Threaded Woodruff key

well, you don't have to use a drill bit. You can mount the shaft to a 90* fixture and the wheel on top. The 90* can be hung off the front or back of the table, swing the head, then use the mill, and and end mill. The end mill shouldn't wander if you take it slow and clear the chips. Then finish with the tap.
That would work....and I have a 5mm end mill.
 
Abandon the half hole that's there. Rotate the wheel to a new location and drill/tap a new hole.
yep.. could certainly do that as has been suggested a couple of times already and it certainly may come to that, but customer wanted to preserve the original wheels look if possible. Its allegedly an antique.
Thanks
 
Oh boy, this is the worst news :/ I would be willing to scrap this, but it was my fathers (since passed) and he bought it new in the 90’s. I messed it up moving it to my shop from his, so this is the source of my distress. I was thinking of finding a donor knee, but I don’t see any of these mill parts anywhere in the aftermarket world. You all agree it’s toast, but I might fly cut the rest of the broken guides on another mill, and attach a bearing rail system for the lead screw to drive in play of the ways. I know this is going to lead to a lot of fab work, but I don’t want to trash this for aforementioned reasons. Any thoughts on this? The rest of the mill is perfect aside from a broken handle in the saddle.

I appreciate all the replies.

yep.. could certainly do that as has been suggested a couple of times already and it certainly may come to that, but customer wanted to preserve the original wheels look if possible. Its allegedly an antique.
Thanks
Epoxy the original half hole to hide it. What's left would look factory I would think.
 
Make new axle.

Make a fake wheel.

Determine the thread size with a bolt.

Just get some chunk of steel that is large enough to drill a hole that will fit the axle. A large nut would work, bore it to just fit.

Place the fake wheel on the new axle and center punch on the interface line between them.

Drill the hole for tapping the hole.

Remove fake wheel and put real wheel on.

Look through your taps and find the correct size with the maximum amount of taper. You want the threads in the wheel to align and guide he tap while it cuts the axle.

Just do a couple of turns. You just wand a starting thread on the axle.

Put fake wheel on and with the starting thread on axle, align the tap, and tap the hole.

Doing it this way has equal pressure. A blank axle in the threaded wheel may offset and be sloppy.

Now put the wheel on and final thread chase, and you are done.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk
 
Make new axle.

Make a fake wheel.

Determine the thread size with a bolt.

Just get some chunk of steel that is large enough to drill a hole that will fit the axle. A large nut would work, bore it to just fit.

Place the fake wheel on the new axle and center punch on the interface line between them.

Drill the hole for tapping the hole.

Remove fake wheel and put real wheel on.

Look through your taps and find the correct size with the maximum amount of taper. You want the threads in the wheel to align and guide he tap while it cuts the axle.

Just do a couple of turns. You just wand a starting thread on the axle.

Put fake wheel on and with the starting thread on axle, align the tap, and tap the hole.

Doing it this way has equal pressure. A blank axle in the threaded wheel may offset and be sloppy.

Now put the wheel on and final thread chase, and you are done.

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk
This is what I'll do
... and it will also likely allow me to avoid having to add any shims to account for pitch misalignment.
Thanks
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Maybe I'm crazy or something, but couldn't you just go to the next size larger screw? Stick a collar over the axle and drill to the root diameter. Toss the collar, replace the wheel, and drill the half threaded, half unthreaded hole to the new tap drill size.
 
Not crazy at all and a very valid solution but customer wants to have repair as close to original as possible. Thanks
 
I don't
I need to build a replacement axle for this amusement park train ride, and it’s pretty straightforward, except for the method which was used to key the wheel to the axle.

This is probably not correct, but "in the field" we call this a "dutchman", or a "dutch key". I think (not sure) that these are technically a round dowel used as a key, but I'm not sure.

What you have there however is an arbitrarily large threaded "dutch key". Usually a threaded dutchman would not be that large relative to the shaft, and that would indicate previous repairs, oversizing the hole for new threads, so that they could be timed to each other. HOWEVER, given the application, I suspect that it might be done on purpose, as I suspect that the axial load might be kinda low on average, but pretty significant at specific times.
I have a couple of ideas on how to pull this off, but wondering if anyone here has done this before ? or has similar experience and thoughts on how to achieve this.

The issue lies in, utilizing the existing tapped hole, or more specifically (half of a tapped hole), in the existing train wheel. I need to construct a new axle so that the end of the shaft has half of a tapped hole to line up with the other (existing) half in the wheel and be able to insert a 6 mm set screw to lock it in place.

You've got two legitimate choices. One is to oversize the hole, and rethread it for the next sized fastener. The other is to start a brand new hole, clocked somewhere else on the wheel. You're looking at the parts, not me, but IF and ONLY IF the parts allow, upsizing the original would be the preferred option if this were done in modern industry. That type of key is still used on occasion. Option B, the other option, is still valid, just be sure there's enough "meat" left on the diameter of the shaft to support the wheel all the way around.

The hole is best drilled with an end mill ifyou can. You can drill it (it doesn't matter if it's offset), but the drill doesn't want to be where it oughtta be, it wants to fillow the "joint" between the two pieces. That offsets the intersection between the screw and the joint so that they dont' hit 180 degrees on the screw as you would like them to. Still works though.

The "key" used is typically just a hard set screw, although if the mating surfaces are flat, I have seen well graded bolts installed. That as opposed to "normal" keys, where the standard is for them to be kinda soft.

When tapping those holes, three flutes works better than two or four, all day long. And if you can at all, loctite the parts together, in position, AT LEAST for the tapping operation. Too much movement, tapping across the intersections, strange forces trying to make those parts rotate against each other..... It doesn't matter if you have tho heat the loctite out and take it apart again before final assembly, (although it surely wouldn't hurt anything to leave it), but even if it's only for a "pre-assembly" to make those threads, life will be better if you can fix those parts together while you're milling/drilling/tapping. After that... For as butch as it seems to be, It's actually a remarkably stout anchoring solution. Pain in the tuchus to work on after the fact, but a very stout joint until then.
 
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