Hi Imran,
If memory serves me correctly, the overhead guard for my saw added about $1,000 to the price of the saw. ?At the time, it seemed somewhat expensive, but significantly better than the alternative. ?The guard and dust collection function well. ?I will just have to make some changes to the mount when I get tired of the guard drooping onto the rip fence when I swing it out of the way. ?Oddly enough, the guard and tubing are way overbuilt and heavy. ?They spared no expense on the arms and guard assembly. ?They just missed the boat on the attachment point where the guard support tubing attaches to the saw chassis.
Mine is designed to swing away, which is where the problem becomes obvious. When in position over the blade the swing arm that the supports the guard is in line with the mount. ?When swung away, the weight of the arm is 90 degrees to the mount, causing a lot more strain in another plane to the support. ?The design doesn¡¯t provide enough support for the weight of the arm and guard when in this position.
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On Feb 17, 2020, at 10:00 PM, imranindiana via Groups.Io <imranindiana@...> wrote:
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Alex,
I would be just as much upset with the floppy guard do you think it is a price point issue?
Comparatively, the guard tube on my K975 is massive but it comes with a much more expensive saw. BTW, mine does not swing out either, may be new ones do.
Imran?
On Feb 18, 2020, at 10:49 AM, Alex Bowlds <aabj@...> wrote:
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I have the Felder overhead guard on my KF700SP. ?It is on a saw with the wide rip option, so the arm is quite long. ?The pros include... ?It is really built heavy duty. ?It functions well, and with the right dust extractor system, it collects the vast majority of the sawdust. ?It easily swings out of the way. ?
It¡¯s only drawback is the mounting system that felder used to attach it to the saw chassis. ?For engineers, they really missed the boat on this one. ?Mine is a 2018 vintage saw. ?I have not checked to see if they improved the mounting method. ?Due to the weight, the length of the arm, and the poor mounting method, when the guard is swung out of the way, it droops down several inches. ?This is probably not as much of an issue with the shorter arm used on the narrow rip capacity saws.
When I get disgusted enough, I will take the time to make a better mounting bracket and kick the Felder stupidity to the curb. ?
And before you go down the ¡°did you bring this to the attention of Felder¡± path, indeed I did. ?To no avail. ?I am apparently the only one that has a problem with the mounting design of their overhead saw guard. ?I guess a little droop is not too much of an inconvenience for others.
Again I think it is probably not a problem on a narrow rip capacity saw. ?I would probably purchase it again, and modify the mounting bracket prior to the initial installation. ?It really is well built except for the one flaw.
Alex
On Feb 10, 2020, at 12:40 PM, Sang Luu <sangluu@...> wrote:
?I've read a few older posts about this but I must say, I sort of regret not getting the overhead saw guard on my K700s. The stock Euro Guard II doesn't work too well especially if there's a hose connected to it. The weight of the hose, even when suspended in the air, can deflect the guard making it a pain to use.?
I'm wondering if someone here has been able to make (force!) the stock Euro Guard II work well enough for daily use?
I'm asking so I can pretend to exhaust all options before I break down and just buy or make/adapt a non-Felder version to the saw.?
BTW, this is the non-Felder option I've been looking at:?
It's made by a Taiwanese panel saw manufacturer (clones of Euro saws) but they have a pretty neat dust guard which I think is 95% bolt on. The only modification would be the placement of the arm, relative to the extension tables, to match the Felder dimensions, but otherwise the mounting is conceptually the same. If it costs me $500 and couple of hours of fitting, it would be a good option, price-wise, mee-thinks.?
Here's a video of it in action:?
Sang
