Reeves Drive Lathe Owners ? ? ?

[William Young]

I have a question for anyone with the Reeves Drive system that is on so many makes and models of lathes nowadays. . In the outward end of the shaft is a threaded hole. Is there a handwheel available that can be fastened to that? My Mini lathe had a handwheel and I used it all the time for small turnings. In the near future I am going to make a bunch more pens and smaller turnings on my full size lathe and I need a handwheel on that end. I need to rotate the handwheel while applying my laquer finish. Even just sanding with the grain between grits requires a handwheel.
My particular lathe has the ten speed Reeves Drive so I do not know if the shaft and threaded hole size would be the same on the five speed ones.
W.Y.

 

[Dave Smith]

Go to Best Tools

Hi William,

If the link works you should find what you are looking for there.

Best Tools

Good luck.

Dave Smith

Selling turning stock to up grade my lathe in Longview, WA.

 

[William Young]

Thanks Dave.
That is exactly like what I felt should be available. One small problem is the price. When converted to Canadian dollars plus taxes and shipping , I am estimating approx $110.00. I do appreciate your response. Someone on another forum suggested making one out of hardwood which sounds like a possible alternative. All I would need is the size of the thread in the shaft (manual doesn't show it) and with a bolt of the same size and a couple washers and lock nuts, it should be easy enough to turn one .
Arn't forums just great ?
W.Y.

 

[Tom Hintz]

William,
First, check with the manufacturer of your lathe. Most have handwheels available (especially if they went through thte trouble of threading the hole for it) at a decent price.
All of those holes I have seen are left-hand thread because of the rotation direction. I actually made one for my Jet out of hardwood. I turned a shaft down to about 0.020" larger than the threads inside the hole and slowy worked it in by hand. After the threads in the hole cut threads on my new shaft, I coated the wood with thin CA, let it dry and then ran it in and out of the hole a couple of times to clean the threads. A dab of paste wax has kept it easy to get in and out ever since.
I also turned a 6"-diameter wheel with a press-fit hole for the shaft in the center. With some 45-minute epxy in thehole I threaded the assembly on the lathe and turned it slowlly to get the wheel aligned correctly and left it overnight to cure. Worked great.

 

[Fred in NC]

Left hand threads

Left hand threaded bolts are available from larger machine shop suppliers, such as www.mcmaster.com

Downside is that a single bolt costs about $5 plus shipping.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Does anybody know the thread size of the handwheel from Best Wood Tools? I would like to find out if it would work on my lathe if I tapped the hole which I believe is about 12 mm.

Bill Boehme

 

[William Young]

Thanks To;
I beleieve I will try one of your suggestions or something similar to it. Where there is a will there is a way.
W.Y.

 

[William Young]

Follow Up

Follow up and problem solved;
I am posting this in the hopes that it may be of some value to someoone in the future.

The suggestion of using a faceplate as a handwheel and insert the pen mandrel through the hole in it was a good one. Unfortunately my universal pen mandrel would not seat in the morse taper because the threads in my faceplate were too long.

I had thought of making a wood wheel to fasten to the outboard shaft of the headstock but then that would have eliminated the use of the hole through the shaft where my knockout rod goes through for realeasing spur centres and pen manderls etc.

So I made a wheel that fits over the inboard shaft and use a 1" nut to fasten it in place. It can be put on or taken off in a few seconds. I sanded it to 400 grit and then applied a couple coats of sealer and then a couple coats of WB laquer. It now has a smooth as glass and very durable surface. Total cost (besides the scrap of plywood) was $1.00 for the nut including 14% tax.. Sure beats the alternative of $110.00 Canadian for a factory made metal one that screws into the outboard shaft and that would also plug up the knockout hole in the shaft.

Picture also shows how my broken tool rest serves very nicely for small things like this after they sent me a new 12" warranty replacement.
W.Y.

 

[Fred in NC]

Great solution !

Ingenuity and lack of funds are two important relatives of invention. Good job, William !