# Best Homemade Tools >  Rotary Broaching Tool

## rossbotics

What inspired me to make this tool was I wanted to make a speed handle for my mill vise, I have never been fond of any milling machine vise handle, while the original handle is satisfactory I still like things to be a bit more user friendly, the original handle is to awkward when having to open the vise up more than an inch or so, they have a tendency to fall off and hit your big toe nail, while speed handles are readily available I still prefer to make my own tools, store bought tools today aren’t what they use to be, there is very little quality anymore,

Making a new handle for the vise is easy; it’s the hexagonal hole in the handle that becomes a can of worms, shops with a punch press would have no problem with this setup, but unfortunately there isn’t one of those beasts sitting in my shop, after watching numerous videos on You Tube and reading about rotary broaching I decided that this was the most practical way for me to tackle this 9/16” hexagonal hole.
This is not a tool you will put in your arsenal that will be used on a regular basis but it will be a great tool to have when that moment arrives, instead of putting a screw driver slot or a hexagon on the head of a special bolt that you made now you can put a socket head for an allen wrench, 

The concept of how the tool works is simple, instead of pushing straight down on all six points of the broach at one time like a punch press would do the broach’s axis is tilted 1°, as the broach rotates it only makes contact on one point of the hexagonal broach at a time, making it easy to push the broach thru a predrilled hole, I ran the lathes spindle at 600 RPM’s

There are only four parts to make, the arbor, bearing housing, spindle and broaching tool, the spindle rotates in a SKF-5204 double row angular contact bearing and end pressure is absorbed by a NICE-607 thrust bearing, the three main parts were machined from 4140 pre-hardened steel, the 3/8”-1/2” and 9/16” hexagon punches were made from O-1 tool steel hardened and ground, square punches and form tools can be made as well.

Below you will see some photos of the machining steps of the tool being made and a video broaching a 9/16” hexagon hole, along with 4 drawings at the bottom of this page for anyone wanting to make this tool.

As always thanks for looking
And happy machining

Doug



All parts made for the Rotary Broaching Tool



Bearing housing bored for the angular contact bearing and thrust bearing



A 1° angle has been milled on the backside of the bearing housing along with the tongue and two 1/4"-20 holes



This is the arbor with two adjusting slots and a groove for the tongue on the bearing housing to mate



This photo shows the unit assembled and installed in a collet on the lathe, a 1/2" dowel pin is protruding 1" from the face of the bearing, this is where the it has to be running true, all punches were made the same length so indicating was only necessary one time, make the punches the same length no matter what size they are and indicating will only have to be done one time, it's just a matter of changing punches



This photo shows the unit held in a 5/8" collet on the lathe and being turned true after the indicating



This photo shows the hex punches being made



This photo shows the punches being ground after heat treating



This photo shows the hub for the mill vise handle being drilled and tapped for the three spokes



This photo shows all the parts made for the speed handle



Speed handle complete and install on the mill vise

Here is a video of the hex being cut using the rotary broaching tool




Below are the 4 drawings to make this tool, good luck, and post your completed tool !



Drawing of Arbor (above)



Drawing of Spindle Housing (above)



Drawing of Spindle (above)



Drawing of Punch (above)

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bigtrev8xl (Mar 2, 2018),

brianhw (Jul 11, 2017),

Carlos B (Jul 10, 2017),

emu roo (Sep 29, 2022),

evilwrench01 (Mar 2, 2021),

high-side (Oct 11, 2019),

Home-PC (Sep 30, 2022),

jjr2001 (Feb 28, 2018),

Jon (Jul 10, 2017),

LMMasterMariner (Jul 11, 2017),

mr_modify1 (Oct 13, 2022),

mudnducs (Jul 10, 2017),

nova_robotics (Mar 9, 2021),

Okapi (Jul 14, 2017),

olderdan (Jul 10, 2017),

PaulM (Nov 2, 2018),

Seedtick (Jul 10, 2017),

StephenL (Sep 3, 2017),

thehomeengineer (Feb 4, 2020),

Toolmaker51 (Jul 12, 2017),

Toolmqr (Jul 10, 2017),

VegeKev (Feb 28, 2018),

Woodgeezr (Jul 11, 2017)

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## Carlos B

Very nice job, well done Doug. Thats a very large, clean, well equipped,(I don't have enough words) professional looking shop you have there.

