Another 5/8" shaft capacity handle adapter

[John K Jordan]

Yesterday I made a second 5/8" handle adapter for the smaller Thompson roughing gouge. I made this one from 6061 aluminum instead of the hard-to-machine unknown brass - MUCH easier! It took only a fraction of the time. I figured out how to hold my boring bars on the metal lathe which helped too. The set screws are 5/16" 18 tpi, ground significantly to make them short enough.

The handle is Bubinga with some Dremel stippling for texture.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=360074&d=1494557996

This handle is smaller than the other but feels about right for the smaller tool.

Here are both the new 5/8" capacity handles with the 5/8" and 1" roughing gouges. I think that's enough for now! Finish on both is one application of danish oil, wiped dry after about 15 minutes, then lightly buffed.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=360073&d=1494557996

Having made a bunch of these handle adapters with set screws, I don't think I'll ever make another handle with the tool glued in. It is so handy to swap tools and remove them for sharpening and I can store a BUNCH of tools without handles in one shallow drawer.

BTW, someone asked me why I waste time making "fancy" handles. Well, they are not all that fancy, but the best answer is I like to experiment with different techniques - no great loss if they don't work out on a tool handle. For the Bubinga handle I tried carving a larger than my "usual" stippled area then sanded with 600 grit which added some flat areas. I think that has some promise with a little different carved pattern.

JKJ

[Brice Rogers]

That looks very nice John. I've been lucky with my supply of brass as it appears to be free machining brass - - machines like butter or 12L14 leaded steel. But I understand that bronze and Navy brass are hard to machine. Also there are some alloys that are extremely hard to machine like duralume.

I made a replacement decorative curved handle for a dresser out of brass. I turned it on a metal lathe and then bent the ends for form the curves. As I was bending it, it work hardened and the bending force went way up. In order to proceed, I tempered (softened) that brass by heating it red-hot and quenching (exactly the opposite of what you do for steel).

But if you have a hard-to-machine brass, you probably can't do much annealing it.

But, great looking handles.

[John K Jordan]

Thanks, good fun!

The brass I used, a nice rod from the scrap yard, 1.25 x ~12", had obviously been used as a "soft" hammer of sorts with the ends mildly distorted. I suspect now the rod was work hardened. I've machined brass before on both the metal lathe and on the wood lathe and this was much harder than the C360 "free cutting" brass I always order and was used to. The chips from the C360 were long spirals.

I could tell it was different right away by the chips coming off the cutter - small and brittle. Still, it was no problem shaping the outside with sharp HSS cutters or carbide. The problem came when drilling the 5/8" hole down the 3" length. My problem was compounded by not having a quality 5/8" drill bit and not having a way at the time of holding my boring bars on the metal lathe. I had an old taper drill bit which was probably cheap to start with and had been horribly abused. Even after pre-drilling a 1/4" then a 1/2" pilot hole I had to sharpen the big bit probably a dozen times since the corners kept chipping, experimenting with different grind angles. Drilling took forever, advancing the bit just a tiny amount at a time!

I've made a bunch of these adapters from both from aluminum and steel with no trouble but before these the biggest were 3/8" ID.

Making the second 5/8" one from 6061 aluminum was a dream. I did finally figure out how to hold the boring bars on the lathe which I used to cut the final clearance - that would probably have let me bore the final 1/16" ID on the brass easier.

I might experiment with annealing the chunk of brass the next time. I found this, from "Modern Shop Practice": "The process of hardening and annealing brass is exactly the reverse of that used with steel. Brass is hardened when it is heated and allowed to cool slowly ; it is softened or annealed when heated and cooled suddenly. When annealing brass, care should be taken that it is evenly heated throughout and that it is evenly cooled."

Then I found this on a reloading web site: "Brass ... cannot be made harder by heating it--ever. Brass is always made softer by heating. The only way brass can be made harder is to "work" it. That is, the brass must be bent, hammered, shaped or otherwise formed."

Then this: "...heat the upper part of the case until it changed color.... Once it reached the appropriate temperature, you'd quench it in water." Another indicates the temperature is critical but doesn't give specifics.

A fourth reloading site indicates "The higher the annealing temperature, the shorter the time required to anneal. The grain structure of the brass begins to change - indicating the start of annealing - at just under 500 degrees Fahrenheit. At 600 degrees F, brass will anneal in one hour. At 800 degrees F, brass will take only a few seconds to anneal."

Nowhere have I found if different types of brass require a different annealing process. It looks like I'm going to have to dig through some technical papers!

JKJ



That looks very nice John. I've been lucky with my supply of brass as it appears to be free machining brass - - machines like butter or 12L14 leaded steel. But I understand that bronze and Navy brass are hard to machine. Also there are some alloys that are extremely hard to machine like duralume.

I made a replacement decorative curved handle for a dresser out of brass. I turned it on a metal lathe and then bent the ends for form the curves. As I was bending it, it work hardened and the bending force went way up. In order to proceed, I tempered (softened) that brass by heating it red-hot and quenching (exactly the opposite of what you do for steel).

But if you have a hard-to-machine brass, you probably can't do much annealing it.

But, great looking handles.