resistant than standard acrylic. Pet G is 10 times stronger and polycarbonate is 17 times stronger.