What Steel Would You Use For An Idler Shaft

Dan_S

Dan_S

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I'm getting ready to order some metal for some future projects, and i can't decide what to use for a specific part. My lathe uses a banjo and change gears for threading and controlling feed rate, and they are a fiddly pain in the butt to deal with. Thus, I've decided to redesign them. I'm stuck on what materiel to use, it will need to be a decent bearing surface, and thread well. I was thinking about using one of the following,as they have decent/good machinability rating.

  1. 1144 (83%)
  2. 1117 (91%)
  3. 1215 (136%)
  4. 12L14 (170%)
Opinions?

I'm going to order stock from http://www.speedymetals.com/ if that matters.
 
The first one 1144 would be my choice. The other three will work but will show wear earlier long before the 1144 will. Especially if there are key ways involved.
 
1144 is best and would be my first choice.

"Billy G"
 
Thanks guys I'll add some 1144 to my order.
 
for those that are interested, this is the troublesome part.
https://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=3541&category=

the left side goes through the banjo, and screws into a nut in the back. The gear pair rides on a sleeve that rides on the shoulder. Two jam nuts thread onto the right side to lock the gears on. The issue with the design, is the jam nuts are to narrow to use regular wrenches, and the shoulder is shorter than the gear carrier. Thus you need 3 different wrenches to change the gears, and its a frustrating guess and check method to get the nuts locked down. To loose and you have a lot of slop in the gear train, to tight and the gear carrier won't spin.

I'd love to meet the guy who designed this part........
 
Just a thought.
Is there enough room for a Ny-lock nut in place of the two and would it stay locked enough to function there?
 
Cobra said:
Just a thought.
Is there enough room for a Ny-lock nut in place of the two and would it stay locked enough to function there?
Click to expand...

it might, but you would still have to deal with getting it tight, but not to tight.

The design I've come up with doesn't require any nuts, or any thinking.
 
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