Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I decided to invest in safety this year, and since the table saw is one of the most used machines in my shop, I started with this over-arm brett guard. I liked the design in that it acts both as a guard and a hold-down with anti-kickback built in.
I ordered this from Amazon at a very attractive price, in spite of the other review that had some problems. The unit arrived in two boxes. In mine, only a minor part was missing (the crank handle to adjust the height with). I e-mailed Amazon customer service right away, and got a somewhat confusing e-mail, probably from India. It did have the number for HTC Customer Service hidden between what looked like a disjointed cut-and-paste from some canned answers. I called HTC and got a very friendly customer service agent who took down my name and address. She was new, so it was somewhat difficult to explain the part I was missing, but she figured it out in the end. She did not ask for any other information, and I got the missing part about two weeks later.
As for the device itself, I was somewhat disappointed by what I consider some major flaws:
1. The parts, while heavy duty steel and very solid, were painted after the holes were threaded, resulting in a very difficult assembly process. This is just plain sloppy manufacturing.
2. The leveling screws in the overarm attachment are too long, resulting in difficult adjustment. Its important to level the guard to a parallel plane with your saw table because the guard also acts like a hold-down. The leveling process was made more difficult by the length of these screws.
3. The overarm support fits on the L-bracket that came with my Biesemeyer fence system (standard on the Sears 22124 table saw that I have). Unfortunately, the extension arm slides inside this support and is held in place by interference fit between some nylon screw inserts (held in place by nylon nuts and threaded connections in the steel support) and one threaded knob. It is extremely difficult to get this arrangement straight; at least I had to make five or six attempts. Combine this with the long leveling screws and, well, lets just say "words were said" and leave it at that.
On the plus side:
1. The design of the gurad allows it to flip up and out of the way for blade changes.
2. The stock splitter on the 22124 can no longer be used, so I was forced finally to buy an aftermarket splitter. The one that comes with the guard doesn't fit the 22124 and is standard thickness (I use a thin kerf blade), making it useless for me. This is only a plus in that the stock splitter/guard on the 22124 is, in my opinion, a safety issue by itself.
3. All the parts are heavy steel (except the nylon inserts/nuts) and the guard itself is a heavy acrylic clear plastic. The guard with mine had a connection (2.5 inch) for a dust collection system.
4. The crank mechanism is easy to adjust to the workpiece height. Max height is about 4 inches, which is higher than the max height of my blade on the 22124.
5. Its made in the USA. Maybe you don't care, but I'd rather employ Americans than others if the design/quality/price allows it.
Overall, I'd recommend the guard, but caution you to expect some problems along the way.
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