Don’t Do It

[kmmcrafts]

I recently bought some thumb screws and new set / anvil screws for my blade clamps for my old Hawk from McMaster. When browsing the website I seen they have flat end set screws and also seen they have them that have a swivel end similar to the swivel on the Excalibur/DeWalt. If they had them in the thumb screw I’d have tried them but figured probably useless in the set screw side. 
Anyway the flat bottom set screw the flat portion has a smaller surface than just a plain set screw. Probably would work well with larger blades but I had trouble with my #3 blades so just a heads up don’t try them if you run upon them as they probably won’t work. 
 

Now the thumb screws, every time I order these or get them from a hardware store the center in kind of concaved and they don’t work either unless I screw them into a board and dress the ends flat. If you’re not careful about dressing the ends you can get them on a angle and pretty much deem the new one useless . Which kind of puts you back to where you was and why you got new screws in the first place. I’m wondering if anyone had purchased them outside of the saw manufacturer and how / where do you find them machined with a flat surface to start with. 
 

I normally have decent success with drilling a appropriate sized hole in a scrap wood piece and screwing in (straight) the screws and sanding them. But even this sometimes for some reason not always presents me with a true square flat surface. I’m wondering about maybe the board warping or using the same one over time may make the board itself becoming unflattend. I have thought about threading a piece of flat stock steel to use which may be more stable? 
 

Anyway just a heads up on those flat set screws. Oh they do have smaller and larger flat end ones and yes I did order the larger ones. Possible they sent the wrong ones? I don’t know. I’m just not going to try them again. They would take a lot of sanding / grinding to get them down to the larger portion of the screw so dressing them wouldn’t work too well. 

[DME72]

kevin,  that is why i drill those out and make inserts like the dewalt and excaliber saws have. they work great. i made a set awile back for a member on here but i think he has since sold the saw.it is amazing what you can make with a little metal lathe and a few homemade jigs. the inserts i made do not the little o ring in them, but i put a dab of grease in the hole and i cant get an insert to fall out with normal use. i also thought about buying some of the thumbscrew kits from ray at seyco and using those. i just dont think there is enough of a demand for something like this to make it worth the time it takes to make them. it takes the longest time to make the small inserts as they get heat treated after making. let me know if anyone would like to see a picture of the set i made.

 

doug

[Rockytime]

17 minutes ago, DME72 said:

kevin,  that is why i drill those out and make inserts like the dewalt and excaliber saws have. they work great. i made a set awile back for a member on here but i think he has since sold the saw.it is amazing what you can make with a little metal lathe and a few homemade jigs. the inserts i made do not the little o ring in them, but i put a dab of grease in the hole and i cant get an insert to fall out with normal use. i also thought about buying some of the thumbscrew kits from ray at seyco and using those. i just dont think there is enough of a demand for something like this to make it worth the time it takes to make them. it takes the longest time to make the small inserts as they get heat treated after making. let me know if anyone would like to see a picture of the set i made.

 

doug

I would like to see photos. I can make them but wondered about falling out without the small O ring. I have the Seyco screws just to try. I have the Hegner Knobs with the rotating insert. I ordered  adjustable clamps from Mikes Workshop. Thinking about making the inserts for them. I can't seem to let things alone. The one in the photo is 6MM x 16. I've ordered 6MM x 10. Those will look better being shorter.

[DME72]

here is a photo of what i made. insert made of 0-1 drill rod and hardened. i bought a bag of 50 delrin thumb screw, and 50 1/4-20 screws. made a jig to hold the screw on lathe for drilling. it would have gone alot faster if i had bought the inserts from seyco, but i really like to make stuff.as i said in the previous post i dont have an o ring on mine just a dab of grease. it will not fall out. made these because bushton did not and will not offer these. pretty easy to make it just takes a little time.

 

doug

[Rockytime]

That's cool. The thumb screw looks ready made or am I confused?

[kmmcrafts]

Probably a dumb question but couldn't you use a drill press to drill out the thumb screw and provided you get the correct size hole drilled you could then buy the inserts from Seyco? The seyco ones would be a benefit to me since I have a Excalibur and keep replacements on hand for it.. plus once a thumb screw is drilled correctly you would never really need to have another thumb screw.. just need to replace the swivel ends. Probably a lot easier on a lathe but I don't have one, LOL  I'd like to try the swivel ends on the Hawks, too bad they used different threads so I can't just swap the Hawk ones out for the EX ones, LOL.. 

[Rockytime]

36 minutes ago, kmmcrafts said:

Probably a dumb question but couldn't you use a drill press to drill out the thumb screw and provided you get the correct size hole drilled you could then buy the inserts from Seyco? The seyco ones would be a benefit to me since I have a Excalibur and keep replacements on hand for it.. plus once a thumb screw is drilled correctly you would never really need to have another thumb screw.. just need to replace the swivel ends. Probably a lot easier on a lathe but I don't have one, LOL  I'd like to try the swivel ends on the Hawks, too bad they used different threads so I can't just swap the Hawk ones out for the EX ones, LOL.. 

Cant remember but aren't the Hawk threads 1/4-28?

