Replies

1. 
   burk | Apr 09, 2004 05:51am | #1

   I had an old shop teacher who taught me to keep the nut on my middle finger and trap it between my index finger, ring finger and thumb. Of course he was missing one of those. It's been a long time since I dropped an arbour nut.

1. 
   Dave45 | Apr 09, 2004 04:15pm | #2

   I'll give that a try today - although I'm not sure my fingers will move like they may need to. - lol

2. 
   DBishop | Apr 09, 2004 08:20pm | #3

   Dave-

   Do you mind sharing where you got them and what Dado set you are using?  WOuld they work with all Dado sets?

1. 
   Dave45 | Apr 10, 2004 04:37am | #4

   That's odd.  I answered this earlier but now it isn't here, so I'll do it again.

   I got my magnetic shims from Post Tool here in San Jose.  They're essentially that flexible stuff used for refrigerator magnets.  A set of six costs around $16 and includes [email protected]", [email protected]", and [email protected]".  Mine fit a 5/8" arbor.  Other arbor sizes and thicknesses may be available.

   I know that I'm sold.  Dado setup now takes me under two minutes.  Before, it could take several minutes to get everything to stay put while I put on the arbor nut.

   The picture shows the dado set.  I made the box from some leftover scrap from another project.

   Edited 4/9/2004 9:39 pm ET by Dave

   
1. 
   milanuk | Apr 10, 2004 05:14am | #5

   Another source is the ones from Lee Valley:

   http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.asp?page=30063&category=1,41080,41165,41173&abspage=1&ccurrency=2&SID=

   HTH,

   Monte

1. 
   Dave45 | Apr 10, 2004 03:41pm | #6

   These might work, but wouldn't they also want to slip down into the arbor threads?  I'm afraid I would also wind up dropping them (and the tweezers) into the saw cabinet.

   I like the magnetic shims because they stick to the blade or chipper that's been installed and stay in place while I put in the next chipper or blade.  For a while, I was licking the metal shims to get them to 'stick' but I started getting some rust spots on the dado blades/chippers.

2. 
   reinvent | Apr 11, 2004 08:30pm | #7

   Wow those are strong magnets. They even stick to wood! ;-)

1. 
   Dave45 | Apr 11, 2004 09:54pm | #8

   Actually, we have really strong gravity around here.........and it works sideways - lol