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Planer guards

Mike G

Mike G

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

CraTHv7.png

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:

UIuuPDU.png

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:

ehBPoDg.png

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:

qI5AAcp.png

VRFgcET.png

x91fJKt.png

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:

3xZB2RC.png

EHcUjOG.png

2Sb2Xz0.png

BNOyWfK.png

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:

4ej2W8D.png

rviWGP7.png

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

7svMced.png

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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
I thought this might work:

kDYx2bH.png

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:

Akh8Jkx.png

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:

1pqV53d.png

tKHThHq.png

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

vFKmTWa.png
 
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.

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

IdealR1.jpgIdealR2.jpg
...and as fitted to my ex-NZR Wadkin RB 9" buzzer.

IdealW1.jpg
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.

Cheers, Vann.
 
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:

vdk1vch.png

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?
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
Mr P":1uxcu5w8 said:
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.
Click to expand...

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!
 
Mr P":3owjnq5e said:
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.
Click to expand...
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 :?:

Cheers, Vann.
 
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.
 
AndyT":2x34de03 said:
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.
Click to expand...

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).
 
AJB Temple":1njgiz71 said:
....

I also agree that keeping the feed going smoothy is crucial. ....
Click to expand...

You can't beat a power-feed :D
 
RogerS":192bi1ev said:
AJB Temple":192bi1ev said:
....

I also agree that keeping the feed going smoothy is crucial. ....
Click to expand...

You can't beat a power-feed :D
Click to expand...

I've toyed with the idea of a power feed when planing but wondered how good they are at both pressing against the fence firmly and downwards onto the outfeed bed but not at the expense of the fence pressure eg when squaring sawn timber.

Bob
 
Those Ideal guards look like they would be fairly easy to replicate.........

I am a fan of european bridge guards but unfrtunately most good design are difficult to make if you want one.
 
Steve Maskery":1fnb116y said:
I think I must be missing something, Mike. Why have you filed 3 extra grooves in that top mounting block, please? I don't understand what they do.
Click to expand...

Moving the bent piece of metal to different grooves moves the rubber bumper stop close to the side of the machine meaning that when the using wider stock or the fence is in the middle of the block the guard doesn’t spring across at full pelt and whack into the fence.

In short it’s a kind of soft close mechanism for the guard.
 
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