[DME72]

kevin, i tried a drill press. could not get the hole centered right.  lots easier on a lathe.  bushton would not even supply the blade clamps unthreaded  so i could use the clamps from seyco. les the thread on the newer hawk saws is 1/4-20.  not sure about the older ones. really thought about buying a set from seyco and just using the inserts but seems like a waste to buy the kit only for the inserts.  later this evening i will post a picture of the jig i made to hold the screws on the lathe. les is going to laugh when he sees how easy a jig it is to make.

 

doug

[DME72]

kevin, the plastic ends come seprate  from the screws. they sell them in different colors and sizes. they have the big aluminum knurled ones also but i could not come up with a good way to drill them out and still accurate on the hole being centered. if you have a wood lathe and a few tools you could drill the screws out. just go slow.  a beall collet chuck and some scrap brass or aluminum rod drilled and threaded to screw thread size and you can drill on a wood lathe. i have done it before i got my taig lathe. 

 

doug

[kmmcrafts]

2 hours ago, DME72 said:

 really thought about buying a set from seyco and just using the inserts but seems like a waste to buy the kit only for the inserts. 

Are you talking about a set of thumb screws or the insert kit? Ray sells a kit but it is also with the set screw which would be useless for the Hawk saws. I wonder if you reached out to Ray if he'd sell just those insert tips without the set screws. I guess you have a way to make your own so that is understandable. I wasn't sure if you was taking about buying thumb screws just for this tips or the rebuild kit. 

https://www.seyco.com/quick-clamp-renewal-kit/

[DME72]

kevin, i am talking about the insert kit.  i will try and post pictures after while. 

 

doug

[OCtoolguy]

I don't have a lathe or the desire to make my own clamp screws but I'm totally interested in this thread. I too love to make stuff so it is of interest to me. If I was younger, I might have to buy a small metal lathe but I have no room and another learning curve may not be in my lifetime.

 

[Rockytime]

50 minutes ago, octoolguy said:

I don't have a lathe or the desire to make my own clamp screws but I'm totally interested in this thread. I too love to make stuff so it is of interest to me. If I was younger, I might have to buy a small metal lathe but I have no room and another learning curve may not be in my lifetime.

 

Learning to use a small lathe is not rocket science and not really not prohibitively expensive. It is the tooling that really costs. A Taig lathe is small and capable of small precision. I don't have one but am very familiar with them. Google it. You will have the opportunity so start a whole new hobby.

[barb.j.enders]

I purchased the insets from a local repair shop who ordered them from King.  I then took the set screw to a local bolt supply house and purchased 1/2 dozen set screws.  It was way cheaper than ordering from any usual places.

[OCtoolguy]

21 hours ago, Rockytime said:

Learning to use a small lathe is not rocket science and not really not prohibitively expensive. It is the tooling that really costs. A Taig lathe is small and capable of small precision. I don't have one but am very familiar with them. Google it. You will have the opportunity so start a whole new hobby.

Just what I need is another hobby. Thanks! But, I'll put it on my bucket list,. We may be moving in the future and if I end up with a shop that permits more stuff, I'll add one of those to it.

 

[DME72]

[DME72]

here is the picture of what i use to to make the thumb screws. sorry it took so long. 

 

doug

[Rockytime]

2 hours ago, DME72 said:

here is the picture of what i use to to make the thumb screws. sorry it took so long. 

 

doug

Thanks. Very cool. That's the same as I used, the socket head cap screw. I didn't drill it out but just ground it flat and polished a bit. Instead of a wing knob I made a round knob. Nice job making the little insert.

[DME72]

les, you know mcmaster carr sells the wing knob as well as knurled aluminum knobs. they however do not sell what i made. next time i think i will buy the inserts from seyco and save some time.

 

doug

[Rockytime]

24 minutes ago, DME72 said:

les, you know mcmaster carr sells the wing knob as well as knurled aluminum knobs. they however do not sell what i made. next time i think i will buy the inserts from seyco and save some time.

 

doug

I could order the knobs but I like using my mill to make round knobs with flutes instead of knurls. I have a couple of Seyco knobs. Also I have lots of aluminium left over from my machining days. What lathe do you have?

[DME72]

les, i have a taig lathe, a taig mill and lots of tooling.only thing about the taig is no way to cut threads. you have to use taps and dies. not a big deal as most what i do is small stuff. i bought both for my other hobby of pen making, which i like but nobody wants to buy a pen for the amount of time and money i have in it. i guess i could say the same for my scroll saw stuff also. just a fun hobby.

 

doug

[Rockytime]

1 hour ago, DME72 said:

les, i have a taig lathe, a taig mill and lots of tooling.only thing about the taig is no way to cut threads. you have to use taps and dies. not a big deal as most what i do is small stuff. i bought both for my other hobby of pen making, which i like but nobody wants to buy a pen for the amount of time and money i have in it. i guess i could say the same for my scroll saw stuff also. just a fun hobby.

 

doug

I have a couple of friends that have the Taig lathe and mill. Nice little machines. All my big machinery is gone, Bridgeport and nice 12 inch lathe. My age and strength no longer allowed me to bigger projects. I still have a Sherline lathe and mill, Grizzly mini-mill, MaxMat 7 lathe. I do very little in them anymore. I also made pens for several years just giving the pens away. After while I ran out of people to give them to and it gets pretty expensive if you can't sell. I sold all the pen stuff including several hundred blanks. Small fortune there. Kept the wood lathe and chucks. I don't sell my scroll work either. It just stacks up.

I think this thread has been hijacked!