In this, the first ever episode of 5 Minute Fix, I will show you how I dealt with my annoying Chinese handwheels.
You know the problem...the crank on these things is sloppy, wobbly, and generally crappy. Well, I fixed it for free.
Pull the crank off of the offending handwheel and chuck up the nut so that you can cut a shoulder about half the thickness of the nut. Here I have the nut threaded up on the handwheel screw to make chucking it up easier. Take the screw out before you start cutting.
Turn a shoulder on the nut. I didn't measure, I never do for this sort of stuff. Make the shoulder wide enough to be useful but don't turn so much off that you cut into the threads. As my good friend Russ says "We're not building the Space Shuttle here."
Now chuck up the plastic part and bore it out to fit the shoulder. Not too deep nor too big. Again, I didn't measure. Your parts are different anyway...make up your numbers as you go along like I do.
I took a pic of me boring the plastic but you don't want to see another boring picture...you know what it looks like.
Now we have to sand/grind/gnaw flats on the plastic for wrench clearance. Remember, half the thickness of the flats on the nut are gone now. I like to use a little flapping drum in my mill for this:
Make the flats so that the wrench can clear the plastic and get to the nut. Nothing fancy, just get 'er done.
Now you can reassemble the screw, handle, and nut. It will look like the one on the left if you did it right.
Put it back into the handwheel, tightening the nut juuuuuust enough to hold the plastic handle and keep it from flopping around like a wet noodle. Then apply the wrench
You may have to tweak a bit, but you will find that the narrow end of the handle is now held in place by the shoulder on the nut and as a result the handwheel has a much improved feel. It has been 5 Minute Fixed!
Stay tuned for another fun episode coming soon...Cheap and Easy Z-axis Way Cover!
Todd a.k.a webs
