homemade arbors

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peterm
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homemade arbors

Post by peterm »

I do not see anything about homemade arbors when searching this forum, so thought I’d show what I have been doing. Proper Shopsmith arbors are rarely available locally, plus I wanted to mount some non critical items like polishing/buffing wheels and wire wheels (a couple of each) at minimum cost. I got some 5/8” bore heavy wall pipe and had a few 5/8”diameter bolts, so I cut the heads off the bolts and connected bolt and pipe with a ¼” roll pin; this is the result:
[ATTACH]12097[/ATTACH]

I do not recommend you use these for critical items like saw blades or grinding wheels where exact concentricity is important. It is useful to have a metal lathe to trim the ends of the pipe perpendicular. The portion of the bolt in the pipe does not have any threads. The roll pin extends right through both sides of the pipe.

The following arbor is 3.5” long, made up of a piece of the pipe 1.75” long and the bolt extends 0.565” into the pipe (leaving a socket 1.185” deep). The bolt without head was 2.315” long. The center of the setscrew is .375” from the end of the pipe. The roll pin is .3” from the other end of the pipe.
[ATTACH]12098[/ATTACH]
Works fine, especially since I am using them at slow speed.
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arbour parts.jpg
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Peter
a 510,a Mini, dedicated SS drillpress, SS spt's, home made SS belt grinder, SS piston air system, Southbend 10k lathe, mill/drill, Taig
charlese
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Post by charlese »

Nice innovation!:) Thanks for posting!
Octogenarian's have an earned right to be a curmudgeon.
Chuck in Lancaster, CA
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ddvann79
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Post by ddvann79 »

That's a great solution and good photos. I too have wondered if others out there have tried this.
Dalton
Fort Worth, Texas
1962 MK 5 #373733 Goldie
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peterm
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Post by peterm »

Thanks for your comments.

This week I was in our local Dewalt store and they had a 6" Porter Cable rubber backed and velcroed sanding disk, a Dewalt 5"x3/32"x5/8"x11tpi metal cutting disk and a 9"x1/4"x5/8"x11tpi metal sanding disk on sale for cheap, so I bought one of each.
[ATTACH]12228[/ATTACH]
Their center threads screw right on the arbors I have made using standard 5/8" bolts.
[ATTACH]12229[/ATTACH]
Now I have to see what to use them for.:)
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Peter
a 510,a Mini, dedicated SS drillpress, SS spt's, home made SS belt grinder, SS piston air system, Southbend 10k lathe, mill/drill, Taig
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heathicus
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Post by heathicus »

My first 10ER came with a "homemade" saw arbor which was very scary to me. He had cut the head off a (5/8"?) bolt, sandwiched the saw blade between a set of nuts and washers, and then gripped the bolt with the drill chuck. :eek:

Your arbors look pretty nice and not nearly as dangerous!!
Heath
Central Louisiana
-10ER - SN 13927, Born 1949, Acquired October 2008, Restored November, 2008
-10ER - SN 35630, Born 1950, Acquired April 2009, Restored May 2009, A34 Jigsaw
-Mark V - SN 212052, Born 1986, Acquired Sept 2009, Restored March 2010, Bandsaw
-10ER - SN 39722, Born 1950, Acquired March 2011, awaiting restoration
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peterm
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Post by peterm »

Very scary!
Fortunately the pipe I got is a nice tight fit on the 5/8" SS spindle and the cut off bolts fit snug into the pipe so there is very little wobble.
The setscrews I use take the standard SS hex wrench.
Peter
a 510,a Mini, dedicated SS drillpress, SS spt's, home made SS belt grinder, SS piston air system, Southbend 10k lathe, mill/drill, Taig
anneb3
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Post by anneb3 »

We have the metal lathe and just need to know another word for wall pipe.

Those arbors would really come in handy
Anne in Arizona where spring sprang today
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peterm
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Post by peterm »

"Heavy wall" pipe is just a term for pipe with a thicker than usual wall. You need a pipe with exactly 5/8" bore and a wall thick enough to give ample thickness to accomodate the set screw. A thin wall results in the set screw falling out when you back it off to remove the arbor from the SS. The pipe I used has a wall of 0.190", near as I can measure. I think the metal supplier had other even thicker wall pipe as well.
Peter
a 510,a Mini, dedicated SS drillpress, SS spt's, home made SS belt grinder, SS piston air system, Southbend 10k lathe, mill/drill, Taig
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wingrider
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Post by wingrider »

Great idea, I will have to try a get my neighbor to turn some out on his metal lathe for me. Would be nice to have enough to mount up several things on.
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fiatben
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I used to sell this stuff

Post by fiatben »

prmindartmouth wrote:"Heavy wall" pipe is just a term for pipe with a thicker than usual wall. You need a pipe with exactly 5/8" bore and a wall thick enough to give ample thickness to accomodate the set screw. A thin wall results in the set screw falling out when you back it off to remove the arbor from the SS. The pipe I used has a wall of 0.190", near as I can measure. I think the metal supplier had other even thicker wall pipe as well.
Your local PVF (pipe, valves and fittings) distributor should have steel pipe that is known as Schedule 40, Schedule 80 and maybe some 160, which indicates various wall thicknesses. Typically, if someone in the construction industry is referring to heavy wall pipe, it is the 80. It's application is usually for high pressure piping. I'd be surprised if a plumbing supplier had it.

Oh, one little issue... it comes in 21' joints and they usually don't want to cut it up, but it also comes in pipe nipples up to 12" long which would make 3 or 4 arbors.
'55 Greenie #292284 (Mar-55), '89 SS 510 #020989, Mark VII #408551 (sold 10/14/12), SS Band Saw, (SS 500 #36063 (May-79) now gone to son-in-law as of 11-11), Magna bandsaw, Magna jointer 16185 (May-54), Magna belt sander SS28712 (Dec-82), Magna jigsaw SS4397 (Dec-78), SS biscuit joiner, Zyliss (knockoff) vise, 20+ hand planes, 60s Craftsman tablesaw, CarbaTec mini-lathe, and the usual pile of tools. Hermit of the Hills Woodworks, a hillbilly in the foothills of the Ozarks, scraping by.
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