Looking for some T handle chuck wrenchs for my lathe

If you have a mill, you make your own. That is what I did and likely many others.

Wes

Do you have a mill?

I can sell you something cheap that you can mill to your size.

Very nice T handle wrenches that are 1/2" hex.

You can mill them to any size, 1/4, 1/2 etc up to I think 3/4 square.

Well ... I've bought more chuck (new and used) than I've bought keys to fit them (including those which came with keys when I got them). the *only* keys which I have bought have been the ones which came with the chucks.

Do you have a mill? You probably don't have an index head, so get a square collet holder which can go in the mill's vise. (You *must* have a lathe, since you are in need of a chuck key for one. :-) Turn the end to a diameter matching the corner to corner distance measured in the socket. Turn the shoulder to something like a 45 degree angle, or whatever looks good. (It is not critical.)

Then measure the flat-to-flat distance. Set the blank key in a collet in the holder in the vise, mill a flat, flip it over and mill an opposite flat, then measure to make sure that it is not smaller than the measured across-flats dimension needed. Rotate it 90 degrees and mill the other two sides, then figure out how much deeper you need to cut to make the square the right size.

Once you have the key so it fits in the chuck, then turn it around and drill a cross hole which is a sliding fit for some drill rod or steel rod small enough to make a good T-handle. Either drill and tap the center to accept a setscrew, or (if you have knurling tools) knurl the middle of the T-handle with a straight knurl to increase its diameter a bit. Then slide the handle into the key and drive it in to center the knurled section.

Now you have your first home-made chuck key.

Oh -- you need the key because that is your *only* chuck and

*only* lathe? Check whether a common ratchet wrench end will fit well enough to use the chuck for making this one project. That 9/16" socket will proably work with a 1/2" ratchet or T-handle and extension. The 7/16" you can probably work for a short while with a 3/8" extension.

After all -- machine tools are for *making* things, including parts for the tools in question. :-)

Or -- you could simply file the square on the end if you don't have a mill.

Good Luck, DoN.

Worse case scenario, find some 3/4 or 5/8, and some 1/2 square at the hardware store and use your bench grinder.

Here's 7/16". Anyone ever dealt with Shars?

Jim Wilkins

I dealt with them and found them easy to deal with, they ship quickly, allow local pickup and their stuff is as advertised. (cheap but works) They are about 25 miles from me.

Bought from their catalog and on ebay, very happily. --Glenn Lyford

How about you chuck up an endmill and hold your piece of round stock with the tool holder.

Cut as required. Go easy it wasn't made to mill but it will work.

Drill hole in said round stock and rig up handle.

Lathe chuck wrenches/keys aren't too difficult to make on a lathe, Dan. You'll need an endmill (placed in the lathe chuck.. I know, not a good practice) or collet, and a holder of some type for the round stock that the wrench is to be made from.

Milling on a lathe is an old and very good method of utilizing a lathe's full potential.

How the section of round bar stock is held for cutting, depends upon what type of toolholder the lathe is equipped with. When I made my first lathe chuck wrench, the lathe had a turret style toolholder, which would've been sufficient, although a bit crude, for holding the section of round bar stock.

A lathe chuck wrench doesn't need to be any particularly hard piece of steel.. mild steel of the HRS/CRS varieties will last a very long time for a home shop lathe. Case hardening the square end is optional.

I had already made a boring bar holder with the lathe and a drill press, a tap and hacksaw for cutting the slit, so I was able to use the boring bar holder to securely hold the section of round stock for milling on the lathe.

If the existing lathe toolholder isn't suitable for holding the round bar stock or a boring bar holder, maybe an angle plate (possibly even a heavy duty piece of angle) could be mounted to the lathe's cross slide to improvise a milling fixture.

A boring bar holder is a good project for a lathe owner, as one will be very handy in future lathe usage.

If a method of holding the round stock can be realized, then cutting/making the square end (or hex, etc) can be achieved by utilizing a square to check the rotational positioning of the round stock after each flat face has been cut.

As the workpiece is held perpendicular to the spindle axis, the end of an endmill (hopefully larger in diameter than the width of the flats need to be) is used to cut away the diameter of the workpiece with cross feeding cuts, until the correct size of the square dimension is reached. Using a square to check for squareness by referencing it to the lathe chuck face or a flat horizontal surface of the lathe will ensure that the square end turns out to be square. A round file is handy for blending the faces of the flats into the diameter of the chuck wrench body/stem. This step can be accomplished with the lathe spindle stopped, or with the workpiece in a bench vise.

The T-handle can be another smaller section of round stock (with carefully radiused ends, of course). The handle an be welded to the top of the chuck wrench body/stem, or thru a drilled hole near the top of the body/stem. A press fit an be easily used (particularly if the T-handle section has been prepared with a larger section in the center, or a knurl, or staked with a punch/chisel), or held securely by a set screw that enters the top of the wrench stem in a centered hole that is cross-drilled to meet the T-handle hole.

The holes for the T-handle and the set screw can be performed on the lathe if a drill press isn't available.

You can set the shank at 90 degrees to the previous flat each time by clamping a short cut-off of angle iron to the shank and leveling it.

Jim Wilkins

Excellent upgrade on a brief post.

I would add that the handle hole could be realized by again.....

Chucking the drill bit :(

and ensuring the workpiece was on center with the chuck as held in whatever tool holder or other clamp arangement utilized.

Of course I would drill and tap the set screw hole using the tailstock as the machine gods intended.

AND..... just as an afterthought, it's really nice if you make the T-handle long enough on one side only to heat it up and bend it up at

90 degrees so you can use the short stub as a spinner type wrench. Ken.

Vise, file, drill press.

Why bring a machine tool into it?

Mark Rand RTFM

"Pirateer guy" wrote

Best Regards, Keith Marshall snipped-for-privacy@progressivelogic.com

"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"

You supplied precisely what the OP asked for, Keith.

The problem with the import lathe chuck wrenches, is that the body/stem of the imported wrenches are usually so short that there is an insufficient amount of "knuckle clearance" with them.

That's the reason I felt compelled to make my own wrenches with longer stems. The short ones aren't as comfortable to use, at least to me.

I suppose that making an extension for the import version stem could be accomplished with less effort than making another complete lathe chuck wrench, but making chips is a great way to spend time, and the idea of making fewer chips isn't a rational or reasonable practice for one that has the machines to do just that.