Quote:
Originally posted by Lloyd Burns
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After all that, have you thought of using a Woodruff Key Seat Cutter. It's like a thick circular saw blade with a perpendicular shaft through its centre, and it cuts a round bottomed hole the width of the key into the side of your shaft. If you're extremely careful, you could use a really good drill press and cut a key hole in your shaft.
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Don't even consider doing it on a drill press! I have broken two woodruff cutters using a proper mill and vice. Now, I don't really know what I am doing, apparently, but it seems like these small woodruff cutters are kind of delicate and any vibration or sloppiness and they snap. Plus for the key to work it needs to fit tight.
Best: purchase shaft with the keyway already cut. This is a common, cheap, item available just about everywhere. Or, you could order it from McMaster. Just look in the yellow pages under machine tools supplies.
If you pin, consider using rolled pins: they have a bit of "give" and don't snap like the hardened steel pins.