Old Imperial Table saw... metric blades

[Ringus]

Hi All,

I recently bought my self a very old MULTICO table saw. Its an old British company long since gone. So old its in imperial but is a lovely big slab of cast iron . Its a bit of a project piece for me which I hope to bring up to modern standards on a side issue advice welcome.

But first things first someone mentioned you can my a bushel to adapt a metric blade to an imperial machine. I m pretty sure I have seen these..but for the life of me I can not find them. Anyone know where to get these ?

Many thanks

 

[Distinterior]

It depends on the arbor size of your Multico saw but here is an example of a saw blade reducing bush.....

https://www.axminster.co.uk/blade-reduc ... sel=810359

They list a few different sizes for imperial arbors, 5/8" and 1".

 

[Ringus]

you star, thank you I was starting to think I imagined it .

 

[Mike Jordan]

There are plenty of saws still in use with imperial size bores. You local saw doctor is a good place to enquire if non of the axi ones are right.

 

[Ttrees]

I just bought an Axi bush for a 5/8" arbor.
It seems good quality compared to some that I've seen.
Tom

 

[MusicMan]

Maybe you were searching for bushels rather than bushes?

Perfectly OK using bushes on an imperial saw. My Wadkin has 5/8" arbor, and I have used blades with 30 mm holes and the appropriated bushes for years.

The only thing to be careful of is that your bushes is no thicker than your blade, because then the blade will not be clamped. So I have a couple of bushes, to suit my thicker and thinner blades.

 

[Trevanion]

Also something to keep in mind is if your saw has cupped flanges the bushing can actually fall out into the gaps inside the cups which can allow the blade to free float on the shaft and come loose with spectacular effect, like this:

[youtube]PV8RxG3u4Ek[/youtube]

Some people pein their bushings into the blade but I don't think it's great practice as it can warp the saw plate, you can get serrated bushings which are quite a firm fit once tapped into place. Also cheap saw bushings tend to be not that accurate as they're basically a glorified nut and bolt washer stamped out of a sheet, if you have a precision-turned one like the ones I've made in the past for my saws it makes a massive difference to vibration on the whole.

If anyone ever wants one let me know :wink:

 

[Sideways]

If you have an imperial Inch and a quarter spindle, you could also have this machined down very slightly to fit metric 30mm bore sawblades. This will make more and current blades available to you. You'll need a trustworthy machine shop and will need to change one or both flanges as well, depending how the spindle reduction is done.