Do You Use Your Blade Guard

[crokett]

I got into a couple of scary situations due to the blade cover. I just use a splitter and featherboards.

Me too. The saw I learned on in Jr High didn't have a guard, nor did my dad's. The first 4 months I had my saw I had 3 close calls. I took the guard off and haven't had any issues in 8 years. I use the splitter, featherboards and push sticks/ push shoes.

[sparkeyjames]

I use the stock one on my 21829 faithfully even with those crappy pointy anti kickback fingers. I like to stay physically undamaged as much as possible. I only remove it if having it there makes it impossible to do the cut.

[SARGE..g-47]

Except for non-through cuts and tall angle cuts. I don't dado on the TS.. mainly rip.. tall miters.. box joints.. etc. Dadoes get cut with a router and scrap jig which is more accurate and leaves a cleaner cut IMO.

[chopnhack]

Unfortunately, no safety guard of any kind for 3+ years. Maybe when I set up shop proper, that will change.

[Gator95]

I got into a couple of scary situations due to the blade cover. I just use a splitter and featherboards.

Could you elaborate? Not clear to me when the blade cover could be a negative.

[TomBar]

No, I only use the riving knife.

[poolhound]

Shark Guard all the way!!

[Russianwolf]

Unfortunately, no safety guard of any kind for 3+ years. Maybe when I set up shop proper, that will change.

I have an extra if you want one.

[dbhost]

Never turn on the saw without one except for dado cuts. Shark Guard makes it easy to be safe.

Regards, Steve

Ditto on what he said...

[Schleeper]

Another satisfied Shark Guard user.

[Wood_workur]

I try to, but when ever I need a blind cut I switch to my homemade riving knife (which is actually better than the stock one because its the width of the kerf minus a few thousandths) and generally I'm too lazy to change it back.

I am however very careful to make sure than anything under 4" wide I use the gripper and I never let anything get near the blade, so my hand is never less than 4" from the blade, and I'm always very conscience of what is going to get closer to the blade than that.

[footprintsinconc]

i didnt at first because i hated the paws on the guard that came with TS. then i put it back on after reading stuff here, and now i just purchased the shark guard and will be using it or at least the riving knife.

[Nil]

I take it I'm the only one who took a hacksaw to the stock guard to make it just a splitter that is slightly lower than the height of the blade? Works great for me. As far as kickback, from my experience that's usually a result of bad technique or doing something I shouldn't. I've not had any kickback in years.

Push sticks and watching where the blade and my fingers are seems safer than trusting that a piece of plastic will keep you from cutting something off so that you don't pay attention. If you're going to use the guard, you still need to be careful and pay attention to what you're doing... It was always just too awkward trying to feed pieces into it, and having to futz with the guard nearby a spinning blade...

[dkerfoot]

Push sticks and watching where the blade and my fingers are seems safer than trusting that a piece of plastic will keep you from cutting something off so that you don't pay attention. If you're going to use the guard, you still need to be careful and pay attention to what you're doing... It was always just too awkward trying to feed pieces into it, and having to futz with the guard nearby a spinning blade...

Not sure why it would be one or the other. I always use a guard when possible, but I NEVER depend on it. I keep it there, but then act like it isn't. My fingers never come within 4 inches of the blade and have never inadvertently touched the guard.

Not sure what "futz"ing would ever be required around a spinning blade with either the original or the SG. Both do a nice job of sliding up and over the work piece automatically.

Having a riving knife is certainly a help for avoiding kick-back, but I'd much rather have both safety devices in place.

Someone mentioned not liking the pawls on the original. I ended up putting some duct tape over the pointy side to stop them from scratching the work. It helped a lot, but didn't seem like it would interfere with the anti-kick-back function if needed (never tested though).

.

[docrowan]

Always use my stock guard on through cuts. I'm a tad clumsy and working without the guard for the non-through cuts scares me. I'll do my best to continue to be scared.

"I always use a guard when possible, but I NEVER depend on it. I keep it there, but then act like it isn't. My fingers never come within 4 inches of the blade and have never inadvertently touched the guard."

Ditto on what Doug said above. I allow my fingers to come a lot closer than 4 inches, but I've never accidently touched the guard.

However, the doggone stock guard pawls dig in too much so I've them taped up out of the way and I'll be modifying them permanently one day.

It just occurred to me that if I remove the springs and tape the edges a bit that would probably satisfy me. I wouldn't mind if the pawls slid along the surface of the work, but with the springs there is way too much down pressure. Has anyone done this?