On an old Hardinge Cataract lathe cross slide handle, is the small handle pressed in or threaded?

[IrbyJones]

This is a handle off an old Hardinge Cataract split bed lathe cross slide. I want to remove a broken small handle, labeled "A" in the photo below, and replace it with an unbroken one. Before I start to remove the part that is broken, I'd like to know from someone who has some experience with these handles, is the small handle, "A", pressed into the ball, "B" ? Or is the threaded? I had assumed it was pressed in, and tried to remove it from another handle but couldn't with quite a bit of force. I also couldn't unscrew it with quite a bit of torque. So I'm asking before I go any further.

Irby

 

[jim rozen]

Pressed in. One way to do this is to drill the backside and punch it out.

 

[IrbyJones]

Thanks, Jim. I'll try that.

How to get the broken small handle out of the good handle is still up in the air. May have to end up doing the drill a hole, etc. and then plug the hole afterwards. I'll get an idea how hard the small handle is to remove when I try punching it out of the messed up handle.

Irby

 

[IrbyJones]

I cut the end off the messed up handle and tapped the small handle out. Didn't take much to get it free. I may make a couple new handles one day but they are not "just turn them out" since Hardinge has a threaded piece inside to lock the handle onto the feed screw. Still would be a nice project to spend some quality time among my machines. And in answer to you, thermite, my real goal in redoing this handle is fiddling around with my old machines and keeping some old original parts with the Cataract cross slide. I'm retired so time isn't an issue, in fact, any and all time I spend around my machines is welcome. I have to make a new lower feed nut for the slide and I want to scrape the ways in, so I'll spend a lot of time fiddling with it.

Sometimes I just sit among my machines and enjoy their company without doing anything. Especially when I had that 1850's planer in my profile picture in my garage to look at. All the really old machines except one have left, but some are still old enough to have a certain character and style to them (at least in my opinion).



Irby

 

[Robert Lang]

Sometimes I just sit among my machines and enjoy their company without doing anything.

Weird, I just don't understand that.

Rob

 

[IrbyJones]

I don't either! I've never heard of anyone doing that! Have you? Can you imagine any of our old iron friends doing that!?!?

Irby

 

[IrbyJones]

Do you think Peter ever does that? Or Joe?

Irby

 

[Robert Lang]

I don't either! I've never heard of anyone doing that! Have you? Can you imagine any of our old iron friends doing that!?!?

Irby

I do it all the time.

Rob

 

[IrbyJones]

I know! We all do! We wouldn't collect them if we didn't love to look at them! And you have a slew of them to sit among and gaze at!

 

[jim rozen]

It's worth keeping as much of the old stuff as possible. Pratt Whitney milling machine handle, original parts plus some silver solder to put the added bit into place: