On 2010-07-27, DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2010-07-26, Ignoramus1880 wrote:
On 2010-07-26, DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2010-07-25, Ignoramus8473 wrote:
On 2010-07-25, DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2010-07-24, Ignoramus8473 wrote:

[ ... ]

My first question is what material to use? Acrylic? Lexan?

*Thick* Lexan -- not Plexiglass, because that is too brittle.
If you have something heavier than a chip (e.g. a broken HSS or carbide
mill half), you want something more likely to keep it away from you.

1/4 inch?

1/4" or perhaps 5/16" for the size of mill you are using. For
some machines, you would want something 1" thick or so -- like what is
used to bulletproof the tellers at some banks. :-)

How high do you think it should go above the cutting point? I mean, I
am sure that the higher, the better, but at some point the height will
interfere with the ram and table movement. So if I could get some idea
like "4 inches above the point of cutting" it would be nice. Just want
to find a way to think properly about that.

Well ... part of the problem is that a broken cutter can bounce
off the workpiece or the far side guard and angle up to clear the near
side guard.

But it would lose a lot of energy this way.

Anyway, my main reason for having a guard, is to keep chips and
coolant inside the table.

What I would suggest is perhaps a couple of inches plus a curved
"sneeze guard" mounted over the whole thing (perhaps to the bottom end
of the quill -- or to the headstock casting) and curving down to bounce
things back into the main guard.

How much you really need will be a function of how big your
cutters are and how much you push them. With your machine, you've got
the capability of seriously pushing them.

DoN, think keeping chips and splashing coolant inside.

i