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## Jim Deprey

Hi Doug, great job. I really like this Broaching tool. Will you publish the plans? The first photo 
seems to have a very good set of plans. 
Jim D

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## rossbotics

Hi Jim
Thanks for the compliment, as soon as I go over the plans just to make sure there are no errors they will be available to download

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## Ralphxyz

I would have liked to see the hex off the chuck maybe with an allen wrench.

But nice tool looking forward to seeing the plans.

Ralph

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## rossbotics

Thanks Ralph
I didn't have a 9/16" allen wrench, but it goes on the hex of the vise shaft and that's where it's being shown it fits

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## jrouche

Very nice work and documentation. JR

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## DIYer

Thanks rossbotics! We've added your Rotary Broaching Tool to our Machining category,
as well as to your builder page: rossbotics's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:















Rotary Broaching Tool
 by rossbotics

tags:
broach, rotary tool

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## LMMasterMariner

Doug,
You built nice tools, both of them. Thanks for sharing.
I also have the very same problem with original milling vise handle and I am using 19 mm (3/4") combination spanner for that purpose. It's 6" machine vise, little bit big for this mill, but this size is very useful sometimes. Even I have three 19mm spanners, I am always using the same spanner for drawbar. As I can see from your posts we have the same mill/drill (HF40939 mini knee mill) but the only difference is that my riser block is 5" high and I think your one is about 3 1/2 - 4" high. I am also thinking about making speed handle, but it will take me some more time as my idea is to do it on the lathe in the same way as cutting keyways.
Best regards
LMMasterMariner

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## mudnducs

Do you have info on the bearings?

nevermind...reread. :Embarrassed:

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## rossbotics

Thanks Guy
Yes I noticed we have the same mill too, my riser block is 4" which really helped, this is the first small milling machine I ever owned, my other mills were all 9" X 42"-49" tables, but this mill has allot of power and it's pretty darn beefy too, I was skeptical of buying it at first for the thought of it not being rigid enough, but after having it for a few years now I would most definitely buy another one, 
Broaching a hex in the hub of the speed handle like a key way was my first thought, and to be honest I didn't want to make a tool for just one setup, but oh well I'll use it for making socket head cap screws and so on,

Thanks for your comments
Doug

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## CHP

> What inspired me to make this tool was I wanted to make a speed handle for my mill vise, I have never been fond of any milling machine vise handle, while the original handle is satisfactory I still like things to be a bit more user friendly, the original handle is to awkward when having to open the vise up more than an inch or so, they have a tendency to fall off and hit your big toe nail, while speed handles are readily available I still prefer to make my own tools, store bought tools today arent what they use to be, there is very little quality anymore,
> 
> Making a new handle for the vise is easy; its the hexagonal hole in the handle that becomes a can of worms, shops with a punch press would have no problem with this setup, but unfortunately there isnt one of those beasts sitting in my shop, after watching numerous videos on You Tube and reading about rotary broaching I decided that this was the most practical way for me to tackle this 9/16 hexagonal hole.
> This is not a tool you will put in your arsenal that will be used on a regular basis but it will be a great tool to have when that moment arrives, instead of putting a screw driver slot or a hexagon on the head of a special bolt that you made now you can put a socket head for an allen wrench, 
> 
> The concept of how the tool works is simple, instead of pushing straight down on all six points of the broach at one time like a punch press would do the broachs axis is tilted 1°, as the broach rotates it only makes contact on one point of the hexagonal broach at a time, making it easy to push the broach thru a predrilled hole, I ran the lathes spindle at 600 RPMs
> 
> There are only four parts to make, the arbor, bearing housing, spindle and broaching tool, the spindle rotates in a SKF-5204 double row angular contact bearing and end pressure is absorbed by a NICE-607 thrust bearing, the three main parts were machined from 4140 pre-hardened steel, the 3/8-1/2 and 9/16 hexagon punches were made from O-1 tool steel hardened and ground, square punches and form tools can be made as well.
> 
> ...



very nicely done :Hat Tip:

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## mccwho

Thank you for the explanation. I was wondering what the point was.to make this rotate u til I saw your explanation. 
"instead of pushing straight down on all six points of the broach at one time like a punch press would do the broachs axis is tilted 1°, as the broach rotates it only makes contact on one point of the hexagonal broach at a time, making it easy to push the broach thru a predrilled hole, I ran the lathes spindle at 600 RPMs"

That makes total sense and is a great idea. It probably makes the broaching go much quicker. 

Thanks for the build!!!

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