I've been exchanging a few PM's with @Janger and @CWret and feel like I'm leaving everyone else out of it.
A while back I got one of @a smile 's 11mm chuck wrenches. I mentioned the flying retainer and spring on another post. I've had it a while now and figured it's time for an update.
Bottom line is that it lives on my lathe now and the standard wrench has been moved to a storage drawer cuz I don't use it anymore. Prolly not much more I could say about the tool than that to demonstrate how much I like it.
Yes, everything can be improved. But for me, the acid test is how much I actually use it. The answer to that is that I use it a lot. It is a quality tool well worth the price. Others have described its features so I won't repeat them here.
I liked this tool so much that I bought a 12mm for my big chuck and a 3/8-10mm for my 5C collet chuck. The 12 is like the 11. Nothing but praise and a place on my lathe.
The 3/8-10 was another matter. I had hoped it would fit a 3/8 drive but that didn't happen. No biggie, I just decided to mill it down using a 5C indexer held in my Gerardi vise. That turned out to be not quite so easy. This tool is made of much harder stainless than I expected. It took a carbide endmill with a very slow feed rate to cut it down to size. Even so, the swarf ended up being mostly magnetic dust. Nonetheless, I was successful in the end and the tool worked beautiful on my chuck. Another T-Wrench hit the storage drawer. Best of all the 12V driver I use to spin the collets in and out went along to storage for the ride. VERY FAST AND VERY NICE!
Then I got to looking at the two nuts that hold my compound in place on my cross-slide. I thought, now why couldn't i use the 3/8 driver and socket on those nuts too? I keep a big T-bar driver and 3/8 drive socket in my chip tray for that job.
The problem there is that the chuck wrench has no spring and detent ball system to hold the socket on. I was noodling that issue when it hit me. Who cares? Just leave the socket on the nut and get another socket for the other side! So here it is. I have a bunch of old sockets I got from my father in law before he passed. They can stay right there on those two nuts forever. If I ever got worried about losing them, I'd just permanently epoxy them onto the nuts!
Bottom line....., yet another T Wrench hit the storage drawer...... Three really nice wrenches to replace 4 old style and a 12V driver too! Not bad! Not bad at all!
Very very happy! Highly recommended!
A while back I got one of @a smile 's 11mm chuck wrenches. I mentioned the flying retainer and spring on another post. I've had it a while now and figured it's time for an update.
Bottom line is that it lives on my lathe now and the standard wrench has been moved to a storage drawer cuz I don't use it anymore. Prolly not much more I could say about the tool than that to demonstrate how much I like it.
Yes, everything can be improved. But for me, the acid test is how much I actually use it. The answer to that is that I use it a lot. It is a quality tool well worth the price. Others have described its features so I won't repeat them here.
I liked this tool so much that I bought a 12mm for my big chuck and a 3/8-10mm for my 5C collet chuck. The 12 is like the 11. Nothing but praise and a place on my lathe.
The 3/8-10 was another matter. I had hoped it would fit a 3/8 drive but that didn't happen. No biggie, I just decided to mill it down using a 5C indexer held in my Gerardi vise. That turned out to be not quite so easy. This tool is made of much harder stainless than I expected. It took a carbide endmill with a very slow feed rate to cut it down to size. Even so, the swarf ended up being mostly magnetic dust. Nonetheless, I was successful in the end and the tool worked beautiful on my chuck. Another T-Wrench hit the storage drawer. Best of all the 12V driver I use to spin the collets in and out went along to storage for the ride. VERY FAST AND VERY NICE!
Then I got to looking at the two nuts that hold my compound in place on my cross-slide. I thought, now why couldn't i use the 3/8 driver and socket on those nuts too? I keep a big T-bar driver and 3/8 drive socket in my chip tray for that job.
The problem there is that the chuck wrench has no spring and detent ball system to hold the socket on. I was noodling that issue when it hit me. Who cares? Just leave the socket on the nut and get another socket for the other side! So here it is. I have a bunch of old sockets I got from my father in law before he passed. They can stay right there on those two nuts forever. If I ever got worried about losing them, I'd just permanently epoxy them onto the nuts!
Bottom line....., yet another T Wrench hit the storage drawer...... Three really nice wrenches to replace 4 old style and a 12V driver too! Not bad! Not bad at all!
Very very happy! Highly recommended!
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