Saw Arbors for the Dummy Woodworker

10-inch sliding compound miter saw, double-bevel

We're pretty certain that the vast majority of the self-appointed freelancers (especially the self-described "professional journalists") in the eHow.com bullpen were only in it for the money. We'd like to think that a real professional journalist is in the game to inform the public, but based on the twaddle that often made it onto the eHow.com website, "information" was rarely a consideration. The worst offenders are the ones who grabbed a topic, flailed at it like a toddler with a flyswatter, and then moved on to the next topic... like Hunker's Lucy Friend in "What is the Arbor Size for a Miter Saw?"

Friend's problems, as you'll learn, were two-fold: first, she knew jack about miter saws – about saws in general, most likely. That didn't preclude her from actually finding a reasonable answer to the question:

"For 8-inch and 10-inch miter saws, the standard arbor size is 5/8 inch. Miter saws that are 12 inches require a 1-inch arbor."

That's more or less true; it's actually the blade that requires the arbor size, not the saw, but she's basically on point. We've heard that some imported saws have metric-sized arbors, but cannot comment. Lucy's second, and much more pressing problem, however, was that she was forced by DMS¹ to expand that answer from less than 25 words to more than 300. Along the way, Friend inserted such baffling claims as,

• "The arbor is aligned with a long, thin hole in the frame, which allows materials to be cut clean through." – In reality, Lucy, the arbor is at right angles to that "hole" (actually a slot).
• "A miter saw generally comes in three standard sizes: 8 inch, 10 inch or 12 inch. All three sizes can accomplish large cutting tasks. A specific blade is used with each size miter saw. The blades are designed for different types of cutting requirements." – That's nearly impossible to unpack, really.
• "The blade is typically made from carbide" – No, the blades are made of steel. Some blades have carbide teeth brazed on.
• "Retail miter saws are sold with an arbor and bevel." – A saw would be worthless without an arbor, Lucy. There are some miter saws that don't have a bevel, but they're typically called "chop saws."
• "Some miter saws have a mounted laser for a precise cut at angles up to 47 degrees." – No, Lucy, the laser doesn't control the precision of the angle... idiot!

Sure, there's a kernel of truth in what Friend vomited up on the eHow website years ago, but this is precisely the sort of junk content that made eHow the laughingstock of the internet and the poster child for content farms and the Panda update. We mean, really: a website that wouldn't allow Wikipedia as a source still published this kind of crap? No, Lucy clearly had no idea what she was talking about. Sure, she managed to come up with a reasonable answer, but it's surrounded by dross. What our Dumbass of the Day published here is the literary equivalent of a Snickers® bar floating in the middle of a septic tank. ¹ DMS = Demand Media Studios, now known as Leaf Group. That's a shame, because while you can't spell "dumbass" without "DMS," you can easily spell it without "LG."

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