Shopsmith Forums

dusty wrote:

jsburger wrote:

dusty wrote:
Once you get it dialed in for a particular width and don't change anything it will cut perfect joints every time for that width. That is my experience anyhow. The blades you use will make a difference. Right now I am using a set of Forrest box joint blades that cut 1/4" or 3/8" joints. They have off set carbide teeth so depending on the way you stack them on the arbor it changes the width of the cut. There are no shims involved. They are dead on every time. So if the I-Box is set up for perfect 1/4" joints and you don't touch it you get perfect joints every time you put the blade set on the saw.

Will your Forrest box joint blades fit on the 1 1/4" arbor or are you using the dado arbor?

I am not sure I ever said it but all the pictures I posted show the I-Box om my Powermatic PM2000. So, my I-Box is used on that machine. Sorry for the confusion but I thought the pictures were obvious.

I bought the I-Box and the Forrest blade combo from Incra on sale. The blades were on sale from them also. They are 5/8" arbor, but as you know Forrest blades are available in any bore size you want.

So, OK, there are some variables on the SS that don't exist on a dedicated table saw. They may make perfect repeat ability an issue. I don't know but others that have used the I-Box on the SS have reported positively on the various threads on this subject recently.

Another thing I never said was that the I-Box made perfect joints out of the box. There is absolutely a learning curve. I played with it for a few days to figure out how to adjust it. I made a number of test cuts to figure out how the adjustments interacted.

I really handled my question poorly. What I really need to know, before I get the Forrest blades rebored, is how thick are the two plates? Will the Shopsmith arbor accomodate the 2 piece stack. I may need to use the dado arbor for that reason.

dusty wrote:I really handled my question poorly. What I really need to know, before I get the Forrest blades rebored, is how thick are the two plates? Will the Shopsmith arbor accomodate the 2 piece stack. I may need to use the dado arbor for that reason.

The two blades together are 7/32" thick. The machined flange on the arbor that the blade fits on is 3/16" wide. So one blade will hang over the flange 1/32". I don't think that should be a problem. There are only 3 threads on the SS 1 1/4" arbor so you still get full thread engagement with the Forrest stack.

jsburger wrote:

dusty wrote:I really handled my question poorly. What I really need to know, before I get the Forrest blades rebored, is how thick are the two plates? Will the Shopsmith arbor accomodate the 2 piece stack. I may need to use the dado arbor for that reason.

The two blades together are 7/32" thick. The machined flange on the arbor that the blade fits on is 3/16" wide. So one blade will hang over the flange 1/16". I don't think that should be a problem. There are only 3 threads on the SS 1 1/4" arbor so you still get full thread engagement with the Forrest stack.

Sure about that [1/16"]?

jsburger wrote:

dusty wrote:I really handled my question poorly. What I really need to know, before I get the Forrest blades rebored, is how thick are the two plates? Will the Shopsmith arbor accomodate the 2 piece stack. I may need to use the dado arbor for that reason.

The two blades together are 7/32" thick. The machined flange on the arbor that the blade fits on is 3/16" wide. So one blade will hang over the flange 1/16". I don't think that should be a problem. There are only 3 threads on the SS 1 1/4" arbor so you still get full thread engagement with the Forrest stack.

I trust that this is the Shopsmith Arbor 555130.

dusty wrote:

jsburger wrote:

dusty wrote:I really handled my question poorly. What I really need to know, before I get the Forrest blades rebored, is how thick are the two plates? Will the Shopsmith arbor accomodate the 2 piece stack. I may need to use the dado arbor for that reason.

The two blades together are 7/32" thick. The machined flange on the arbor that the blade fits on is 3/16" wide. So one blade will hang over the flange 1/16". I don't think that should be a problem. There are only 3 threads on the SS 1 1/4" arbor so you still get full thread engagement with the Forrest stack.

That's a lot of money to gamble with but I am going to go for it. I really do not want to use the Dado Arbor for this application. I do wish that there was atleast one more full thread on the arbor. Thanks for the response.

Are you sure it worth the chance? I assume you mean to have the two blade set over-bored at the added cost and just to get it to fit a shopsmith standard single blade arbor??????????? Well it is your money but for me I do not find that the larger arbor does anything for the situation other then to cost you more. In fact I have no modern blades for the large arbor and no large arbors in use and haven't for years. So anyway just think on it for a couple more minutes before you spend your money.

