Thread: Mini lathe/mill project No.1 Saw arbor

Dear members,

This was the first project I tackled, a saw arbor. It is worth it's weight in gold, and sure beats using a hacksaw for cutting up small pieces of metal. It cuts through mild steel like a hot knife through butter, and produces a perfect finish.

It was specifically made for my Unimat 3 lathe/mill, and has an M14x1 thread in the tail end to screw directly onto the lathe/mill spindle, this you will need to modify to suit your spindle thread.

It was simple to make, even for this novice, and consists of only four parts.

Materials required are 30mm dia brt ms x 50mm long, a blade, and an M6x12 cap screw.

I started by drilling and tapping the M14 thread, then screwed this to the lathe spindle for the rest of the machining. The rest is fairly self explanitory.

Attached are some pictures and a pdf drawing which gives details of the blade etc.

The Unimat 3, shown below, is just an example. With mine I have the full kit and kaboodle including the mini mill/drill.

If you choose a thinner blade, or a different bore size, you will have to adjust the shoulder depth and dia to suit.

Other projects will include a carbide tipped tool holder, a scissor type knurling tool, a set of parallel clamps, something we all made at school and have since lost, and a unique edge scribe with vernier adjustment, plus a simple version without vernier for the carpenters, since they only work to within plus or minus 100mm, just kiddin.

Also on the drawing board is an optical centre punch and a laser centre finder utilising your 2 dollar laser pointer.

Stay tuned for the next project!

Ken

Ken

Many thanks for this and what a great drawing! Greeny sent.

Could I ask for one further photo - of the blade and arbor mounted on the lathe (if you can arrange it, a picture of it cutting some ms would also be great)? Just so I can be sure that I understand how you use the cutter in practice.

Hi Jeremy and others,

Will post some more pictures tomorrow with the saw in action.

Ken

Thanks, Ken. I look forward to it!

Great work and thanks Ken.

Nice like the concept

now can I adapt that to make a mini mill on my wood lathe using wood saw & arbor

Hi Jeremy and others,

Attached below are a few views of the saw in action. The metal being cut is a piece of 12.7mm brt ms. Since I don't have a machine vice, it's on the way, the material is clamped to the tool post holder with a parallel clamp.

The parallel clamp is still work in progress, and needs the jaws to be tapered down, then blued.

To cut the metal, simply screw the carriage hand wheel in, and wullah, a nice clean finished cut.

The parallel clamp project will be up very soon.

Ken

Hi Ken,

Nice work, and thanks for the drawing.

I'm looking forward to the next one

Regards,

Richard

That looks really good Ken.

Well done.

Originally Posted by neksmerj

Dear members,

This was the first project I tackled, a saw arbor. It is worth it's weight in gold, and sure beats using a hacksaw for cutting up small pieces of metal. It cuts through mild steel like a hot knife through butter, and produces a perfect finish.

It was specifically made for my Unimat 3 lathe/mill, and has an M14x1 thread in the tail end to screw directly onto the lathe/mill spindle, this you will need to modify to suit your spindle thread.

It was simple to make, even for this novice, and consists of only four parts.

Materials required are 30mm dia brt ms x 50mm long, a blade, and an M6x12 cap screw.



I started by drilling and tapping the M14 thread, then screwed this to the lathe spindle for the rest of the machining. The rest is fairly self explanitory.

Attached are some pictures and a pdf drawing which gives details of the blade etc.

The Unimat 3, shown below, is just an example. With mine I have the full kit and kaboodle including the mini mill/drill.

If you choose a thinner blade, or a different bore size, you will have to adjust the shoulder depth and dia to suit.

Other projects will include a carbide tipped tool holder, a scissor type knurling tool, a set of parallel clamps, something we all made at school and have since lost, and a unique edge scribe with vernier adjustment, plus a simple version without vernier for the carpenters, since they only work to within plus or minus 100mm, just kiddin.

Also on the drawing board is an optical centre punch and a laser centre finder utilising your 2 dollar laser pointer.

Stay tuned for the next project!

Ken

HI All
I am only starting my journey with this machining.
I have been snooping around all the forums to get some idea of what I could make or more to the point something that I think I can make! I ended up on Projects In Metal, LLC and found this saw arbour, I copied the plan and saved it to library.
Today I started the project, I have just come up to check if I was going the right direction and sort out in my head how the screw sizes were written out on the plan.
As I read through the article in Projects in Metal I realised that it had come from my forum it just goes to prove that all roads lead to the AUSTRAL WOODWORKING FORUM so here I am right back where I started out from.
Col

Originally Posted by neksmerj

Dear members,

This was the first project I tackled, a saw arbor. It is worth it's weight in gold, and sure beats using a hacksaw for cutting up small pieces of metal. It cuts through mild steel like a hot knife through butter, and produces a perfect finish.

It was specifically made for my Unimat 3 lathe/mill, and has an M14x1 thread in the tail end to screw directly onto the lathe/mill spindle, this you will need to modify to suit your spindle thread.

It was simple to make, even for this novice, and consists of only four parts.

Materials required are 30mm dia brt ms x 50mm long, a blade, and an M6x12 cap screw.

I started by drilling and tapping the M14 thread, then screwed this to the lathe spindle for the rest of the machining. The rest is fairly self explanitory.

Attached are some pictures and a pdf drawing which gives details of the blade etc.

The Unimat 3, shown below, is just an example. With mine I have the full kit and kaboodle including the mini mill/drill.

If you choose a thinner blade, or a different bore size, you will have to adjust the shoulder depth and dia to suit.

Other projects will include a carbide tipped tool holder, a scissor type knurling tool, a set of parallel clamps, something we all made at school and have since lost, and a unique edge scribe with vernier adjustment, plus a simple version without vernier for the carpenters, since they only work to within plus or minus 100mm, just kiddin.

Also on the drawing board is an optical centre punch and a laser centre finder utilising your 2 dollar laser pointer.

Stay tuned for the next project!

Ken

Excellent work Ken thanks . plans and all . Mine will attach by an NT 30 taper . I got that finnished and running spot on less than .001 runout. I have it in the lathe spindle in an adapter and draw bar at the moment but have stalled on the blade lock up system.
I need to gather some intel as I am not a great original ideas man . I can study up on how to do things and understand fairly complex ideas but I don't seem to be able to come up with my own new and original ideas like some people can. I am very envious of people that can do that .
I will take in all the ideas and concepts and mull them around in my tiny little brain and eventually I may settle on something that is a combination of all . At this point the cells are still filling with data.