Shopsmith Forums

I would not call the lower saw guard design "really bad". It works very well as a saw guard. Its deficiencies are only in the realm of dust collection. Furthermore, its deficiencies as a dust collector can be over come by some of the modifications that are detailed in several threads here on the forum. I am quite happy with my Mark V EXCEPT when I need the table tilted. My fixes to improve dust collection are incompatible to the table system when the table is tilted. To resolve that problem (somewhat) I now have a second lower saw guard that has not been modified.

Do you have pictures or links to the successful modifications?

t3steve wrote:Do you have pictures or links to the successful modifications?

This is not one of my threads but it covers one of the modifications that I made and Ed does a lot better job of doing it.

http://shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewtopic ... rd#p238005

and here is another:

http://shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewtopic ... rd#p108456

I have been following the threads about ways to improve lower saw guard dust collection over the years, and have done a small amount of experimentation myself, based on the mostly successful attempts of others. While mine is in no way revolutionary, it has made a significant improvement for me.

My Shopsmith is a Mark V 500 with original lower guard and 1.25" spacer. With the spacer installed, there were numerous escape paths for dust. I have simply sealed the collector with duct tape, and extended the right face, front and back (temporarily using stiff cardboard) to same height as the left face. A 1" thick piece of foam with a slot cut for the saw blade sits on top. The table is lowered to compress the foam.

After ripping approximately 60 lf of 4/4 rough oak, I am fairly confident that virtually no dust escaped from below the table. With a zero clearance table insert, all of the dust that wasn't collected was from above the table.

Far from a perfect system, it was nonetheless effective. I think the next steps will be replacing the cardboard height extension on the right face, front and back with sheet metal, and making additional foam pieces that can be stacked one atop another, to allow the table to be raised and expose less blade.

Granted, this system will not work well if the table is tilted. But since I seldom tilt the table, that is not a big issue for me. Not having the right face being able to swing open for blade changes is also not a big deal for me. With the 1.25" spacer installed, I can slip blades with the standard 1.25" hole and arbor in and on; with the longer 5/8" arbor, the saw guard just has to be pulled to the right a little to allow blade and arbor to get in the saw guard and then slide both to the left.

Thanks to all who have experimented and reported their findings on their ways to improve the dust collection abilities of the lower saw guard and provided inspiration.

Interesting approach, particularly the foam rubber.

May I ask what the piece of wood under the table is for?

algale wrote:May I ask what the piece of wood under the table is for?

Before I discovered featherboards that lock in the miter slots, I made and used wood featherboards. The maple wood blocking was contact cemented to the underside of the table on the right edge and the front and back left corners so that I could C-clamp the featherboards more easily, without having to juggle all three items at once. I still occasionally need to use a wood featherboard when the width of the stock is outside of the range of my in-slot featherboards. Plus, the wood blocking comes in handy when needing to clamp any other kind of jig.