On Sat, 12 Mar 2011 19:19:14 -0500, "Wild_Bill"
wrote:

Fabricating and using a lathe spindle hand crank is a fairly common early
project for a new/beginning lathe user.. many lathe owners use the cranks
regularly, including myself.

It's no problem to unplug the lathe power cord before installing the crank,
which is the method I use, and recommend.

There are many advantages to using a hand crank which is often easier than
using power feed.
Lots of the imported bench lathes don't have spindle speeds low enough to
make power threading short pieces practical.

You said it!


Not too long ago (a few weeks maybe) someone posted a link to a kit/plans
for building a manual lathe spindle crank that only engages when being
turned by hand.
I haven't seen one of that design, and I would most likely still unplug the
lathe's power cord.

I don't have any trouble unplugging the power cord of my small lathe, since
the power receptacle is located just to the rear of the left end of the
spindle.
I have a lock-out no-power switch position on my other machine.. and I also
pull the power cord plug on that one when doing anything that might result
in injury if the motor were to start.

Thousands of simple actions are dangerous if one is not aware of what
they're doing/paying attention.

It never occurred to me that anyone would leave the power connected
when having the crank in place!

The plans for the crank I saw involve the sort of joint used in bikes
(I don't know the name, it is a bar which is cut diagonally and
connected by a bolt. when tightened it expands inside the spindle).