New Crank for the Tablesaw

I have a 9 inch Craftsman tablesaw and broke the crank off that adjusts the height of the blade.  It broke apart where the shaft goes into the center, so there wasn't much hope of repairing it.  So I decided to build a new one.

The shaft is basically half an inch, so I took a half-inch nut and drilled out the threads with a half-inch drill.  It's too small to clamp, so I just held the nut in place with a pair of locking pliers.  My drill press isn't that powerful, so I had plenty of leverage to stop the drill and wasn't worried about it yanking the pliers out of my hand.  And it did lock up several times, as the drill bit would catch on the threads.  Then I took a 5/32 drill and drilled through one flat side of the nut.  The shaft has a flat side, and the original handle had a flat spot in the hole.  Then I threaded that hole for 10-32 for a set screw.

I used the same half-inch drill bit to drill through the center of a quarter-inch steel plate.  The plate is 5 inches across, which is about the same diameter as the original crank body.  I picked up the steel plate out of a shapes bin at DiscountSteel.com.  If it was a "shape", it would have cost more, but it has a notch on the edge.  The employee said that made it a scrap piece.  I don't know if the notch was made to mark it as scrap, or was a mistake while cutting a circle, so it ended up as scrap.  Either way, I got it at the scrap price.  I put a half-inch steel rod through the plate and the nut (it's one of the ones I used to wind my garage door spring when I had to install a new one) and then welded the nut to the plate.  I welded every side except the one drilled for the set screw, because I didn't want to risk fouling the threads. 

I pulled the original handle off the crank and drilled a hole for it near the outer edge.  I put the original lock washer (I don't know that that is what it is officially called.  It's shaped like an internal tooth lock washer, but the teeth are smaller than the shaft.  So when you push it on, the teeth bend and lock against the shaft, making it difficult to take back apart)back on.  The handle shaft is too long, since my plate is thinner than the original crank body, so I put an oversize nut on the shaft to use as a spacer.

Overall, it works pretty well.  The handle is a bit loose, probably because I messed up the lock washer taking it off, so I'll probably replace it with a true bolt.  And I really need to cut a hole through the plate large enough to fit an allen wrench or something through for the set screw.  There isn't much clearance between the plate and the saw, so getting a screwdriver back there is a pain.  But it does it's job, and that's what counts.

Crappy machining job - Making a new stop for a sink valve stem

I broke the stop one of our bidet valve stems.  It was made out of pot metal, and I turned the handle too hard (I was trying to figure out how to get it apart).  It broke in half and I had to find some way to make a new one.  My wife found a large nylon spacer at lowes, so I used that.

First, I ground a steel bar down to fit in the hole of the stop washer from the other handle.  I used that as a die, because it was easier than trying to cut out the center hole.  I may have been able to drill the corners, but then cutting the straight part would have been hard on something that small.  Plus, using a die, I can try again later if I have to.
I heated it up with a butane mini-torch until it was hot enough to melt the nylon, and then pushed it through.

Then I used the band saw to cut the washer down to the right thickness.  I lined the two up on the die and scratched an outline on the nylon, then used the bandsaw to trim the outside down.  Then I cut a notch in the middle from two sides at the thickness of the main ring, then cut inward at the edges of that to remove the extra.

Here's a picture of it finally installed, with the remaining metal one in the foreground.  It's pretty rough, and my cuts in from the face weren't quite perfect.  It was a little short on one "wing", so I can only install it one way.  It currently turns just a bit passed full on, which is fine.  But if I turn the stop the other way (they're made to allow you to set the stem to turn "on" either clockwise or counter clockwise) then it turns just a little passed full off, which leaves a trickle.  It may wear out fairly fast, I don't know.  Especially if someone has a habit of turning the handle a bit hard, it could flatten the wings and let the stem turn too far.  If that happens, I'll try to make another one out of metal.  Maybe I can heat a piece of aluminum just hot enough with my propane or acetylene torch to pound my die through it.  Otherwise, I may have to try the drill and cut method.