best aftermarket safety equip 4 unisaw?
flipstuff
| Posted in Power Tools and Machinery on
hi —
the ’80s unisaw in our shop has no splitter or guard.
i’ve seen various threads about the shark guard, overhead blade guards, homemade splitters, etc. here and on other forums. i’ve also seen the little $18 plastic splitters and wondered if they’re any good.
so:
— what are your recommendations for aftermarket safety equipment?
— what system or approach offers the most flexibility for a variety of cuts?
— finally, what are the best values out there?
the owner is willing to spend probably up to $150 to make the saw safe.
thanks in advance!
——————–
philip
Replies
Flip,
First of all, $150 is not much money. The owner of your shop shouldn't put a price cap on safety. Having said that, I don't think you will find a commercially made overhead guard for $150 or under. You may have to make your own to get in under that price.
I have a biesemeyer aftermarket splitter that mounts in the same hole the original splitter/guard did on my powermatic 66. It has a snap in splitter with anti-kickback pawls. Installed and removed in about 10 seconds. I paid $110 from amazon.com. Worth every penny. There is also a product called the merlin splitter which is supposed to be easier/faster to remove and install, not sure of it's price.
Lee
Morning Philip...
I will add to what Mapleman said. I made my own and you can too from the stock splitter. If you don't have the time or enthusiasm to do so.. or if the attahment set-up is different on that earlier Uni-saw, the "Shark Guard" is a nice piece. I know Lee from elsewhere that makes them and he does excellent work. I believe they are under your price budget.
If you do decide to make your own from the stock splitter, make sure you budget in a whopping sum of around $5 extra and make it a quick change splitter. The Uni has a 5/16" x 18 hex bolt under the throat plate that requires fumbling with a wrench to make about 4 complete turns so it is loose enough to slide that end of splitter off. Then you have a 5/16' x 18 hex bolt a mile long holding the rear splitter connect to the splitter rod on the tail end of the saw. That baby takes a zillion turns to loosen and remove, even with a socket wrench.
Just throw both bolts away and replace them with two knobbed 5/16" x 18 knob bolts. Use a star handle on the open rear and a T handle on the gut bolt. The T will have to be trimmed off about 1/4" of and inch on a bandsaw on each end to clear the saw arbor. But..... instead of wrench fumbling.. you just grab it and make 4 quick turns. The star handle will save the zillion turns on the rear trying to keep a wrench on it. One turn breaks tension and you can spin if off by hand in another 10 seconds. The splitter will come completely off in under 30 seconds using this method.
And if the older Uni-saw is different than my X-5, just stare at it a few moments and a "vision will appear from behind a burning bush". That vision will reveal the way to do it with what-ever set-up it does have! ha.. ha...
Regards...
Sarge.. jt
Edited 3/8/2007 11:56 am ET by SARGEgrinder47
Penn State Industries makes an overarm guard for about $180. It's pretty good. The overall fit and finish is not the same as the Biesmeyer guard, but it has a larger cage for dado blades, and the action is fine. The dust collection is actually better. The splitter (I prefer riving knives but you need something) can be something integral to a zero clearance insert you make out of scrap.
A pro shop with no guard and no splitter. He better hope OSHA doesn't come calling.
Penn State Industries makes an overarm guard for about $180. It's pretty good.
No it's not. I have one, and it's a POS compared to the Biesemeyer. It's so bad, even Penn State is not willing to claim it is a safety device, and specifies in the instruction manual that you must not remove the stock guard when installing it (?), since the PSI "guard" is a dust collection device only!
As I said on the other forum where this question was asked, the only hope of getting an OSHA-compliant system, maybe, would to obtain the parts to put the stock OEM splitter an guard back on. It wouldn't be an overarm, and would need to be temporarily removed for dado cuts.
Any solution is gonna be lots cheaper than the OHSA fines. Not to mention the fact the business owners have been criminally prosecuted for deaths and injuries resulting from flauting of OSHA safety regs.
BarryO,
Boy, I wish you wouldn't have posted that about the Penn State guard! I was very excited and only 2 days away from ordering one. I thought it was a great deal for the price. I cannot justify the Biesemeyer because of the price.
If I bought the Penn State, can I modify it so it would be a quality overarm guard? What don't you like about it?
