Made a new revolving handle for the shaper

[nc5a]

First, I hope I never have to make any more of these. They're a major pain in the ass to make on a manual lathe, especially using 4130. I also did a weld repair on the handle using muggy rod for cast iron.

I started with a profile of the handle and dimensions I wanted. Then I drilled and bored the center of the 1 1/4" diameter handle for the shaft. Then using the DRO I plunged a cutoff tool to the correct depth every 1/4". Then I went back and cleaned up between the plunges with the cutoff tool. The rest of the cleanup and profiling was done with files and emery paper. The shaft was made from a 1/2" X 5" grade 8 bolt. I didn't keep track of the time but I'd bet it took me every bit of 5 hours.

[nc5a]

A couple more photos of the handle.

[danlb]

Looks like you did a fine job. Worth the effort, I'd say.

Dan

[nc5a]

Is there a way to post the photo instead of the link to the photo when using Imgur?

[BCRider]

Oddly enough I did one of these handle shapes for my own shaper just a few days ago. Two things that I did make it sound like I had an easier time of it than it sounds like you did. First is I used a wider slightly curved end HSS blunt nosed tool with a little back rake to do the basic forming. Made a sketch like you did by the sounds of it and instead of the plunges just did it by eye coordinating the X and Y together. Low speed, cutting oil and support from the tail stock on a nib at the end which was cut off later did a nice job of controlling chatter.

It still came out looking lumpy and not all curvy. I was looking at some extra two axis skimming and a LOT of nasty filing. But then I decided to put my angle grinder to work with a face flap sanding disc. Masked off the bed well, a little less than medium speed on the lathe and then sanded the handle to a pleasing shape. THAT went really fast!

Total time to get the shape turned out to be around an hour including the tool and basic turning with the hole. Then I was stuck for more than two hours trying to make a retention setup that would work. It didn't work worth a hoot and in the end I dropped a super magnet down the hole which is holding the rotating handle to the shaft pretty darn nicely, spins well with a bit of oil and a spot of grease and takes a pretty decent tug to get it to release. So I'm going with it for now.

I gotta also agree with the others. It came out really nice looking in the end.

[J Tiers]

Is there a way to post the photo instead of the link to the photo when using Imgur?

Yes.

If you click on the photo when looking at the "images" page, you will see the photo enlarged, with a toolbar to the right. The bottom selection should be the one you want, it is the "image link" for forums. Click the button, and your clipboard should now have the image link that will show the pic. The left part will show up green if it happened correctly. Best to have it at 800 x 600 for the forum.

[nc5a]

Thanks JT

The images are now in the post, much easier to view the photos. Although I reduced the original to 600 X 800 it still looks too big.

[RichR]

Thanks JT

The images are now in the post, much easier to view the photos. Although I reduced the original to 600 X 800 it still looks too big.

That's because they are still 3072 x 2304 pixels.

[CCWKen]

That looks great! You did a fine job using the step process too. A big thumbs up!

Thanks for the inline pictures too.

[nc5a]

RichR,

Thanks for the tip. When I uploaded the photos to imgur I selected to reduce the sizes of all photos to 800 X 600 but I guess it didn't work. I'll try to fix it.

[quasi]

nice job