Recycled dumbbells

[Big Shed]

Some time ago I picked up a set of dumbbells in a garage sale (for a princely $2 the set), mainly for the cast iron disks, maybe for some backplates or face plates.

However when I was looking for some 25mm plus bar for some slitting saw arbors, I discovered I had none left, I spotted the 2 bars from the dumbbells and wondered they would do the trick. Pretty rusty and wasn't sure whether there was still some chrome plating under all that rust.



Nothing ventured nothing gained, put some in the lathe and took some off using a 10mm indexed carbide tool.



Turned it down to 1/2" to fit my 1/2" R8 arbor



Milled a flat on it



Turned a tenon to to fit in the slitting saw



Cut that part off on the bandsaw



Bored out the recess for the tenon



Tapped for M6 socket head



Recessed cap for socket head




Yay, it fits



Made a few more whle I was at it, from L to R, 60x1mm, 60x0.8mm and 40x0.5mm (that one came out another piece of smaller diameter bar)

[Sterob]

Very nice Fred!!!
All ready for when you next them....

[tanii51]

well done big shed yes ive tried some of that steel because it was inexpensive and it seems to machine very nicely the big long bars can be gotten at garage sales etc for a few dollars
john

[wheelinround]

Nice BS real nice recycled steel ideas love them

[Bryan]

Fred, let us know how the saws perform. I bought some a while back, along with a universal arbour that takes numerous sizes. Seemed to have a lot of runout. You could hear it cutting on only half of the turn. I blamed the arbour and made a MT one for my lathe spindle, not unlike yours. Same problem. Turns out the hole in the blade is off centre by 15 thou! So I either make a special eccentric arbour or bin it. I've gone off ozmestore since then.

[Big Shed]

Bryan, haven't had a chance to use them yet on my new arbors, but I have used the 60x1.0mm on the ozmestore universal arbor. There was some runout (didn't measure it) this was partly the reason why I made these.The other being that I wanted these saw blades on dedicated arbor and I was too cheap to buy one for each saw blade.

There was a discussion on one of the US metal forums recently about runout on slitting saws and the general opinion was that it wasn't the arbors, either the universal one or home made ones, but the actual slitting saws.

People were saying it didn't matter whether you bought the cheapies, like these from ozmestore, or the expensive ones, they all had runout.

I guess if I still have runout I may try mounting the saw blade in a jaw chuck and grind the mounting hole with a Dremel. If I do that I will have to re-work thse arbors of course.

For what I use these slitting saws for it doesn't matter that much, I use them to cut slits in expanding mandrels for pen turning.

[Jekyll and Hyde]

Hooray, I'm not the only one to recycle weights! Good work!

[Dave J]

Great work Fred
Nothing better than turning something old and unused into something useful.
Those arbours will come in handy and at least having a few you wont have to be remounting saws all the time.

Dave

[eskimo]

great job eh guys

all he has do is make us all some

[Big Shed]

Nothing better than turning something old and unused into something useful.
Dave

Yeah, wouldn't it

All jokes aside, it is very satisfying to make your own tooling like this and a lot of fun to make various bits and pieces for my pen turning.

I realise I'll never be a "proper" machinist, but I'm getting a real buzz out of making things you either can't buy, are hard to get or just for the fun of making them.

And it keeps me off the streets.

[Big Shed]

all he has do is make us all some

.....dumbbells you mean

[jatt]

And it keeps me off the streets. Yeah shes pretty wild out that way!!! He he Gotta get my act into gear and do the rounds of the garage sales. Some of the heavier weights on gym equipment would look mighty fine as counterweights on the tractor.

[Dave J]

I realise I'll never be a "proper" machinist, but I'm getting a real buzz out of making things you either can't buy, are hard to get or just for the fun of making them.

Who wants to be a proper machinist with a boss breathing down you neck to get things done on time.

It doesn't matter how much you know,, it's all about enjoying yourself and having fun making things. No one will ever know everything, and there is always something new around the corner.

Keep up the good work Fred.

Dave

[RayG]

I realise I'll never be a "proper" machinist, but I'm getting a real buzz out of making things you either can't buy, are hard to get or just for the fun of making them.

Hi Big Shed,

Not so sure about that, those arbors look pretty professional to me... nice work.

Turning scrap into useful things, is the opposite of what I usually achieve...

Dave's got it spot on, it's about enjoying yourself making things..

Regards
Ray