Worm drive saw with 5/8 arbor concentricity

[Yorbahandy]

I have an SSC SR5 panel saw that comes with a Bosch/Skil motor.  It's a good panel saw BUT, the saw arbor allows way to much play with a 5/8 bore saw blade.  The saw arbor is a 5/8 shaft that has a semi-square end.  I think this is the same arbor that is often adapted to a diamond flange for hand operated skil saws.  When used as it is by SSC, the squared off end does not allow a precise fit to the saw blade such that it can by up to 0.030 out of round as the diamond arbor is not used.  And no, I'm not exaggerating, the blade is 1/32 out of round which makes a mess out of fine plywood cross cuts even with a new high quality blade.  The problem seems to be the squared off shaft is 0.610 at its widest point and the blade is 0.0625.  I would like to know if anyone else has experienced this issue.  In reading reviews for the SP99 skill table saws it seems the same problem may apply.  I can't imagine putting up with this in a table saw, so maybe others have figured out how to make a 0.007 x 3/16 cylindrical shim to solve the problem?

 

Thanks

 

Don

[Yorbahandy]

I ended up putting a thin 6" strip of 0.002 brass shim stock around the saw blade arbor hole.  This works, but it's a pain to install and crimp the edges so it doesn't fall out when installing.

 

Even with the concentricity problem fixed, I still had to tape the plywood cross cut first to avoid tearing up the edge.  I'm old enough to remember when plywood veneers were 30 mil not 6 or 7, I wish the mills still sold it that way.

 

Don