Outboard Vacuum Attachement - Left Handed Tap

[Jon Finch]

Background: I've got an old school Powermatic 45 that has a "homemade" turned disc threaded onto the outboard side of the headstock spindle. The disc came with the lathe and was not turned by me.

I've been thinking about a vacuum attachement using parts from the BORG. First step was to replace the outboard disc on the spindle with a new disc turned with a recess for the vacuum attachment (1.25" x .75" PVC bushing with bearing installed in the .75" side). I bought a 4x4x4 cube of some tropical hardwood for this. I got out my Beal spindle tap and tapped though the middle, flipped it and opened up the outboard side to fit the PVC bushing. Went to remove the outboard disc and then it became apparent that my plan was very flawed. As many of you have guessed, the outboard side of my spindle has left handed threads :mad:. So I'm back to the drawing board... anyone here know where to get a cheap 1" left handed tap? McMaster Carr wants nearly $60 for one :eek:.

[Dennis Ford]

I can't help with a inexpensive tap but perhaps you could buy a left threaded nut and epoxy it into a piece of wood. A nut will be much cheaper than a tap.

[Paul Atkins]

I got a few left handed nuts from a specialty hardware place here and made a faceplate and a handwheel for my Deltas. I welded on a flange and drilled holes for the wood. The nuts are galvanized so I had to grind off the zinc to weld. I think they were less than 2 bucks each.

[Jon Finch]

I'm not sure why I didn't think of that, thanks guys! looks like I'll be getting a couple left handed nuts next week.

[Jon Finch]

just need a free evening to finish it off.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Nice and shiny too! Hope you get your system up and running real soon!