Mill Vise Wheel Handle

[jocat54]

I have always disliked the single floppy handles on the mill vises. So I thought I would try my hand at casting a wheel one from aluminum. I didn't take any pictures of the casting, but it was a lost foam made from the 1/2" blue building insulation. It actually turned out better than I expected.
It's not real pretty but functions very well. I just cleaned up the roughness in the lathe. I needed a 12mm hex hole through the middle (1" thick). Thought I would try a diy rotary broach for the mill I had seen on the internet a while back.
Made the broach from sucker rod and heated treated it ( it's actually pretty hard) . Milled the angle at about 4*. Used the dremel grinding wheel to create a cup in the end of the cutter and used a center drill on the other end and the piece that goes in the spindle I drilled offset--just eyeballed it and used 1/4" ball bearing. Drilled a 5/32 thru hole and a 19/32 just enough to give a little taper to hold the cutter.
I had my doubts that it would cut throught the 1" thickness---- went right thru

 

[kwoodhands]

I also got tired of the vice handle. I cut a circle 5" in diameter and about 1" thick from a piece of hardwood. I bored a 3/4" hole thru the center and tapped it onto the hex rod.I only intended to mark it.I was then going to chisel the flats . When I attempted to pull the wheel off it wouldn't budge.Perfect,now all needed to do was add the handle.I didn't bother to cut spokes,left it solid.
Good thing as I can spin the handwheel one time and the jaw moves up about 3/4" at a time.