# Are there any examples of lathe-turned wooden handwheels for a vise?



## BobBlarney (Apr 17, 2015)

Hello,

I'm gathering bits & pieces to make a vise or two for my bench, and after shopping around for 6"-8" handwheels I'm considering turning them on my lathe. I haven't decided whether to make it like a dished machine wheel, spoked or a solid with a crank, or make it like a flat spoked ship's wheel.

For a dished wheel (which would be easiest to make), I could make a glued-up hardwood blank 2-1/4 or 3" thick with a 1-8TPI nut embedded in it. I could chuck that directly on my lathe spindle and turn for perfect concentricity I suppose that I could come up with other bore sizes too.

So, does anybody have advice/opinions?


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## Phil32 (Aug 31, 2018)

What do commercial vises use for leverage? Don't re-invent the wheel!


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## BobBlarney (Apr 17, 2015)

> What do commercial vises use for leverage? Don t re-invent the wheel!
> 
> - Phil32


So far as i can tell from here, these vises with wheels from Benchcrafted seem to work ok.

https://www.benchcrafted.com/rouboplans


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## Phil32 (Aug 31, 2018)

I remember some amazing bench vises in school woodshops, that required only a partial turn to release and fully extend. Others had a wooden sliding bar (lever) in a T-fitting.


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## Underdog (Oct 29, 2012)

I see woodturners make wooden handwheels for their lathes all the time.
Here are some examples of wood handwheels for various uses.
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2Fea%2F5b%2F75%2Fea5b7539a87d5105005030bfd8e5b5ff.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.es%2Fpin%2F474074298255462306%2F&tbnid=_EAJBhY5udBbrM&vet=12ahUKEwjI4se2l-PnAhVHz1MKHctBD9YQMygAegUIARDdAQ..i&docid=V1vR8-JOt1fSsM&w=438&h=600&itg=1&q=wooden%20lathe%20handwheel&ved=2ahUKEwjI4se2l-PnAhVHz1MKHctBD9YQMygAegUIARDdAQ


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## MrUnix (May 18, 2012)

It is pretty trivial to make wheels on a lathe… I've made dozens out of everything from wood to recycled milk jugs (HDPE). It's also trivial to attach a spinning handle - just use a bolt with a nylock nut so it's free to spin. There are many examples on this site… from pretty fancy to this plain one I did a while back for my Makita planer:










Cheers,
Brad


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