HAFCO ROUND COLUMN MILL HANDWHEELS

[conrodParticipant @conrod]

The original black plastic handwheels with folding handle always annoyed me. So spent some quality time with many cups of tea yesterday. Had some lumps of 50mm dia MS, turned drilled faced and bored, then into dividing head to cut the three triangular bits to engage feedscrews, also drill for three 10mm dia 100 long socket headed screws and a 8mm grub screw and here is the result.

Much better feel and control now.

[Ian ParkinParticipant @ianparkin39383]

I must say I couldn’t use those at all… i would have made the folding handle fixed ..if it was the folding bit that annoyed you.

[RobinParticipant @robin]

Me too, I like those hand wheels, nice and light, low inertia.

I got cast iron wheels on my new mill with sprung dog clutches to make them extra annoying. They quickly got replaced with fancy 3D prints 🙂

best

Robin

[conrodParticipant @conrod]

Hi Ian and Robin

The folding bit always felt weird, sort of hard to keep smooth feed, like push down then across the bottom, up the other side and back across the top, now I can feed super smooth with two hands,,,,maybe Im just imagining it but it feels good for me.

Also under no load I can spin them with one finger.

And they filled in a day in the shed!!!!

[ChrisLHParticipant @chrislh]

The folding handles are probably aimed at machines which have power X feed and/or CNC. Sticking out handles whizzing around without warning are pretty dangerous.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I was taught that to get a smooth feed you don’t use the handle but both hands on the round rim. This not only gives a more constant feed but should reduce the chance of lifting and lowering the table or slide as the handle goes up one side of the circle and down the other. OK for a quick traverse back to the start of a cut etc.

 

[Chris GunnParticipant @chrisgunn36534]

I am afraid I would not like them either, the handles would catch in my smock pockets, and prone to being caught and moved and losing settings. I would have just removed the folding handle, assuming there is enough grip on the outside, or replace with commercial spoked handwheels.

Chris Gunn

[conrodParticipant @conrod]

I note all feedback, I’ll give them a go for a while and report back

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Another preference for Handwheels, (With fixed handle) to have a finer control. (Quite happily used on a RF25 Mill/Drill, for over 20 years)

Howard

[conrodParticipant @conrod]

Back again, been doing some work and I have to say the “socket heads” didnt feel quite right, so I looked for some knobs. Local internet “for sale” didn’t turn up any knobs BUT they had a set of “8 Balls”… That brought back memories of my old MGB gear stick knob so I thought ‘why not”. Hacksawed off the sockets, whacked the balls in the lathe drilled a 10mm dia hole, mixed some Araldite and voilia!!! See photo where I have just finished the first set of cuts for a 40 tooth 1.5 mod parrallel depth bevel gear.

The “feel” is great, not unlike the traditional 3 ball (straight) handles I have been using since I was a young apprentice, nice and smooth feeding. Also I think they are “flash as a rat with a gold tooth”

Fellas,,,,never had a machine with round handwheels before, they felt wrong, maybe that was part of the problem.

Chris Gun…I never work with loose clothing for safety, dont want to get wrapped up in the machines, but you wouldnt catch these big knobs in your pockets

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

I’m with Jason here, for proper control you need both hands on the rim of a wheel, this is not drilling a hole and one hand on a handle is only for fast traverse.

[conrodParticipant @conrod]

I agree OLD MART and JASON, you need both hands when milling to get proper control, BUT you dont need a wheel!!! Maybe the newer generation of machinists have only used handwheels (I have no idea how old you are,,,,I am almost 71)and have no experience with the traditional 3 ball straight handles where you “roll” both hands on the handle, its hard to describe but easy to do when demonstrated for you.

I think maybe you all have the wrong idea how I use them, left hand on the orange ball right on the red,,,turn anticlockwise with both hands until orange is at bottom and green on top, move left hand from orange to green, right still on red, when red is at bottom orange on top move right hand from red to orange left stays on green ,,,,a smooth turning continuous movement….NOT ONE HANDED like drilling! I hope you can understand this description, as I said its easy to be shown hard to describe.

Same sort of hand movement as the traditional straight 3 ball handle insted you have three hand position on mine not just both ends on handle. This photo is the type of mill I did my trade on showng what I call traditional 3 ball

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

An excellent description of your technique, conrod

What really matters at any man-machine interface is that it becomes intuitive for the operator … and in your workshop, that’s you.

MichaelG.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

The Tom Senior had one of the chrome handles like Conrods picture on the right hand end of the X axis and it was replaced with two tound ones when the left hand extension allowed handles at either end. The Y also has a round handle. Both lathes also. We had a volunteer who couldn’t ever seem to understand that cutting requires two hands while fast traverse can be done with the handle.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

One of the first things that we were taught as Apprentices, was how to provide a steady feed, using both hands on a handwheel. If a handle was fitted, it was only used to produce a fast traverse. The feed for cutting was applied by the handwheel.

Howard

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

My brother’s pride and joy is a banana yellow Proton Jumbuck pickup. He’s replace his gearknob with a ‘pool ball’ knob – yellow stripe, number 9.

 

Neil

[conrodParticipant @conrod]

I have balls left over, looked at my lathe and thought,,,,,”why not”

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

What’s the plastic like to machine? Is it sort of gummy, hard and chippy, or well ‘just right’? Any voids? And is the colour a surface finish or  solid through?

[conrodParticipant @conrod]

Bazyle,

Easy to machine, top speed on lathe, 1600rpm and I feel you could go much higher withot a problem.

16mm dia dril just penetrated smooth as anything (without pre drilling) full dia full depth without a problem, swarf came off in continuous ribbon.

Same with boring bar, 16 to 20mm dia in one pass.

No voids.

Colour solid right through, like they used three layers stuck together then turned spheres.

[conrodParticipant @conrod]

So sitting around this morning wonderring what to do with the 4 pool balls left over from set. Then it hit me, had 3 handles left on mill so did the drilling downfeed. That left 1 ball, been having trouble with handcleaner pump blocking up and thought back to apprenticeship where we used a strip of flat bar to apply cleaner to hands, did a 10mm dia round bar for application and stirring of soap

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