# Shift Handles On G0755



## Cobra (Sep 14, 2016)

I have had the G0755 for about three years now and in the main am very happy with the mill.
In most regards it has been a very solid machine.  I have had one issue with the gear shift handles.
They are a phenolic plastic with a steel sleeve to go over the 12mm shaft from the head with a 3mm spring pin through both.  I broke the right hand handle about a year ago and ordered another pair from Grizzly.  To my surprise, they came with no hole drilled in them.  I took the steel sleeve that I had been using to shift gears off and found that the hole for the pins must be drilled by hand at assembly.  It was off centre and off square to the shaft.  After a lot of measuring and fussing I did manage to drill the new handle to match the hole in the shaft.
All good until last week when the other handle broke. In a fit of pique I decided to replace the handles with something that would not continue to annoy the crap out of me.


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## tweinke (Sep 14, 2016)

Nice job!


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## Happycamper (Sep 17, 2016)

Did you make them or buy them? Did you use the cross pins? I have the same problem on my 7055 and have broken the 3 gear lever. It seems the gears are at times hard to engage or change. I've been looking at making a longer metal handle and having it offset to the side of the head to give more leverage in shifting. I noticed the same thing, that the pin holes are not centered. 

Jerry


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## Cobra (Sep 17, 2016)

Hi Jerry
I made the handles from 4X1 inch aluminum bar.
I can send you the drawing for them if that is a help.
When I first planned them I was planning to use a centre drilled Socket Head Cap Scew to provide an alignment to drill a partial divot in the shaft to accept a tit on the end of a set screw.  The plan was to use two set screws embedded in the shaft at 90 degrees.
During the construction I had a jig that the handle mounted on in a rotary table. I was going to do the same embedded set screw.  Turned out that a regular 1/4-20 set screws held the handle well enough to mill the outer edge of the sides and large end with a 5 degree tapered end mill.
In use the two set screws at 90 degrees seems to hold just fine.  Original plan was over designed.
Just a thought on your comment on the gears being occasionally difficult to change,  they appear to be square cut gears.  On mine, when changing I sometimes need to give the spindle a little rotation to line the gears up.


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## Happycamper (Sep 18, 2016)

I turn the spindle but sometimes after running for a while it is hard to change from gear to gear. It's getting better so I imagine a little more wear in should fix the problem. The high/low shifter is fairly easy to work. So you're saying set screws work and you don't need to drill a hole for a pin (I was planning on drilling a new hole in the shaft and lever at the same time).


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## Cobra (Sep 18, 2016)

Problem with drilling a new hole is that you will run out of material.  When I replaced the first handle I made a 12mm jig on a stub shaft and then drilled the same hole that was in the gear change lever, drilling through both the handle and the jig.  I also enlarged the exit hole in the plastic of the new handle to cover any variation in the new hole.  It allowed the spring pin to exit the gear shift shaft without cracking the delicate plastic of the handle.  Unfortunately you cannot do the set-screw trick with Grizzly's handles as the plastic is very fragile and the steel sleeve is quite thin.  It may work to use a set screw with the machined pin on the end where the load is not taken by the normal set screw friction on the shaft but I was not willing to mess around with their plastic parts any longer.


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