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.

 

[jwoodwright]

William,

Are you using a MT #2 Mandrel [?] Then you can use your face plate as a handwheel. []

 

[William Young]

John;
It has 1" x 8 tpi shaft on the inside and just a small shaft outboard with a drilled and tapped hole in it. The outboard shaft is actually just inside the reeves drive metal cover.
W.Y.

 

[Fred in NC]

What brand and model lathe?

 

[William Young]

Fred;
It is almost an exact clone to the Jet 1236

UPDATE

I put the same question on a few turning forums and here is what one person came up with.

http://www.store.yahoo.com/bestwoodtools/jet12spincon.html

That is excactly what I had pictured as should be available but the price in Canadian dollars when figuring exchange and taxes and shipping would be over $110.00.
I am leaning heavily towards turning one myself from a nice piece of hardwood and sanding it down glass smooth. I need to find the size of the threaded hole in the shaft. With that I could use a bolt and a couple washers and lock nuts and make one for next to nothing.
W.Y.

 

[jwoodwright]

William,

Sorry, I wasn't clear on the method... My Method will save you $70.00 plus shipping...


Screw the face plate on the 1" x 8 TPI shaft. Put the Mandrel Mt thru the hole in the face plate into the taper... Now, you can hand spin the lathe for sanding and finishing....

 

[William Young]

Thanks John for explaining that. Sorry I didn't catch on the first time. That makes it look <b>So</b> easy.
W.Y.

 

[JimGo]

Bill,
Just blame the antibiotics and other drugs!

 

[J. Fred Muggs]

William:
Why not just make one out of MDF or something turn it to a suitable siZe and shape, drill out the center and epoxy in a bolt of suitable size.

 

[William Young]

Fred;
Yes, I am thinking along those lines now. I am going to check with the people I got my lathe from first and see what they have to offer.
It would be nice to have an outboard wheel.

Someone suggested just using a faceplate on the 1" x 8tpi inboard shaft and inserting my MT pen mandrel through the hole on the centre and use the faceplate as a manual turning wheel. That seems to make a lot of sense. I must check that out. One of my faceplates has no hole in the end (aluminum one) but my steel one does have an open centre and should work out just fine.
Still recouperating so no shop time yet but hopefully soon.

W.Y.

 

[Fearless]

William,
I was struggling with the same problem.Then all of a sudden one night the lights turned on and I came up with the same solution that John offered.
Works wonderfully and didn't cost a penny.
I would highly suggest you give your faceplate a second job.
Scott

 

[William Young]

Scott;
I tried it this afternoon and the threads are too long in my face plate to allow my morse taper to go in far enough to seat. It could be because I have the universal mandrel with the large nuts on it for adjusting the mandrels shaft length.
So I went to plan B and turned a disc with a 1" hole in the centre and tomorrow morning when I am in town I will pick up a nut with the right 1" coarse thread and tighten the disk (hand wheel) on with that.
It will only cost me the price of the nut.
If it works out OK I'll take a picture tomorrow.
That has been the extent of my shop work since getting sick but it's a step in the right direction.
W.Y.

 

[William Young]

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.

 

[DCBluesman]

Ok, Bill--if you can turn, sand and finish a hand wheel, I'm waiting to see your next pen! Glad to hear that the solution worked and was certainly affordable.

 

[William Young]

Thanks Lou;
Someone sent me a nice big box full of birch burl scraps left over from making bandsaw boxes. I have yet to cut it down into pen and stopper blank etc. sizes. May not do any turning this week and if Dr's appointment goes well this afternoon I will be driving across Canada to Ontario to visit relatives first of the week so wont get much shop time before the middle of April . Birch burl pens will be turned and shown after that date for sure.
W.Y.

 

[Fearless]

Nicely done William.
Glad to hear all is going good and good to see you getting back on top of your game.
Scott