Ol' Duffer wrote in message ...
I have a vintage lathe that needs to have the cross slide
thrust bearing shimmed. I'm not 100% certain, still need
to get more light on the subject and blow the hole out with
air, but I think the handle might be mounted with a blind
roll pin. Yes I agree this is a stupid way to build things.
Anyone know of special tools or methods to remove such a
thing? Or maybe I just destroy the old handle with a big
nutcracker, sawzall, grinder, or whatever and turn myself
a new one?

You did not say what size roll pin or whether you could get to the
back side of the blind hole. Roll pins have a hole down the center
and you could run a small drill down this hole to find out if the
bottom of the hole is solid or just stopped up with something. By
drilling down the center of the roll pin this would give you a pilot
hole to locate where to drill from the other side.

Van Gardner