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Tool handles

Rusty Nesmith

Rusty Nesmith

Joined
Feb 16, 2021
Messages
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Location
Parkersburg, West Virginia
I needed some more tool handles for some tools I am making. The cheapest adapters are $22. I had a piece of 1” aluminum round bar in my tool box from where I used to work. I was a beater bar to tap bearings and things you didn’t want to damage. I cut the mushroomed ends off and got two 12” pieces. I drilled the appropriate hole in the end for the tool, and drilled and taped two holes for the Allen screws. Then I put a piece of bicycle tire tube to make it comfortable. Really happy with how they turned out. Put a scraper I made in this one and the balance was really nice. I can but two 1” by 11” aluminum bars for under $20. I might be making more of these in the future.
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Clever use of the inner tube. A lifetime ago, I worked in a bicycle shop for a few seasons. We used cheap hairspray (Aquanet?) as a lube to put hadlebar grips on the bars. After a healthy shot of hairspray into the grip, you had about 5 seconds to get the grip in place before the shellac in the spray grabbed ahold of the bar like superglue. It would probably work well with the inner tube, too.
 
Steve Tiedman said:
Clever use of the inner tube. A lifetime ago, I worked in a bicycle shop for a few seasons. We used cheap hairspray (Aquanet?) as a lube to put hadlebar grips on the bars. After a healthy shot of hairspray into the grip, you had about 5 seconds to get the grip in place before the shellac in the spray grabbed ahold of the bar like superglue. It would probably work well with the inner tube, too.
Click to expand...
If it doesn’t stay in place I will have to try that, thanks.
 
If anyone is thinking of trying rubber inner tube as grip material, here is a generic sizing chart. Circled in red, the numbers 18 to 32 refer to the tube range diameter in millimeters, same tube fitting tires in that size range. Stop at a local bike shop and buy one of each of the 700x18-25 and 25-32. Should be plenty of rubber for a few handles of different sizes. Tubes are generally butyl (if I recall), but in recent years other materials have come to market. Admittedly, I'm not as well versed in this gear as I was a few decades ago.


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I’ve used thick wall Aluminium Tube for some of my handles. I cover them with plastic hose pipe to make them more comfortable.
Grip is surprisingly good, the clear reinforced hose being a bit better. Not my idea, I just copied the idea from some commercial handles I saw on the net.

Five with ER collet chucks and three with shop made ferrules:

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ER collet chucks normally come with one of three types of nut. I’ve used both A and M types and found finger tight is good enough that I’ve never needed to resort to using a spanner.

A random picture from eBay.

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Give me a while and I’ll find some more information I have filed away, and I’ll try and find a link for you of the general type I’ve bought in the past.
These things used to be incredibly cheap at under £7 each but the price has gone up since Covid. You also need collets for them as well. The smaller sizes were about £2 each, not sure how much they are now?
 
I do the same as what Bill above does with the vinyl tubing from a hardware store. You can also find on amazon and other sports store - self-fusing silicone grip tape to wrap around the handle. The collet chucks look interesting but on a disability income they are not in my budget. So I just drill and tap the aluminum for a couple set screws.
 
I should add that I only use these chucks for tools with relatively small shanks as I like them to go into the handle a bit further for security.
The bore of the C16 type is only 10mm so I sometimes open these up to 13mm so I can use larger tools. The chucks are made from quite hard steel so they’re not that easy to enlarge.
You could of course go up to the C20 size. I’m not sure what the bore is of these though?
 
Rusty Nesmith said:
I needed some more tool handles for some tools I am making. The cheapest adapters are $22.
Click to expand...
Nice idea!

I posted about this recently, but if anyone missed it and is interested in making adapters to use with a wood handle, I wrote a document for a demo on turning metals on the wood lathe with woodturning tools, gouge, skew, parting tool. It's not real fast but it's not difficult. (I prefer wood handles) The thread is in the Tutorials section but here's the PDF file.


Start with a short piece of aluminum rod, drill a center hole, shape with various tools, then drill/tap for set screws.
Of course you might have more than $22 in time making it, but you can custom make it to suit you.
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I usually use a metal-turning lathe when making these, especially when they are large, but [gasp!] it appears not everyone has one in their shop! 😱
I've had several students make one.

JKJ
 
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