Mandrel saver

The show at Harrogate gave me an opportunity to see one of these new fangled mandrel savers in the flesh

Obviously me being me my first thought was "how much" quickly followed by "I could make one of those" :nonono:

So tired of using a spanner to run a nut up the bolt that makes up my mandrel I decided to give it a go.
I had an old morse taper & a bearing retrieved from an old cordless drill the only problem was the one wouldn't fit the other, so the first job was to turn down the end of the morse taper to fit the baring.


Whilst on the Bridgeport a 1/4" hole was drill up the centre of the taper for the mandrel to pass through & the bearing friction push-fitted onto the morse taper.

After this a piece of Box wood was turned to a cylinder & a 30mm hole drilled in one end, this hole was then counter bored with a 20mm hole to prevent the centre surface of the bearing touching any wood & then a 1/4" hole drill through the centre of the blank



The Box wood was then held in pin jaws & the finished shape turned



Time to try it out!!!



Happy to say it worked a treat
The best thing about it is I no longer have to play "hunt the 11mm spanner" that little bugger was brilliant at hiding

Who's a clever bu**er !!!!!LOL

Bloody fantastic mate ...wish I could do something like that .

Nice i made mine too love saving money well done.

Great job Doug, I had to buy mine.

I bought mine too and am not ashamed to admit it

stevenw1963 said:

I bought mine too and am not ashamed to admit it

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me too

Lovely job, it's on my to do list. I didn't think of using wood, so will have to rethink that possibility. It's always nice to see home made tools, jigs etc.

Peter

Great job!
I made mine from delrin.

Doug,

I agonised over your take on a mandrel saver and you have acheived what the commercial ones do except the boxwood part IMHO that needs to be steel as this part nestles with the mandrel and is the saving part every time you get a slight catch using your wooden part the nose will wear as well as create an out of round gradually. I dont have a Bridgeport so my design uses a commercial live centre with a brass insert easily made on a metal lathe, pic shown uses a steel nose cone the bearing used is a KSM 1607RS. I know I have banged on about my own design etc on all forums I have belonged to but a few of the commercial ones available years after my design are only variations of this.

The agonising part was to point this out in such a way you would understand my goodwill in bringing my observations to help not to override guess sitting back not saying so many times does not help either. The pics are my original mandrel saver then the commercial one commonly available that I choose to use for the steel nose cone.

Kind regards Peter.

ZuluTiming said:

Great job!
I made mine from delrin.

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Another spanner in the works, although a good spanner, thank you.

Peter

I can understand that steel will wear better than wood in a catch, but I can't remember ever having a catch with a pen blank, maybe I have been lucky:pray:

Peter

Who's a clever boy then ... Very well made Doug .. Start a business buying broken cordless drills and get these on the shelf ...

Thanks for all the comments

Penpal said:

The agonising part was to point this out in such a way you would understand my goodwill

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Peter, I am always happy to listen to others opinions on the things I make especially when those opinions come from someone with as much experience as you, in fact I'd be a fool not to.

The Box wood nose cone is a friction fit as I would like at some point to make a metal one to replace it with but at the moment that isn't possible, this is why I thought I'd try with the hardest close grained timber I had hence the box wood.

Making this has made me realise how useful having a bearing on a morse taper can be for making custom made live wooden centres for specific jobs, whilst these won't have the longevity of metal ones, the ease with which wood can be shaped makes these ideal for one off projects.
As for this saver I will just have to see how long it lasts before either it wears out or I get the opportunity to make a metal one.

When turning my box the other day i was having a think about how to stop the lid falling off and then i had a light bulb moment why not use my mandrel saver and it work so there is no end of uses

Doug I used an old live centre and drilled a hole srtaight through it.

Inventive Doug. Well done.. I have not brought one and don't intend to buy one either.

But I have got an old craft supplies mandrell that works in the same way..

Love it Doug, you have given me a couple of ideas as well...

Clever idea, Doug. I can see where Peter is coming from with steel at the wear point, but at a pinch it's amazing what you can achieve with wood.

I think that is a cracking idea Doug about turning other shaped fittings to work other items we are making.
Ernie