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WTB: Drill Press Table Lock Handle

Rick_B

Stainless
Joined
Sep 16, 2011
Location
Winston Salem, NC
This is a second post with more information/options - still looking for a table lock handle for a WT/Rockwell 20" drill press. It is a recessed 12 point hex handle (1" across flats) with a 5/8" through hole. Here is a picture of the belt tensioning handle that is very similar. What I'm looking for does not need to cross drilled for a tension pin.

RecessedHexHandleExample_zps1873e588.jpg


ideally I could find an OEM handle but I could also use any handle with the recessed hex that fit. I could modify the through hole if the hex fit. An example would be the tension handle shown above.

Another option would be any cast iron handle of a similar shape without the recessed hex and/or thorugh hole, I could use it with some more significant modifications.

Thanks for anything you may have.

Rick
 
Should be simple enough to start with a 1 inch 12 point 1/2 inch drive socket, make the 5/8 through hole and weld or silver braze on a crank.

The 12 point blind hole is the only tough part, and a socket has that feature ready to use.

Larry
 
Thanks Larry - I agree that fabrication will most likely be required. Assuming I won't find an original OEM - it would be nice to start with a cast iron handle of the same vintage that I could use with a socket or box end wrench as a starting point.

Rick
 
..used on MY W-T .. is a repurposed cheap black-oxide socket drilled for what HAD been the tilt-steering wheel lever off a 1968 Chrysler Imperial Crown Coupe...

Really - a vintage Bugatti or such it is not. The DP is blind as a bat, won't know or care what you use, so long as it fits your hand and gets the job done.

Bill

While I agree with you in principle Bill - but we all have different perspectives. Mine is that when I spend as much time as I do touching every single
nut, bolt, spring, washer and casting - cleaning and painting - then to me it is worth the effort to at least try and find the original parts or something close. I very well may have to compromise with some cobbed up solution but for the time being I'm going to continue the hunt for the correct parts.

I do appreciate your perspective but I'm not ready to go down that path yet.

Thanks
Rick
 
It should look like this one from my Kearney-Trecker era W-T 20" Drill. Minds broke on the back side but still works.

W-T 20 inch table handle.jpg

I'd email Joe at Plaza Machinery. If anyone has one he will.
 
Mike - that appears to be exactly what I am looking for although my press is a little newer than yours I think. It is a 1962 vintage shortly after Rockwell bought WT but many of the design features do not appear to have been changed at that point. Thanks for the Plaza machinery reference - I'd completely forgot about them. I'll send Joe an email.

Steve - thanks for that link - that has a lot of possibilites and would probably be a close runner up to an original. Depending on what I hear from Plaza - I may be buying that.

Ray - that's a nice source - even though they don't have anything that seems to match what I need should options 1 and 2 fall apart I can contact them for something that may not be on their website display. Also looks like a good source for other yet to be identified future needs.

Bill - that's definitely a good idea as well - I've got one of those knee handles on my Bridgeport that I took a look at after your suggestion. It definitely has possibilities although would require some significant modification - but not out of the realmof possibility.

Thanks to all for your suggestions and I apologize, specifically to Bill, if my post from yesterday seemed a little snarky - not at all what I intended.

Thanks again
Rick
 
Still looking for a table lock handle. In the interim I'm going to use the wright wrench pictured above I think but would still like to get an OEM cast iron handle or a reasonable fascimile.

Thanks
Rick
 








 
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