Monty Remon's Taig Lathe Mods, Part 3

“Does anyone out there in Taigland suffer from or remember the black fingers, friction burns, shortness of breath and finger cramps from over enthusiastic operation of the standard xslide dial? Well after a few months (that long!) I resolved to make life easier with a larger spinning handle, mounted on a long strap across the end of the Taig dial using two bolts to increase the swing. Standard stuff, a piece of 1/2" diam., brass and some 1/8x1/2" brass strip a bolt and 2 c/sunk screws, dump the original knob. Well I hung my first handle on loosely then did my usual, made a cup of tea. It was returning to the results of my endeavours that was fortuitous because what I saw was the GAP under the handle! and I visualised the flange of a sleeve restrained by it. Well I had worked out where to get the metal for the sleeve before the screws were out. I had some large diam., brass plumbing fittings for that rainy day, you can find them in a DIY store, don't cost more than a beer. Sleeves, step downs, flanges and blanks, all are ideal because you don't need to remove much metal. I turned down the flange face first, then internally 1/8" less than the Taig dial diam.. The division markings and finger grips were next. The sleeve was parted off at Taig dial thickness plus the flange depth. Turn the job round in the chuck to bore out the inside to clear the \Taig dial for depth and diam.. Depending on the type of fitting you started out with you might only need to take the tops off the threads. Not much swarf then. The only other component is a packing washer that fits the hole in the flange with clearance holes for the two screws. Friction can be tweaked by backing the disc or the back of the arm with stiff card. Well it worked for me, just a few hours work, and it has to be cheaper than fitting a Sherline part. OOPS! I nearly forgot use a scrap piece of sleeve split or shrunk on as the index marker.”