Dado Shim Removal Continued

Paul Douglass

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S E Washington State
Rennie give a tip in the Tips and Tutorial section that I can't respond to, I'm not allowed. I looked his picture and it gave me an idea on how maybe to even improve on his tip. I have not tried this, it is just an idea that popped into my head when I looked the picture. He uses a magnet, good idea for sure, but, it also looked like you would still have to gently remove the shim trying not to get it hung in the threads. That could be difficult with my shaky old hands. What if a person took a block of wood, say 1 1/4" square, maybe 2 inches long. Drilled a hole through it the size of the arbor, 5/8", and imbeded (humm says imbeded is not a word well you get the idea), a couple or three rare earth magnets in the end. Slip that over the arbor and the magnets grab the shim, pull it back off the arbor. Seems like that would hold the shim off the threads. It works great in my head!
 
... What if a person took a block of wood, say 1 1/4" square, maybe 2 inches long. Drilled a hole through it the size of the arbor, 5/8", and imbeded (humm says imbeded is not a word well you get the idea), a couple or three rare earth magnets in the end. Slip that over the arbor and the magnets grab the shim, pull it back off the arbor. Seems like that would hold the shim off the threads. It works great in my head!

Sounds like a great idea that I might try! But, I think one would need to make the hole large enough to move around a bit to allow for a shim that slipped into the arbor thread by the blade. The problem I have is trying to get a grip on the shim while it's against the blade. A magnetic device solves that problem, so the next step is aligning the shim to center on the arbor.
 
I recently discovered magnetic shims, (came with a new dado set I bought a while ago). They are da' bomb. No more fighting a shim stuck on the threads, just slap it on the blade or chipper before you put it in the saw and they stay put pretty well.


Also, just as a perverted thought that popped into my head, I currently have six dado sets floating around the shop. lol
 
A magnet won't grab a playing card well (economy shims .011" +/-), but double sided tape will. I like the idea. I'll have to give it a try!
 
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