We're going to use a Honda engine and belt drive with the kill switch mounted by the operator, you will have the fly wheel clutch slippage in event of a non split. With the sliding shield attached to the ram no hands, arm or other body parts can be exposed to the splitting chamber, as the shield returns the stick will fall in via gravity feed ramp.
I do like the sound of the guards and the gravity feed. How will the kill switch stop the ram when you still have the flywheel going around? My baler cycles at least a dozen times after I shut off the PTO while the flywheel coasts down.