Saw blade arbors - 500 vs 510/520 compatibility question
Posted: Wed May 27, 2015 4:04 pm
Hi All, this is my first post and I'm a recent owner of a used 520.
First, thanks for this forum and to all the people who provide information and help to others. In the past month I've learned a lot from reading it and solved many of my questions and "problems".
My issue is this. While in search of the 520, I sold all my standalone tools because of space issues to fund the 520. But first I came across a model 500 for free (yes, you read that right) on craiglist and was lucky enough to get it. The owner wouldn't take any money, having received it free from his grandfather-in-law. In any event, I get it home and realized I needed to buy a number of parts for it, like a jacobs chuck, a sanding disk, etc. Although I liked it alot, I thought I wanted the bigger table, and definetely wanted a bandsaw, jointer, sanding disk, dust collector, etc.
So next I find "the one", a 520 with exactly the SPTs, parts, lathe tools and a DC, and bring it home. At the end of the day, I kept the 520 and gave the 500 to a neighbor who is mechanically inclined and has a young son he wanted to start teaching woodworking to. Fine. That's just good karma for the guy who gave it to me.
Now however, I've decided I really prefer the small compactness of the 500 table system. It's adequate for 95% of what I need. I can cut full size plywood, etc. with a circular saw or borrow a table saw (briefly). Long rips I can still do with in and out feed tables. The small 500 fence is fine as far as I'm concerned.
But here's the rub: I have a number of saw arbors for non-SS blades that are the longer 510/520 arbors. I don't want to give them up if I can use them with the 500 table. A call to SS gave me the unsatisfactory answer that they are different legnths, but no reason why the arbor is not backward compatible.
Is there any reason I can't use them? Or do I need to go out and buy a handfull of the 500 saw arbors?
If the issue has to do with the undersaw blade guard, is there a way around that by using a 510 or 520 blade guard?
Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
Rod
First, thanks for this forum and to all the people who provide information and help to others. In the past month I've learned a lot from reading it and solved many of my questions and "problems".
My issue is this. While in search of the 520, I sold all my standalone tools because of space issues to fund the 520. But first I came across a model 500 for free (yes, you read that right) on craiglist and was lucky enough to get it. The owner wouldn't take any money, having received it free from his grandfather-in-law. In any event, I get it home and realized I needed to buy a number of parts for it, like a jacobs chuck, a sanding disk, etc. Although I liked it alot, I thought I wanted the bigger table, and definetely wanted a bandsaw, jointer, sanding disk, dust collector, etc.
So next I find "the one", a 520 with exactly the SPTs, parts, lathe tools and a DC, and bring it home. At the end of the day, I kept the 520 and gave the 500 to a neighbor who is mechanically inclined and has a young son he wanted to start teaching woodworking to. Fine. That's just good karma for the guy who gave it to me.
Now however, I've decided I really prefer the small compactness of the 500 table system. It's adequate for 95% of what I need. I can cut full size plywood, etc. with a circular saw or borrow a table saw (briefly). Long rips I can still do with in and out feed tables. The small 500 fence is fine as far as I'm concerned.
But here's the rub: I have a number of saw arbors for non-SS blades that are the longer 510/520 arbors. I don't want to give them up if I can use them with the 500 table. A call to SS gave me the unsatisfactory answer that they are different legnths, but no reason why the arbor is not backward compatible.
Is there any reason I can't use them? Or do I need to go out and buy a handfull of the 500 saw arbors?
If the issue has to do with the undersaw blade guard, is there a way around that by using a 510 or 520 blade guard?
Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
Rod