A discussion on the Internet in rec.woodworking over the qualities and benefits of after-market blade guards for table saws raises some interesting points.
Everyone who has ever bought a new American-made, or Taiwanese-cloned, table saw knows of the vicissitudes of the standard blade guard. It is useless, a mere sop to federal safety regulations.These standard guards cover the blade; they rest on the table top and rise - if they're at all well-made - up and over the work piece when the work piece nudges the guard. The problems with these guards are many, but chief among them are the facts that you cannot see the blade they make the ripping of very narrow pieces impossible and they are cumbersome to remove when you want to use a tenoning jig or run slots in a work piece without actually cutting through it.
A more practical blade guard is the European type, which is connected well to the side of the saw, is spring-loaded so it can be set at any height above the table, and easily rolls out of the way for tenoning. Some, however, are better than others. As far as I know, this type of guard is never included with a new American saw in order to keep the price down.
I have the Delta Uniguard, which works pretty well until you come to sheet goods.
One gentlemen wrote, "I have considered such an overhead guard but eliminated it because of the way I use my table saw. It is common for me to cut off panels 5 to 8 feet in length using a panel cutting jig. The 5 to 8 feet is to the right of the blade on the 48-inch-plus saw extension.
"Since the panels can be up to 26 inches, the guard would be in the way. I'm not about to add a 48-inch-plus extension to the other side to fix this. None of the guards I have seen have a `quick disconnect' feature to allow removing the vertical post that mounts on the back right corner. Has anyone seen such a thing?" Another gentleman suggests:
"Look at the Brett Guard made by HTC. The control box mounts on a plate attached to the saw's side table and the guard slides on a pair of steel rods. It is easy to slide the guard out of the way to set up and back over the saw blade when cutting. When you remove the guard the plate remains flush with the saw table so there is not obstructions to sheet goods."
A third woodworker pretty well put a damper on this, however, with another report: "I called about the Brett overhead guard. They ain't cheap. About $650 or so." There are lots of other blade guards out there, including some that carry a dust-collector hose. All are, however, fairly expensive. There is no reason they should be.
My little Inca table saw, which I sold in order to buy a Unisaw, had a wonderfully simple overhead guard that could be dropped back behind the saw, entirely out of the way, with a couple of turns on a hand-size nut. And even though the Uniguard is a big improvement over the blade that came with the Unisaw, I have to admit that I rarely use it.
Speaking of Inca, another rec.woodworking message says:
"Am interested in getting a jointer and a planer, and thought the Inca 10 inch might be a good choice, given its wide jointer capacity. Can anyone recommend a reasonable alternative?"
A professional woodworker wrote back that for furniture work "the Inca can't be beat," but for "production work or continuous cabinet shop use, it's too slow and won't remove enough stock like heavier planers will."