Gingery Lathe - Lead Screw Assembly

The first part of the lead screw assembly is the apron.  This is a pretty simple part as it is only a rectangular casting.  In this view you can see that I have already drilled the hole for the split nut mechanism.

The lead screw is supported by some bearing blocks on each end.  I made mine as a one piece design and bored out the hole for the bushing on a mill.  I also made the bushing from solid stock on a lathe rather than the pipe method Gingery describes.  The gold colored pieces are shaft collars that I bought at my local hardware store.  On the other end with where the handle attaches.  I made the handle from a piece of 3" aluminum round and a cut-off bolt for the handle.  I need to make something a little bigger for this handle, as it seems that this one is not quite large enough.

 

I decided that the handle that I had made was too small, so I set out to cast a larger one.  I made it a split pattern and cut it out on the CNC.

 This is how they turned out.  It works much better now.