Ball ended handle - how to

Hi there, all,

I hope I may be forgiven for a slightly off-topic post. Well, it is to do with handles.

In the background of Evan Lewis' post you can see what I describe as a 'tear-drop handle'. Somewhere on the Internet there is a video of one of these being turned using a form tool so arranged that only part of the tool is in contact at any time. If I remember correctly, the top-slide (aka 'compound' ) is set at a slight angle to the cross-slide and is mechanically driven. Again if I remember correctly, the technique is named as 'skiving' (until I found this video I thought that was the process for producing a thin sheet of leather, such as is used to surface a bureau writing flap) .

I found this video fascinating but my recent searches for it have been unsuccessful!!!

Maybe one of the members here is familiar with either the video or the machining technique or both?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 22/11/2020 17:40:22

A simple cheating method for the small end ball is to seek out an old style computer mouse (with the ball that picks up fluff and stops the device working until you remove the ball to blow out the detritus).

If the mouse is no longer needed, carefully peel away the rubbery plastic coating from the ball to reveal a metal ball of about 2cm diameter inside. Hold the metal ball in a chuck and face off to the diameter of the small end of the handle and drill and tap a blind hole to suit a thread on the lever. The ball may be slightly rough but this can be cleaned up with a fine file/abrasive whilst being turned on a piece of appropriately threaded rod in the lathe. Then just screw onto the handle and the joint is barely visible.

Alternatively for a quicker job drill a blind hole in the ball and push onto a matching short parallel turned spigot on the tapered handle with a dab of adhesive if required.

Both ways work as I've tried them.

Hi there, all,

I thought I'd better have another search and, this time I found the thread. It's on the Mad Modders web-site, here:

Skiving Tool

The thread is dated 2014. The problem is that the videos are all unavailable. He showed the process in use for a three-ball handle as well as the tear-drop type. (So my previous post wasn't all that off-topic after all! )

If anyone is interested in the process, there are some still photos there that are interesting.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Ive made a couple of those "teardrop" shaped handles to add to the tailstock handwheel on my Drummond.

I did it with a normal ball turning tool. Set the tool bit to protrude forward of the pivot point to turn the concave curve then set it in the normal manner to do the convex. .

Without the videos Im still not sure how his skiving tool works exactly. .

But here's my ball-turned examples:

Also. note the indexing hole (with dab of white paint) drilled in the handwheel rim by a previous owner back about WW2. Really handy. You know one turn of the handlwheel equals 1/8" movement so easy as pie to count the turns for whatever depth of hole you want to drill. 8 turns = 1" down to 1/8 of a turn = 1/64". No DRO needed. Those old guys were brilliant. But they had a stronger grip than me. Drilling holes without those two handles I added was a real chore and getting harder every year as my grip gets weaker.

Edited By Hopper on 23/11/2020 11:48:04

Edited By Hopper on 23/11/2020 11:49:36

Edited By Hopper on 23/11/2020 11:55:59

This is why Bristol handles were invented.

Rik Shaw,

Lovely pic of your HH grinding rest. Looks really nice workmanship.

Mine is coming along, about to do top 2 v slides, table and accessories.

I am following HHs design of handles.

John