Jeff
I guess I'm curious about what makes it bad. I had the Bies, and it did what I thought a guard was supposed to do: Enclose the blade and remind you it's there, and I guess keep your hands away if you brush against it. But as a "guard" without good dust pickup, it doesn't guard your lungs. And the Bies doesn't have a splitter or riving knife either.The Penn State encloses the blade, lifts and lowers depending on where you put the counterweight, picks up dust better than the small air inlet Bies, and lets you use a dado blade with the guard in place. Maybe it doesn't guard you perfectly when your hand nears the blade, but neither does the Bies. And if you are that stupid that it's a regular practice, no guard will help you.If nothing else, make up a riving knife or at least a splitter. That's the cost of scrap wood. But so far the Penn State does fine with my 12" Felder saw. Better than their OEM guard.
I had a look at both the Penn State and the Bies system on the web-sites mentioned in the above post. Both would seem to provide better dust collection on a Uni-saw (or any other saw for that matter) than what came with the saw. The quality of both look good in the pictures and both would seem to pick up some of that dust that gets thrown up.. up.. and away.
For $200 more for the Bies, you would think you should get a splitter thrown in to assist to getting you back to the safety issue in case of kick-back. And of course dust in your lungs is a primary issue, but kick-back is also an issue isn't it? So.. what are you getting for $200 and $400 respectively? Splitters and dust control are just single courses of a full course meal, IMO!
Isn't it wonderful in this day and age of "drive-thru fast food" and on-line purchasing that they offer us such modern, "high tech" safety features for such low.. low prices with our safety and well-being in mind?
And then some "behind the times", mountain boy from Georgia that doesn't even have a cell phone has the audacity to question "Where's the Beef" for that price? But what you see is what is available so what choices do we have?
The alternative is "home cooking" as it is cheaper and more nutritional IMO than the current alternatives within my price range. I want a splitter to avoid the stock closing after the cut.. I want a guard that I can see the blade and raises when the stock goes through.. I want a crown guard to keep the stock from launching "up" in case of a kick back.. I want a quicker way to release the splitter for non-through cuts.. I want a fence that is shorter than a normal long fence so that once the stock is cut it cannot rebound off the rear of the fence and back into those dangerous rear teeth.. and finally I want some credence of dust control so I don't eat saw-dust all day long. Will anything on the market currently give me that? I couldn't find it if it is there!
Scrap stock.. scrap MDF.. scrap metal pipe from old pipe bar clamps.. and a few store bought coupling, screws, plastic pipe and couplings used along with what came with the saw satisfied my needs. I opted to say No to the current offerings and just do some "home cooking" as I want more than is offered. So.. I built my own to meet my wants..
And I do like those wide plexi guards I saw on the "fast food" models that will receive a larger dust opening pipe. Well enough that I saw a long, rectangular plastic bowl at the super-market in the wares section for $2.98 yesterday that will be mounted on my saw soon. The current will be used for thin rips as both can be removed and replaced quickly via a quick connect 3" splicer currently in place.
I find the price of under $60 for what I want reasonably priced.. very reasonable indeed..
Sarge.. jt
Edited 3/9/2007 2:35 pm ET by SARGEgrinder47
The single best thing you can do to your saw to make things safer is to get a magic marker and in a place where you will see it everytime you use the saw, write: Don't Do Anything Stupid! Think!If you already have the marker, this will be free.
Phillip,
If you choose to go with the Merlin Splitter, let me know. My local Woodcraft has these on a 40% off table because they couldn't sell them. Let me know if you would like me to see if they still have them.
Jeff
I'll second the Beismeyer Splitter, except that I modified mine and cut off the top of it to get rid of the pawls. IMO they just get in the way. The modified splitter is taller than the max blade projection anyway so it's the "belt". Instead of the pawls I use featherboards and zero clearance inserts as the "suspenders". I also have an Excaliber Overarm Blade Guard ($400 list) that provides great safety and dust collection down to rip widths of 3". Each device can be removed or replaced on the saw, without tools in well under 30 seconds. If the saw is stationary in your shop I remember a really nice shop-built, ceiling mounted blade guard w/ DC in one of the Best Of FWW series or Landis's "The Workshop Book". For a paltry buck-fifty I'd build that one and buy the Beismeyer splitter.
John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
The more things change ...
We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
Petronious Arbiter, 210 BC
The Delta UniGuard comes with a nice, removable splitter. The splitter itself is available for around a third of the price of the Biesemeyer unit. It's Delta part number 1349941. A Google search found it available from the Sawcenter for $38.95
http://www.sawcenter.com/unisawparts.htm
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