Busy bee model B250 help?

[Gregory Mosher]

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.

[Tom Wilson66]

Did you check to see if the threads are left hand?

[Brice Rogers]

You had mentioned that you thought that the thread was 3/4". But when I googled it, it appeared that this lathe was manufactured in either India or China. So I would expect a metric thread - - both in diameter and thread pitch. Go to HF or some other place and buy a thread gauge. They aren't very expensive. On ebay, I see them for a couple of bucks. If it fits an Imperial (std US) pitch, then maybe it is 3/4 ". If it doesn't fit the Imperial (US) pitch but fits a metric pitch, then it is NOT 3/4".

At the same time that you are determining US-Imperial vs. Metric, you'll answer the question of thread pitch. a 3/4" nut could have a variety of different pitches.

[Roger Chandler]

You might want to check Amazon.co for your handwheel. They have a large selection, but I suppose you need the specs on the quill screw it attaches to.....thread tpi, pitch etc and the diameter....check out this link to see if you can find what will work for you...

https://www.amazon.com/Hand-Wheels/b...&node=16412841

[Marvin Hasenak]

First furnish a pic of what you want to do, after a solution is decided next take it to a real hardware store and ask them if they have a nut that will fit.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I would certainly expect the outboard end of the spindle to be lefthand thread if it is threaded.

These lathes that were sold by Busy Bee early on, had some flunky tread sizes, but you certainly can measure them, so as you say the treaded end is 3’4” (or 19 mm) you then count the treads per inch, could be 16 or 8 in ½ inch., or whatever it may be.

You also might get more info on the Canadian Forum, as there is a better chance of someone being familiar with that lathe, and yes a picture would help for sure, good luck.

[Brice Rogers]

Leo, I too would expect a LH thread on the outboard end of a spindle. But Gregory said "it was missing the handwheel on the tail vise". On the tail vice, it is more likely to be a right hand thread. Typically LH threads are only used where they are needed (in my own experience).

I'm hoping that Gregory takes my advice and determines the pitch of the thread he is trying to match. At that point, a lot will be revealed. At the same time, he should be able to figure out if it is LH or RH by just staring at it closely for a minute.

[John K Jordan]

Do you mean the handwheel on the tailstock?

lath-parts.jpg

If so, I would certainly want a handwheel there, preferably with a crank. The quill is moved so often when turning, often lots and lots of turns when drilling and simply to extract centers and such. Even a rod would get tiresome quickly. Most of the time I use the crank instead of the handwheel itself.

By "threaded piece" do you mean the handwheel is threaded onto the mechanism that advances the quill? I know nothing about that lathe I've seen have an unthreaded shaft on the end and the handwheel slides on and is held with set screws. In that case, I'd consider either having a machine shop remove the threads to fit some existing smooth bore handwheel from another brand of lathe, machining the threads off and rethreading to fit the smaller handwheel you can buy, or building a handwheel from scratch from aluminum or even plywood.

If I don't understand the problem here, then "never mind"!

BTW, I agree with measuring the threads before doing anything.

JKJ

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.

[david privett]

I assume when you wrote hand wheel on the tail vise you meant tail stock , that will come off lathe beds fairly easily . get it off and take it to a machine shop , they will be able to tell you what it is and maybe have some scrap laying around that a new wheel can be made from. aluminum would be fine.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

Ohh, I was thinking headstock hand wheel, as some did come without one, now for the tailstock, that’s a whole other story, that could be anything, from no thread to left or right hand thread or even acme thread.

This is one of the early BB lathes, I think Grizzley sold similar ones at one time, or was it harbour freight ??

BB lathe.jpg