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Planer guards

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Planer guards

Postby Mike G » 21 Mar 2020, 18:57

I'll come right out and say it........I dislike the English/ European bridge guards, and prefer the American swinging guard. Here's mine:

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There are a number of factors in its favour, but there are also a couple of fundamental issues, and this is what I am hoping to address with a couple of modifications. Firstly, and it's not obvious from the photo, but the guard whacks the bottom edge of the fence, and over time, knocks it out of adjustment. I started getting some non-square edges during my long bout of machining of items for my staircase.

The other problem is this. The guard covers all the blade when the fence is over at the far extremity of the table. However, I am sure we all like to vary the location of the wear on the knives, so I obviously move the fence over, like this:

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That little bit of exposed cutter block doesn't seem to be much of an issue, but actually, it can be where the machine can chuck chippings or even a bit of a knot out at you. I need something to make the swinging guard work for all fence locations. It also is something of an issue as the workpiece exits the cutter, but still holds the fence back:

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Let's tackle the difficult one first. I've had a few solutions in mind for a while, but the last few days has given me plenty of time to sit and ponder, and I settled on one:

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I think this was the plastic foot of an old dog guard for the car (it might be rubber). You can see a before and after in the same photo:

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Fixed in place this prevents the returning guard smacking into the fence. OK, when opened past about 6 inches it still touches it a bit, but its now well cushioned, and for most planing it doesn't touch it at all:

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And here it is at the extreme setting, with the fence in the middle of the table:

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Tomorrow, if I'm up to it, I'll fix the easier problem of the exposed blade which shows up really nicely in that last photo.
Last edited by Mike G on 21 Mar 2020, 19:45, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Planer guards

Postby 9fingers » 21 Mar 2020, 19:26

Totally Agree Mike. Pork Chop everytime for me.
Extra protection is provided by a pair of rubber push blocks.
One of these days I will get round to making a pork chop for my Jet 8"

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Re: Planer guards

Postby Malc2098 » 21 Mar 2020, 21:23

Nice.
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Re: Planer guards

Postby chataigner » 22 Mar 2020, 18:13

This is interesting. Like you Mike, I find the euro style guard frustrating and as a result removed it years ago and have worked without a guard ever since. I know..... I know....
I'll give this a try.
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Re: Planer guards

Postby Andyp » 22 Mar 2020, 18:48

Mike, David,
Can i ask why you dislike the bridge style guards? I know that I probably don’t use it as much as you but
I have never had a problem n a bog standard Axi combination plAner/thicknesser
I assume you mean the ones that are raised and lowered with the timber under when face planing and pushed over the bed when edge planing.
I do not think therefore I do not am.

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Re: Planer guards

Postby Mike G » 22 Mar 2020, 19:49

At the start of the cut I hate having to take my hand or pusher off the workpiece whilst keeping the wood moving and then trying to re-establish grip on the other side of the guard. I want to get hold of the piece in one place and not move anything, or if it is a long board, get a pusher on the back edge as soon as it comes within reach and leave it there, un-moved, until it has cleared the cutters. Using the European bridge guard leaves you needing friction between the board and your hand to pull the board through the last few inches. You're not supposed to wear gloves, and I've ended up licking my hands to try to get enough of a grip to plane the last 6 inches of a board. That's a ridiculous situation, and the wider the board, the worse the problem because more force is needed to push them. For me, I believe it to be far safer to take one grip and not move it for the entire length of the work's passage across the cutters, or for at least for the last 2 or 3 feet.
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Re: Planer guards

Postby Andyp » 22 Mar 2020, 20:35

Fair enough Mike. I can see your point. Thanks. I would have to agree with your logic.
I guess I must have sweaty palms as I don't recall having a problem pulling the timber through with downward pressure from t'other hand.

Might be a while before a tuit to replace mine gets to the top.
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Re: Planer guards

Postby Mike G » 24 Mar 2020, 16:37

I thought this might work:

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But the second piece being movable didn't add anything at all that couldn't be achieved by having it fixed. So, I did a little surgery, and came up with an altogether different moving piece:

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The greater radius on the main guard improves things a lot. The swinging secondary piece adds a little protection at the beginning and end of a piece's travel through the planer:

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In the middle, it just gets out of the way:

Image
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Re: Planer guards

Postby kirkpoore1 » 25 Mar 2020, 03:47

Well Mike, I thought there was noting new under the sun as far as jointer guards are concerned, but I guess I was wrong. I've never seen anything like that.

I have a Surty guard on my machine, which will ride over boards when facing and slide aside when edging. But nobody makes them anymore.

A different arrangement is to have the porkshop mounted on the outfeed table, with a much steeper angle on the leading edge. These slide aside rather than get pushed out of the way. If you like I'll find a picture.

