Lathe Spindle Handwheel

[jjr2001]

I wanted more control while threading than just tripping the half nut on my mini lathe.
Needing to thread up to a shoulder without leaving the clearance necessary for safety.

I have seen a couple of these that were made up in different ways and I settled on the "wedge" type.

Grizzly had a nice 7" aluminum wheel that seemed about the right size...(turned out a bit large but it works fine)

The hot rolled steel arbor was turned on the lathe to mate up with the Grizzly wheel, my spindle spider, and the internal diameter of my spindle.
So there are 3 diameters involved. After turning to diameter and drilling the arbor I threaded the end that would become the wedge. The remainder of the arbor was drilled for clearance of a 5/16 piece of all thread.

The arbor was then cutoff at a 45 deg angle using a slitting saw in the mill.
The cut end of the arbor was now drilled thru so the arbor has the 5/16 clearance the entire length.
Put a flat on the end of the arbor that would hold the wheel and that was all there was to it.

The length was set so the assembly would fit on the lathe with the spider installed or if the case was removed it will fit the spindle without
bottoming out on the ridge inside the spindle where the MT3 taper was cut.

Works fine. Now I can manually thread....

[mklotz]

A lathe handwheel is a great addition to any lathe. Such a facility has a use beyond manual threading.

Fitting a handle to it to provide good leverage, it's the preferred way to dislodge a stuck screw-on chuck. Far safer for the lathe than locking the backgears, a practice that can break teeth from the bull gear.

[jjr2001]

Thanks Marv, great tips. One other use that I thought would come in handy is an indexing plate or set of indexing plates.
Cheers, JR

[DIYer]

Thanks jjr2001! We've added your Lathe Spindle Handwheel to our Lathe Accessories category,
as well as to your builder page: jjr2001's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Lathe Spindle Handwheel by jjr2001

tags: lathe, wheel

[jjr2001]

Received my 5 buck handle today. 12mm x 1.75 thread so we drilled and tapped a new hole for it.
Easy going in that cast aluminum.
The wheel works great when threading up to a shoulder.

Cheers, JR

[Captainleeward]

Hi JR. I did the same thing to my lathe but I found I liked not having the handle as I rather use the wheel with my hand alone for threading with a die in the tail stock, ect. I like your holder much better,nice job. Cap.

[jjr2001]

Hi Captainleeward,

In my first use it worked well for threading without the handle. Just wanted to be ready in case I wanted to spin it up a bit!
Looks like we have the same wheel.

Cheers, JR

[motorhead]

Now you tell me that I can break teeth on my lathe by locking the spindle on my 1946 Craftsman 101/Atlas 618 mini lathe! I found out he hard way and now need to find some time to tear into it and fix the issue.
this hand wheel set up is pretty slick!