I picked up this beauty for a very reasonable price, it needs some TLC - new blades, new rollers, but most importantly, it's missing a blade guard.
I was considering going with a pork chop style guard, seems easier to DIY something like this, but I've never used a planer before, and I'm going to feel a bit safer with the cutter completely covered for now.
It came from the factory with this style of guard:
There are a couple of videos of this model, but none of them had the guard installed, not sure how good the factory guard was.
I saw other P/Ts with a similar type of guard on a sprung arm, and at least on the cheaper end of the spectrum, they all seemed a bit.. floppy?
I'm leaning towards finding a used guard from a Sedgwick or a Wadkin and fitting that. The kind that is installed to the side and can raised, lowered and moved to the side for jointing.
I think I could mount/weld a piece of metal to those bars that remain from the mortising attachment.
I could drill that piece of metal and insert the bar holding the guard.
Alternatively, there is some room in the round bit that houses the mounting points for the cutter block.
I could drill it from top and bottom, where the bar for the guard would be inserted, then tap from the sides for some bolts to hold the bar in place.
The second option feels less elegant, but this way the guard is not off to the side.
The guard being offset might not be a problem though, depending on what spare I'm able to find, for example this Wadkin had an offset:
I think both could work, but not sure if I should attempt this or stick with the original sprung design, I'd love some advice from people who used both.
Thanks,
Mat
I was considering going with a pork chop style guard, seems easier to DIY something like this, but I've never used a planer before, and I'm going to feel a bit safer with the cutter completely covered for now.
It came from the factory with this style of guard:
There are a couple of videos of this model, but none of them had the guard installed, not sure how good the factory guard was.
I saw other P/Ts with a similar type of guard on a sprung arm, and at least on the cheaper end of the spectrum, they all seemed a bit.. floppy?
I'm leaning towards finding a used guard from a Sedgwick or a Wadkin and fitting that. The kind that is installed to the side and can raised, lowered and moved to the side for jointing.
I think I could mount/weld a piece of metal to those bars that remain from the mortising attachment.
I could drill that piece of metal and insert the bar holding the guard.
Alternatively, there is some room in the round bit that houses the mounting points for the cutter block.
I could drill it from top and bottom, where the bar for the guard would be inserted, then tap from the sides for some bolts to hold the bar in place.
The second option feels less elegant, but this way the guard is not off to the side.
The guard being offset might not be a problem though, depending on what spare I'm able to find, for example this Wadkin had an offset:
I think both could work, but not sure if I should attempt this or stick with the original sprung design, I'd love some advice from people who used both.
Thanks,
Mat
