Hi folks, I recently bought an old (20 years old +/-) 37" wood lathe from a gentleman, knowing it was missing the handwheel on the tail vise thinking I would get a part from busy bee, or that I would go to a machine shop for apiece etc.

The biggest (5/8) handwheel at busy didn't fit, and I checked the threaded piece and it's 3/4 so I came up with the idea to thread on two nuts tight to each other, so one will move vise in and one out, jerry rig of a fix, but hey, it cost me 4$ !

However.. It didn't work, because though the 3/4 are the right size, (checked with electronic calipers) they don't seem to take to the thread.

What do you guys think I should do in this case where the old hand wheel isn't manufactured anymore, and for some reason it won't seem to allow the nuts to thread on?

I'm thinking the threads may be damaged on the vise which is why it won't take the nut. I know when I used to work with threaded rod in the carpenters union here we would use an angle grinder to taper rods slightly so no burrs on the rods would keep nuts from threading, so I was thinking I could try that, but it would alter the vise permanently. The other idea I had was drill a hole through it, and put a rod through to operate on the same principle as a woodworking vise where you just spin it.

Any thoughts guys? Very excited to start turning.