I thought this thread would be way more popular. I guess I'm in the minority when I build stuff out of scrape.
I built a few of these die holders over the years from a few different materials. Used 1144sp originally, and have made a couple from O-1 and hardened them.
I ended up with a chevy duramax transfer case that was junked out and thought the output shaft would make a cool die holder.
I almost started a thread on this make called "Don't try this at home" as if had it's difficulties.
Drilling the center was pretty straight forward, but drilling the surface was really hard. I tried spot annealing with a torch with no luck almost seemed to make it harder.
Eventually it went into the heat treat oven for annealing. That made it workable and the final finish is glass beaded.
Holds 1" round dies center alignment rod is 9/16 and turned down to 1/2" on the end. The handles clear the lathe ways on my 12x36.
The splines make a good grip for using it without handles on small threads, and alum or brass.
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