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Re: Planer guards

Postby Mike G » 25 Mar 2020, 08:12

That was my first thought, Kirk, but I couldn't find a suitable mounting point on the outfeed table, nor a way of not fouling the rise-and-fall mechanism for my thicknesser bed. Pity, because it would seem to me to be the ideal set up.
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Re: Planer guards

Postby MorrisWoodman12 » 05 Jun 2020, 22:49

Mike G. that looks to be a really useful guard. My planer thicknesser came without any guard. I have fabricated a typical European style one but don't like it much for much the same reasons as you have given. Hence I only use it occasionally. Yes I know, just like chataigner, I know...
I have often wondered about making an American style guard but you are ahead of me. I will do so when the workshop is complete and the bench is finished.
BTW why shouldn't one wear gloves? I often do so I can get a few fractions of a second warning before that blade strikes.
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Re: Planer guards

Postby Mike G » 06 Jun 2020, 07:04

I think the theory is that if the glove catches in the blade it will be pulled in and wrapped around......and your hand will follow.
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Re: Planer guards

Postby Phil » 07 Jun 2020, 17:52

Good idea Mike. 8-)

My EB has the On-Off switches on that side of the machine, so I work on that side with the bridge sticking out in my way when working.
I have thought about just removing the bridge completely. :shock:
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Re: Planer guards

Postby SamQ aka Ah! Q! » 07 Jun 2020, 18:22

"I've ended up licking my hands "


....and you thought you were over the covid after-effects Mike?....

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Re: Planer guards

Postby Vann » 12 Sep 2020, 10:37

I dislike the American pork chop guard - at least as supplied on my Makita surface planer (attachment to my thicknesser).

When I did my apprenticeship with New Zealand Railways, all the buzzers ("surface planers" to you) were fitted with Australian "Ideal" guards, which are similar (if not identical) to the "Surty" guard.

Idealtag.jpg
(313.97 KiB)

As fitted to an ex-NZR Robinson HV 18" buzzer...

IdealR1.jpg
(934.09 KiB)
IdealR2.jpg
(687.59 KiB)

...and as fitted to my ex-NZR Wadkin RB 9" buzzer.

IdealW1.jpg
As purchased, after ~a year's storage in all weathers.
(113.12 KiB)

My Wadkin is still in pieces. It'll be interesting to see what I think when I get back to using that type of guard again.

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Re: Planer guards

Postby 9fingers » 12 Sep 2020, 13:24

Looking forward to your restoration thread Vann!
A bit of competition for Wallace :lol:

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Re: Planer guards

Postby Trevanion » 07 Feb 2021, 12:58

Hey Mike, I came across this photo of a Polish-made planer with an interesting improvement to the porkchop guard that I thought you might like to see:

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The segments flow down the side of the machine and do not obstruct the operator's path, which is the annoyance of the regular pork chops. I've never seen this type of guard before so I thought it was interesting, perhaps it might work for you?
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Re: Planer guards

Postby Mike G » 07 Feb 2021, 14:30

On the face of it, that looks a very good idea. I would hope it was strong enough to not fall into the blade under the force of someone falling onto it.
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Re: Planer guards

Postby AJB Temple » 07 Feb 2021, 17:54

Good thread. I wish my planer had a pork chop guard but it is Axi trade planer and the guard fully covers the part of the blade on etc work side of the fence. I dislike it because the guard has to be manually lifted to guide the work onto the cutters.

I also agree that keeping the feed going smoothy is crucial. If I am going to be doing a to of planing, especially of long boards, then I will get my wife to help on the outfeed. I recently decided to PAR about 200 sawn strips of oak that I originally cut as roofing laths. (Made far too many as it turned out). I needed to plane them to make oak strips to fix to a wall. This was safer and better as a two person job, but a pork chop guard would have made it easier as it helps keep the work against the fence.
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Re: Planer guards

Postby Mr P » 07 Feb 2021, 18:40

Well I don't know whats happening but I can't see any of Trevanion or Mike G's photos. I can see Vanns though. Anyone else having this problem? Using win 8.1 and Opera browser.
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Re: Planer guards

Postby Trevanion » 07 Feb 2021, 19:41

Mr P wrote:Well I don't know whats happening but I can't see any of Trevanion or Mike G's photos. I can see Vanns though. Anyone else having this problem? Using win 8.1 and Opera browser.


That's interesting, both I and Mike use a third-party image host called Imgur to post our photos to the forum while Vann is using the forum's own hosting capability.

No idea what the problem is though!
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Re: Planer guards

Postby Vann » 08 Feb 2021, 04:18

Mr P wrote:Well I don't know whats happening but I can't see any of Trevanion or Mike G's photos. I can see Vanns though. Anyone else having this problem? Using win 8.1 and Opera browser.

Trevanion is right about my photo hosting.

I could see Trevanion and Mike G's photos when I looked on my cellphone this morning, but now on the iMac, they're not there :?:

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Re: Planer guards

Postby Mr P » 08 Feb 2021, 07:40

Now I can see Mikes and Trevanions pictures, I've no idea what's happening. I'll just wait a day or two in future. ;)
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Re: Planer guards

Postby AndyT » 08 Feb 2021, 09:31

I do sometimes find that I don't see Trevanion's or Mike's photos when they are first posted. But reloading the page fixes it.
On mobile, drag the page down to reload. On a PC, use F5. Apparently macs simplify this to Cmd+shift+r.
It feels like the browser gives up too soon on the slightly slower loading externally hosted photos. Once they are in the local cache, all is well.
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Re: Planer guards

Postby AJB Temple » 08 Feb 2021, 12:03

AndyT wrote: On a PC, use F5. Apparently macs simplify this to Cmd+shift+r.
It feels like the browser gives up too soon on the slightly slower loading externally hosted photos.


On Mac just click the refresh button in the dialogue entry box in the browser menu. No need to press any keyboard buttons. (In Safari it is on the right and is a 3/4circle with an arrow on the end).
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