Thread: Lathe spanners

them's big spanners.
You will be paying well for those if you try buying as mechanics tools.

see if one of the other lathe manufacturers use the same sizes and order them as spare parts.
try JET they sell a suspiciously similar lathe.

or you might have to make a set your self.

I remember making a set of spanners to fit my KONI struts when I was young & silly.

Its amazing what you can do with an angle grinder and a bit of flat bar


try the spares route.

[quote=Happy Chappy]Are there any alternatives to the rubbishy tools that came with my MC1100 as standard equipment?

aint they a pain in the Butt! I could not find any either, although down the markets or garage sales seems the obvious choice.
I still use mine, but after a few months they are getting pretty well shot. :mad:
So I will have to come up with another solution.Nothing comes to mind, other than making my own out of some 6mm or maybe 8mm ms flat bar

hughie

Surprisingly, I'm getting by with a spanner made from an old handsaw blade and it's a li'l ripper!

No problems with squeezing it in behind the chuck and it doesn't show the least sign of spreading. Hmmm... I'll see if I can find the camera and nip out to take a pic... as you can see, I simply attach it to the lathe bed with a hard-drive magnet.

I made a home made one too from some old 3mm Stainless plate I bludged from a local ducting manufacturer. I initially got it to make some stainless fittings for my Boat and made the spanner ( very agricultural in appearance) using an angle grinder with a cut off blade then finessed it with a linisher. While it don't look pretty it works and cost me an hours labour!

just a matter of interest what do the spanners spanner on?
there may be other options

Normally, they fit the drive shaft of the headstock and the back of the chuck/insert/faceplate. There's not much room to play with.

When my first spanner went skew-whiff (actually, it got thrown to the floor in a temper tantrum after spreading and one jaw broke off. Quality or what? ) I found a std. open-ender to fit the shaft but that wouldn't allow a second spanner to fit. So I simply grabbed a 1' length of tool steel, clamped it in the jaws and used it as a lever.

This worked so well (much more leverage) that I still use the same bar even now that I've replaced the open-ender with the thin hand-saw blade job. I've modified it so that it has 3 short bolts in one end, spaced to fit into the mounting holes of the faceplate, rather similar to the old pushbike bearing spanners. 3 bolts, so I can use whichever set of holes isn't already taken up with screws.

Although thicker mild steel bar say 6mm mignt hold up better than the thin stuff that most lathes come with, are they the ideal material to use for spanners? Won't they also deform over time and necessitate having to do the whole exercise again?

Skew, I like the setup you've mentioned regarding the leverage and the mounting in faceplate, any chance of a picture to help clarify in our minds?

Originally Posted by Tiger

Skew, I like the setup you've mentioned regarding the leverage and the mounting in faceplate, any chance of a picture to help clarify in our minds?

Sure. It's nothing fancy, just something I butchered up as the need arose and it works well enough that I haven't bothered replacing it.

Pic 1 is the top view. The cut-out in the side is to fit around the faceplates' shank when I use it on the innermost holes.

Pic 2 shows the bolts. They're simply held in place with nuts, the one on the end has two nuts and the head removed so I can use it either way. The other two bolts can be done away with, levering against the shank of the faceplate instead, but I find they give a more "positive" fit. They're only lightweight cabinetry bolts, but if they bend or whatever, it only takes a few seconds to grind off the head on the bench-grinder and throw in another one.

Pic 3 should give you an idea how I use it on the faceplate.

Finally, Pic 4 is how I use it to remove a chuck. As you can see, with the offest handle on the other spanner, it's a one-handed operation.

Thanks, Skew for the pictures. I get it now, I'm sure this will help the rest of us who have those thin useless spanners.

Another approach might be the thin spanners that bike shops use for repairing the gear sets. I know they come in 30 mm, it might be worth a call to see about sizes and prices.

Greg

Greg, had a look at some of the bike spanners on the internet, think you'll get a shock when you see the prices:eek: . There were some quoted at $40+ dollars.

$40.00 ? I should have checked before I posted. Now that I think of it I can't remember ever getting anything for a bike that was good value, so sorry for the false lead. Forty bucks. Sheesh.

Have to confess once or twice having to resort to a pipe wrench to get a chuck off (Vicmarc, with a round insert).

we are all using anti jam washers behind our chucks aren't we?