Ed

dusty wrote:

dusty wrote:

jsburger wrote:

The two blades together are 7/32" thick. The machined flange on the arbor that the blade fits on is 3/16" wide. So one blade will hang over the flange 1/16". I don't think that should be a problem. There are only 3 threads on the SS 1 1/4" arbor so you still get full thread engagement with the Forrest stack.

That's a lot of money to gamble with but I am going to go for it. I really do not want to use the Dado Arbor for this application. I do wish that there was atleast one more full thread on the arbor. Thanks for the response.

reible wrote:Are you sure it worth the chance? I assume you mean to have the two blade set over-bored at the added cost and just to get it to fit a shopsmith standard single blade arbor??????????? Well it is your money but for me I do not find that the larger arbor does anything for the situation other then to cost you more. In fact I have no modern blades for the large arbor and no large arbors in use and haven't for years. So anyway just think on it for a couple more minutes before you spend your money.

Ed

dusty wrote:

dusty wrote:

The two blades together are 7/32" thick. The machined flange on the arbor that the blade fits on is 3/16" wide. So one blade will hang over the flange 1/16". I don't think that should be a problem. There are only 3 threads on the SS 1 1/4" arbor so you still get full thread engagement with the Forrest stack.

That's a lot of money to gamble with but I am going to go for it. I really do not want to use the Dado Arbor for this application. I do wish that there was atleast one more full thread on the arbor. Thanks for the response.

Ed, did you just tell me that you use exclusively the 5/8" arbor for all of your saw blades?

Yes I have only 5/8" arbor blades in use.

Many years ago when I first got my shopsmith I went with the larger arbor 'cause this seem to be the way to go. I had come from owning a rockwell table saw and had the stabilizers on it and they seem to help. However the blades have come a LONG way since then. I did side by side cuts with identical except for arbor blades and I could see no difference and could measure no difference.

It wasn't long after that I found that paying for a high quality blade did make a difference in the cuts. The newer blades were also quiet compared to the blades I had been using. That noise was vibrations I'm sure, and now with the powerpro you get to here the difference even more. I have cheaper blades I use for some less critical projects and the difference is something I see all the time. If I were a rich man then I'd use the expensive blades all the time.

The blades I now use are even better. There is just no way I'd pay to have an arbor enlarged when I see no advantage to it.

My concern in your case is you are going down a one-way street and it works fine but if not you have no way to recover since shopsmith doesn't make a large arbor for dado or molding heads.... so you are just plain out the money twice to have to get another set that does fit and wasted the cost of the hole change and the large arbor blade set.

There are several companies making these dual blades. And while I have two sets of dado blades this version for the smaller fingers are great. Well worth the $100 or so that I spent. In fact they have actually lower the price on some of these since I got mine. I mean check out this set for only $83

https://www.amazon.com/Freud-Joint-Cutt ... box+joints

Ed

dusty wrote:

reible wrote:Are you sure it worth the chance? I assume you mean to have the two blade set over-bored at the added cost and just to get it to fit a shopsmith standard single blade arbor??????????? Well it is your money but for me I do not find that the larger arbor does anything for the situation other then to cost you more. In fact I have no modern blades for the large arbor and no large arbors in use and haven't for years. So anyway just think on it for a couple more minutes before you spend your money.

Ed

dusty wrote:
The two blades together are 7/32" thick. The machined flange on the arbor that the blade fits on is 3/16" wide. So one blade will hang over the flange 1/16". I don't think that should be a problem. There are only 3 threads on the SS 1 1/4" arbor so you still get full thread engagement with the Forrest stack.

That's a lot of money to gamble with but I am going to go for it. I really do not want to use the Dado Arbor for this application. I do wish that there was atleast one more full thread on the arbor. Thanks for the response.

Ed, did you just tell me that you use exclusively the 5/8" arbor for all of your saw blades?

JPG wrote:

jsburger wrote:

dusty wrote:I really handled my question poorly. What I really need to know, before I get the Forrest blades rebored, is how thick are the two plates? Will the Shopsmith arbor accomodate the 2 piece stack. I may need to use the dado arbor for that reason.

The two blades together are 7/32" thick. The machined flange on the arbor that the blade fits on is 3/16" wide. So one blade will hang over the flange 1/16". I don't think that should be a problem. There are only 3 threads on the SS 1 1/4" arbor so you still get full thread engagement with the Forrest stack.

Sure about that [1/16"]?

Yes, I know. It hit me when I was in bed last night. I wasn't going to get up to change it then. I figured it would give you something to do.