Table Saw Crank Handles

[Dimitrios Fradelakis]

Im looking to swap out my plastic crank handles to metal ones on my mid 80's Unisaw. Are the handles easy to swap and are they interchangeable from one brand to the next? I saw a nice Powermatic polished chrome set on eBay but need to know for certain before pulling the trigger.

[George Bokros]

I would like to do the same thing with my mid 70' C'man table saw. I was having trouble finding ones that had the right size shaft hole that were no quite expensive.

[Bill Adamsen]

Dimitrios. Attached photo is of a Powermatic Chain Mortiser handle for raising/lowering the table. The wheel had lost its handle (perhaps the handle you're looking at on Ebay?) and spinning the wheel without a handle was cumbersome. Based on sizing the existing hole, I didn't have the confidence a replacement press-fit would hold. So I drilled out the existing hole, carefully threaded it, and used the threaded handle which works just fine. I bought the replacement handle from MSC, Zoro or some distributor of similar products. It too is chromed and you can just see the wrench fit base used to tighten it down. One advantage is that the handle spins which makes it even easier to adjust.

I would think you might want a larger handle for the Unisaw (mine is larger) but either press fit or threaded should work fine. Advantage to "buying new" is the return policy ... which I suspect is poor on anything of this ilk bought through ebay.

[Joe Kieve]

Check here...http://www.sawcenter.com/unisawparts.htm. Not exactly cheap but an exact fit for your Unisaw.

[John Aperahama]

Griz also sells handles and wheels. I bought chromed handles for my PM saw think i had to drill and tap but they are great.

[Bill Ryall]

You can try McMaster-Carr as well.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#crank-handles/=zs4hy4

[Bob Vaughan]

Those spinner handles are pressed into the handwheel and thus, need to be pressed out. Support of the cast iron handwheel is crucial to avoid breakage. Aftermarket spinner knobs are usually threaded and thus require the hole to be tapped to the thread size of the spinner. I had the same trouble a while back, so I did an end run. I made new spinners out of rosewood. By making them yourself, you can make them a little longer using a deeper countersink.

[Dimitrios Fradelakis]

Thank you to everyone who responded. I'm going to look at all the options you guys suggested and see which one works best for me.