So, I want to shorten the shaft of my bur, but what is the best
way to do this? I would appreciate any help in this matter.
I generally use a jewelers saw for cutting them short, which is
pretty quick. If the steel is too hard for the saw (unlikely) then a
separating disc will do it.
any heavy bur should have its shank shortened by about one-third in
order to seat it more deeply into the handpiece of the Flex-Shaft.
Try a collet handpiece. It provides a better grip and makes
shortening the shaft of a bur unnecessary Rio has an entire page of
collet-type handpieces in their tool catalog.
So, I want to shorten the shaft of my bur, but what is the best
way to do this? I would appreciate any help in this matter.
Here’s how I’d do it.
Put the bur in a pin vise.
Mark the spot the cut will be made.
Put a new cutoff disc in your flexshaft.
Cut the bur off at the mark. When getting close to finishing the cut
hold the bur end with a needle nose pliers so it won’t go flying off
to never never land.
Clean up any burrs left on the cut end of the bur.
the best way to shorten the shaft of the bur is to wear thick safety
gloves and hold that bur in you glove incase of heat. start to rotate
the bur ever so slowly, why? this way you won’t have any build up
excessive heat and ruin the bur…immerse the heated bur into water
after after every contact to the bench 3 1/2 inch grinding wheel…if
your bur is starting to discolour this means that the steel is
starting to soften. rotate your bur slowly while applying contact. do
so until the ground area is thin enough to bend and break apart with
your fingers.
once this done, you can gingerly remove the pointed section of the
bur shaft. once done you can remove any rough edges of the shortened
shaft to your likening…
couple ways I would do this, first you could figure how much you want
removed, go to the bench grinder with a wet paper towel & proceed to
grind the excess off by running / grinding a ring around the shank
to remove the excess, or, you can clamp it firmly in a bench vise &
expose the portion to be removed again make sure it is clamped firmly
& whack the exposed portion smartly with a med. ball pein hammer, the
end will break off and you can grind the rough end smooth. the wet
paper towel will prevent the hardness/ temper from being removed and
unlike a rag if the wheel happens to catch it , it just tears away
with no effect.
I would use a cutoff wheel. If the resulting angle isn’t precisely
90 degrees it isn’t critical. A cutoff wheel will do it fairly
quickly without bending or deforming the shaft.