Anyone besides me that refaces flanges on all their saws / grinders?

[John Blazy]

This is a tip for those that hate run-out, or wobble in blades or wheels on new tools. I started this habit on my Unisaw back in the early 90's when I bought it, because the blade wobbled due to the flange being out of perfect flat.

My methods vary from scraping the flange face with a carbide cutter to simply clamping the tool or the grinder and re-grinding the flange until its truly concentric / in plane with the radius.

Seems like all power tools with a threaded spindle and flange to mount blades / wheels have the flange simply press fit onto the spindle with no QC check or subsequent machining for true concentricity. I am actually surprised when I buy a cheap grinder from Harbor Freight and the wheels run without wobble, but that is the exception, not the norm.

So I would recommend anyone buying a new machine (ESPECIALLY a table saw), that they reface the flange as soon as they plug it in. My unisaw required half a day of grinding / carbide scraping to get the flange true, but it was well worth it. What's the point of mounting a nice Forrest or FS Tool blade if only half the blade cuts?

Once I did this successfully, I went around to all my tools and refaced the flanges (chopsaw, grinders etc).

It takes a little bit of tinkering to set up a tool rest for the carbide cutter (or grinder) for scraping the high spots, but once you set it up, even holding a carbide bit in vise grips and manually refacing the spinning flange is better than leaving it the way it came from the factory.

The next pet peeve of mine is disc sanders that are out of true. I have refaced entire plastic disc faces on air tools just so that the disc runs flat without the vibration. That's a whole nuther story.

Anyone else have solutions to bad run-out on tools? Maybe one should open the box and check all this ahead of time before buying.

[David Kumm]

I reface the flanges and spacers on my old saws.333674333675333676 Here are a few. Most are about 5" diameter and the arbor and flange assemblies in particular need to be flattened relative to the stub arbor they are screwed into. The saws run up to 18" blades so a little out is too much. Dave

[John Blazy]

You know exactly what Im talkin about, Dave. Do you reface them while on the saw, while running, or do you remove them, like it appears in your pics?

I like refacing flanges while the machine is running, then you know that its true - the tough part is fixturing the tool rests etc.

[Andrew Hughes]

Hi John,Do you have any pics of the fixture.I have a Old Davis and wells table saw that could use a little help.My poor saw was abused by its previous owner.

[Matt Day]

I'll be truing my table saw arbor soon, with either a jig mounted Dremel or sharpening stone. Some good pictures online.

If you guys do it differently, could you share your method?

[Tom M King]

I didn't do it myself, but pulled the part and had a machine shop do it.

[John Blazy]

333687Srry that I don't have any real good photos of this refacing technique, because I am too focused on flattening my machine than taking pictures. But I did find a pic of when I refaced the plate of my diamond lap when I bought it. It shows the basic concept of refacing by scraping with carbide. I grabbed that big bull nose bit with vise grips and held it against the fence (wood) in the picture, scraped / cut the high spots and measured the run-out til it was flat.

Same concept was used on refacing all the flanges of my saws and grinders. Its up to YOU to figure out the tool rest / fixturing for your specific tool.


Maybe as a little help, I remember that when I refaced my table saw flange, I recall tilting the arbor full 45 degrees and raising the arbor up full ht to get the flange as close as possible to the table, and I bridged over the throat with a pc of steel as a tool rest for the carbide-in- vise-grips process.

Here is a little more detail: First - determine that there are "high spots" - easily identified when re-facing, as half the flange will show machining, and other half will be untouched. I often prefer to reface with an electric 4" grinder, clamped or fixed near the flange where I can kiss it to the spinning flange, very lightly. SOmetimes carbide works, if the space is too small too get a grinder in there.


Sometimes you have to mount a blade (that you know is flat, without its own wobble), and physically mark the high spots, then manually lap the high spots with a flat file, remount the blade and check again.

[David Kumm]

Mine are done by my machinist. Because there are several spacers to allow for dados, and references very close to the arbor and a second at the rim, there is no real way to secure the spacers so each is done separately. My saws are usually direct drive so everything has to reference off the motor mounts. When they are reground, I usually need a new one made so the steel rule imbedded in the table lines up.333688333689 Dave

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, my last two saws haven't required any correction (General 650 and Hammer B3).

My Sears saw did require some correction...........Regards, Rod.

[Bruce Page]

"Anyone besides me that refaces flanges on all their saws / grinders?"

Yep, you are not alone in your quest. My Delta flanges were so bad that I re-machined them, first facing them on my lathe and then fly cutting the small side dead nuts parallel. My Unisaw flange was good to go.

[John Blazy]

Dayam. You are taking this to the next level, Bruce.