Belsaw mill saw collars

[bandmiller2]

Hog farmer,had some trouble trying to post on this topic started a new thread.What your saw doc was talking about was how the fast collar was attached to the shaft most are pinned ,keyed and then pressed or heat shrunk on the arbor shaft.What hes saying is belsaw just pressed the fast collar on, if its loose it would require a new collar,they must be rock solid togather.600 rpm would be a little better but 550 was used because of the tractor PTO speed.The fast saw collar is the most critical part of the mill for even a slight runout at the collar is magnified out at the saw rim.A standard headsaw has a two inch hole and two 1/2" drive pins.Some Belsaws used a bastard sized saw hole a little smaller than 2".If you clean ,lightly oil the fast collar you can check for runout with a dial indicator,2 or 3 thousands of an inch runout is acceptable.A properly machined collar should be recessed from the arbor to within about 3/4 " of the outside and that should have a slight taper so the outside of the collar hits first three or four thou.is enough although a little more won't hurt.I set the compound on the lathe at half a degree which is close.If your collar is tight on the shaft but is not running true many saw docs and sawmill supply outfits have a tool that will remachine the collar on the mill.Boath collars should be the same ,the  loose collar conformes to the fast one.Drive pins are quite important,without them if a saw hangs it will tend to over tighten the nut and deform the collars.All this said if the mill is cutting good and true  you don't mess with anything.Frank C.