I restore vintage cars and trucks and have come across a seemingly difficult task of making a straight thread on the end of a tapered gearshift lever. The person that had the truck in the past took a chrome ball and welded it onto the end of the shaft, so I have to cut this off, and get a thread on it so that I can screw on a new custom gearshift knob. Not sure how to approach this task and I would appreciate some help on this. My first thought is to somehow secure the lever vertically in the milling machine and use a boring head to machine the end of the shaft so I can cut a thread with a die, but I'm not sure how the shaft can be secured onto the table this way. It's not a straight shaft and it's not long enough to chuck up in a lathe, so I'm not sure how to approach this job. After I get it threaded, It needs to go to the chrome shop. :thinking:
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Threading a tapered shaft
- Thread starter Jkassis
- Start date
If you can drill a hole in the narrow end for the tailstock centre, you should be able to turn the shaft down on the lathe to thread it. If the wide end doesn't have a parallel section to clamp in the lathe chuck, you can also drill that end too and support it in a centre in the spindle. Power can be transferred to the shaft by an appropriate dog.
Threads can be cut by single-pointing on the lathe, cutting with a die, or a combination of the two.
Threads can be cut by single-pointing on the lathe, cutting with a die, or a combination of the two.
A truck. I am seeing a floor shift or a column shift, with bends and is tapered to where threads should
be. Having no clue as what you have, here, it would be the awkward handle will be clamped to the
lathe compound shimmed as needed, my boring head is MT3 same as lathe headstock, job done. As
usual the hard part is usually comming up with hold downs. Matter of fact similar job lask wk. a crank
for a mill vise same deal to clean up the end for threading a shiny handle i made. I only reversed the
proceedure by first chucking the end to be theaded (now its centered) then clamping the rest of it to the
compound, eye ball its straightness & clamp, install boring head. Light cuts worked out fine.
be. Having no clue as what you have, here, it would be the awkward handle will be clamped to the
lathe compound shimmed as needed, my boring head is MT3 same as lathe headstock, job done. As
usual the hard part is usually comming up with hold downs. Matter of fact similar job lask wk. a crank
for a mill vise same deal to clean up the end for threading a shiny handle i made. I only reversed the
proceedure by first chucking the end to be theaded (now its centered) then clamping the rest of it to the
compound, eye ball its straightness & clamp, install boring head. Light cuts worked out fine.
Here's an idea,
cut the ball off, face the end clean with a grinder or file, and then instead of threading the end of it, drill and tap it for a stud to replicate the original threaded end. Of course we don't know exactly what sizes we're working with, but if the original threads were lets say 1/2-13, then I think a grade 8 3/8-16 stud would be more than strong enough.
And if you really wanted to get fancy you could counterbore the threaded hole in the new ball the same size as the gear shift rod so that it completely encased all the work you did on the end after you've installed it.
cut the ball off, face the end clean with a grinder or file, and then instead of threading the end of it, drill and tap it for a stud to replicate the original threaded end. Of course we don't know exactly what sizes we're working with, but if the original threads were lets say 1/2-13, then I think a grade 8 3/8-16 stud would be more than strong enough.
And if you really wanted to get fancy you could counterbore the threaded hole in the new ball the same size as the gear shift rod so that it completely encased all the work you did on the end after you've installed it.
Here would be my way--cut the ball off and find a metal cutting hole-saw ID that snug fits over the end of the shaft--then run it down till you get a straight end the length you want your threads to go--if you need a lot of threads you may need to get a deep hole saw---then just use a hand die the right size to cut your threads.--no need this way to remove the shaft from tranny--may just need to clamp it so it doesn't move when using the hole-saw --Dave