I finally was finishing the L00 to Hardinge thread spindle adapter yesterday (had a delay while I replaced the rear spindle bearing after the spindle locked up due to the back end nut unscrewing). Had to install the large retaining ring and found that my snap ring pliers had nowhere near enough capacity.
Tools at McM, etc. looked to be over $100, so I looked for alternatives. Ended up using my old panavise head by sticking a couple pins in the nylon jaws.
Well, when I tried to machine the grooves in the nut for the spanner, it unscrewed, boogered the cut. Now I needed to disassemble and the impromptu tool wouldn't reach. Today, I made new jaws with relocated pins of cold rolled. Worked good.
Now to finish the nut and clean up the ugly part.
Pete Keillor