5c Draw Bar For 13 Inch South Bend

Joe P,

60 is a good age to start.

Well I thank you. Eyes not good,bad knees,long time out of school. Yea I think can do it. Since the instructor and
I are about the same age we seem to gee and haw well.

I'm about your age, just getting to know my SB 10L. After a long session with the old soldered water pipe that came with my lathe, I decided I could do better. Your spindle is identical to mine I believe, albeit longer.

I rounded up some 4130 DOM tubing, a thrust bearing, handwheel, etc and covered my bases by getting an indexable inside threading bar, along with a few taps. The taps work fine, if you don't mind breaking a sweat for an inch of fine thread!

I can't believe how nice it turned out. Them, I mean. I made a couple. I get a hard lockup with SB collets, and the new imports which have a different thread length. I spaced the wheel for good finger clearance and gave myself all the thread engagement I could. I cut a slight taper on my spacer so it centers itself as it comes up tight. And it does come up tight with that bearing! All it takes to release it is a quick one-handed push, and the wheel design lets me spin it with one finger.

I might be able to fix you up with plans, materials, semi-finished kit, or complete drawbar. I do feel your pain! If I had known a handwheel closer could work this good I would have saved a lot of time spent drooling over lever-style closers online!

Alpowa said:

I cut a slight taper on my spacer so it centers itself as it comes up tight. And it does come up tight with that bearing! All it takes to release it is a quick one-handed push, and the wheel design lets me spin it with one finger.

I might be able to fix you up with plans, materials, semi-finished kit, or complete drawbar. I do feel your pain! If I had known a handwheel closer could work this good I would have saved a lot of time spent drooling over lever-style closers online!

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I found (first actually with a 3/8"-16 drawbar) that a pilot or shoulder just a few thou under the spindle bore works better all 'round than a taper. If you have to bump the handwheel firmly to release the collet, the pilot will stay in the spindle bore and keep the drawbar or draw tube aligned with the spindle bore so that the releasing force is delivered uniformly.

The only real advantages of the lever type over the handwheel type are leverage (your hand won't get sore from bumping the handwheel) and speed (dependent upon shape of the workpiece, you may be able to eject one and insert the next without stopping the spindle). Disadvantages are cost (of course), availability, and setup time.(several minutes versus a few seconds).

My collet tube fits the spindle with no clearance for an inner shoulder. My 'taper' i just a slight angled surface on the spacer which fits only the end surface of the spindle, in the spindle's inside chamfer. I might try that on the first one I made, which has an outer spacer pressed on the end of the spindle (which I wanted to use as a cathead, without the closer in place).

My interest in the lever began with the idea that they might hold tighter, without the two-handed wrestling session. I might have gotten a sore hand anyway, with some of my original SB collets. The thrust bearing and new collet set have made it work like it's supposed to.

OK. I just assumed that the spindle bore was something over 2". The same comment would be true of an Atlas with a drawtube for 3AT or 3C. They are slip fits in the spindle bore.

I have the same sticking problem on my Atlas with 3C collets. As the collets come from two different sources (China and West Germany), the problem is probably with the closer adapter. I only have one for 3C so can't check with a different one.