# Yet another home-made Saw arbor :)



## hvontres (Jun 22, 2014)

I recently won a set of slitting saws on e-bay and decided to make my own arbor. I based my design on a Toolmex version I saw for ~$99. The End Cap fits inside the main body to guide the saw blade. The lower flange is only 1/4" thick to give lots of clearance. I made the arbor from a piece of 1.5" CRS. I used an M8 screw for the clamp, but a 5/16-18 would work just as well, I just have more M8's laying around 
I was able to use my B42 Collet closer for this job, since it came with a 1.5" collet. One of these days I will get that thing converted over to ER-40. 

All in all not a bad way to spend a Saturday in the shop  Sorry for the lack of pictures but I didn't grab my camera until the last pass on the body.


Finished Arbor with end cap installed


Arbor with R-8 Colled fully inserted


Main Body in Collet holder


Final pass on the shank



End Piece by itself


End Piece with 1/8 Slot cutter



And with a 1/2" Slot cutter... somehow that was in with the saw blades 


Arbor mounted in mill.

I also attached a pdf sketch of the finished part. I didn't have a sketch when I made it, so I just measured the finished piece to make a drawing 
View attachment Saw Arbor_bw.pdf


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## AlanR (Jun 22, 2014)

I have a Toolmex 1" saw arbor and I quite like it, it's by far the best one I have. It's all about the runout, they make two versions, the $90+ version is the "0.0004 in. T.I.R." version, the "0.002 in. T.I.R." version is about 1/2 the price, I have that one.

It's easy to find Chinese made smaller ones in that style but the runout is much, much worse. I'd like a 3/4" Toolmex one but they don't make one.

JTS Machine has the Toolmex ones on their own website, they mostly sell on ebay but don't list these on ebay.

http://www.jtsmach.com/jtswebshop/saws/S044.asp

The multi size arbors are pretty horrible, some hole sizes work "not too bad" and others just suck. The multi size ones come in two types, one with the inner steps cut into one piece and the other with individual sleeves.


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## hvontres (Aug 10, 2014)

I just updated the drawing to make it a little easier to read

View attachment Saw Arbor_bw2.pdf


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## LEEQ (Aug 17, 2014)

I'm wanting to make something like that up for some saws I have. I was wondering if you have any slippage without a keyway and key. Have you run that 1/2"er yet? Not having to make that keyway would save me buying a weency end mill. My 1/8" mill in an r8 collet won't cut a tight enough slot for a 1/8 key. I haven't tried out the er40 chuck yet, but suspect the cheapest route for me is to design the arbor to use a keyway I can mill, not broach. It's that or none at all. I'd love to hear what your experience has been with yours.


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## hvontres (Aug 17, 2014)

LEEQ said:


> I'm wanting to make something like that up for some saws I have. I was wondering if you have any slippage without a keyway and key. Have you run that 1/2"er yet? Not having to make that keyway would save me buying a weency end mill. My 1/8" mill in an r8 collet won't cut a tight enough slot for a 1/8 key. I haven't tried out the er40 chuck yet, but suspect the cheapest route for me is to design the arbor to use a keyway I can mill, not broach. It's that or none at all. I'd love to hear what your experience has been with yours.



I haven't had a chance to try the 1/2 cutter yet. So far, I have only used it with a 1/16" saw blade and had no issues witht the blade slipping. i did spin the whole arbor once, but that was just Mr Bozo helping me out with a tool change 

A keyway would be nice, but the key slots on the blades look pretty big. If I come up with any good ideas I'll post an update.


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## Terrywerm (Aug 17, 2014)

A little off topic, but I used one of those multi-step arbors once...   and now the saw and arbor are permanently mated to one another. The saw was not a concave one, and it caught in the work when my cut went  a little too deep. It tightened the cap screw so badly that everything I tried would not get it loose again. The hex in the allen head screw has since been stripped out through various attempts to get it apart. Won't buy one of those again!


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## AlanR (Aug 17, 2014)

terrywerm said:


> A little off topic, but I used one of those multi-step arbors once...   and now the saw and arbor are permanently mated to one another. The saw was not a concave one, and it caught in the work when my cut went  a little too deep. It tightened the cap screw so badly that everything I tried would not get it loose again. The hex in the allen head screw has since been stripped out through various attempts to get it apart. Won't buy one of those again!


I had that happen also. I clamped the body of the arbor (on the large diameter) in a vise and turned the cap with channel lock pliers to get it apart.

I've switched to the Toolmex arbors since.


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