After making a handle to hold various bits with a tang for a bit brace it was realized there is an old keyless chuck among my extra stuff accumulation. This old chuck works by the mounting bolt pushing a piston up to move the jaws up against a sloped interior. The piston has a cavity in which the unthreaded end of the threaded shaft applies pressure.
1 Chuck & Bolt.jpg
The chuck has threading for a 1/2-20 pitch bolt. Of course the local Lowes didn’t have any of those that would work. The bolt purchased was 1/2-13 pitch 4-1/2” hex head bolt. The threads were filed off for it to fit through and fit in the piston. Then the 1/2-20 threads were cut.
2 Cutting New Threads.jpg
The threads were cut to have about 1/2” beyond what was needed. with a bit of measurement and calculations the previously filed end was cut shorter, the hex head was also sawn off.
The next task was to mae a ferrule for the handle. One time while browsing the “sale items” at Lee Valley this item popped up > https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop...nd-tools/69331 < A couple of metal working tools that seemed like they would work great with my little track anvil:
3 Dome Tool & Ferrule.jpg
It wasn’t too difficult to drill a pritchel hole. It also was an opportunity to drill out the bottom to take screws instead of having bent nails holding it to my hunk of stump.
About 3/8” was removed from the 3/4” copper coupling with a tubing cutter. The cutter was held in a vise and the coupling was turned around by a pair of pliers holding it around the rim.
To make a handle a piece of cascara (buckthorn family?) that was cut down a few years ago was processed on the bandsaw. After a turning blank was cut out one end was marked for center.
4 Awl Marking Center.jpg
A few turns of the awl worked very well at cutting a center mark for the lathe without needing to be enlarged.
Cascara turns very nicely. It gets a good shine off a sharp tool.
5 Handle in Progress on Lathe.jpg
After the turning was finished the tail end was cut off and the end of the handle was sized to fit the ferrule. Then a drill chuck was mounted in the tail stock to bore a 31/64” hole into the handle, bolt calipered a little under 1/2”.
With the handle off the lathe a small piece of scrap was bored with a 15/16” bit to hold the handle in a drill press vise to drill a hole for a pin made from a 16d nail. On the end of the holding block on the centerline of the larger hole a 3/8” hole was drilled so the #23 drill bit wouldn’t have to cut through wood before hitting the ferrule and handle. A #23 bit is approximately 0.0022” smaller than the 5/32” a caliper indicated for the 16d nail.
6 Handle & Bolt.jpg
When the handle was drilled the bolt was installed and the bit was used to mark a center point on the bolt. The bolt was removed and drilled. It was then installed. A piece of the nail about 3/32” longer than the size of the ferrule was driven through and peened over. A little filing and polishing and all looks good.
7 Final Assembly.jpg
It isn’t real pretty but it will do the job…
This will likely be used for holding drill bits to remove burrs from drilled holes on pieces of metal.
It will also be helpful when using a drill bit for making small countersinks for flat head wood screws or boring short shaft clearance holes and maybe other uses still to be found.
jtk
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