Popular Woodworking 2007-10 № 164, страница 72

Turning Oval Tool Handles

Grip allows greater leverage with less pressure, and can be custom-fit.

At the Lathe

by judy ditmer

It's easy to make oval tool handles on the lathe. From left: A modern screwdriver with one type of oval handle, a little screwdriver in dire need of a decent handle, a driver I use frequently, fitted with the oval lathe-turned handle I made for this article, and an antique oval-handled driver.

f you've ever used a small-handled screwdriver to turn a tight screw, you know that having a decent handle is half the battle. A larger handle makes it so much easier to keep a good grip on the driver. An oval handle goes this one better; you can get great leverage without having to grip so tightly.

It's easy to turn an oval handle on the lathe, plus you can make a handle that suits your own hand, and the specific tool, perfectly.

Although I used a plain piece of ash for this project, you might choose a special piece of wood to make a beautiful, custom tool that you can use effectively for many years.

To make the oval shape, the basic idea is that you will turn the handle using one center point on the end that holds the driver, but on three different centers at the other end. This off-center, multiple-axis technique allows you to make an item that's not round.

Because there will be some faceting of the turned surfaces from the different centers, you'll have some blending to do when you sand the piece, so choose a wood that will sand well. An extremely hard, dense wood (such as rosewood or ebony) will be more difficult to sand into smooth transitions. But wood that's too soft won't make a stiff, sturdy handle. Oak, ash, locust and similar woods will be easier to sand satisfactorily than woods such as hard maple, but with careful sanding and finishing work, any good domestic hardwood will do well.

You'll need to start with a larger piece than you might otherwise use; for this one I used a piece of white oak about 2¹A" square and about 5" long. I would suggest using a piece at least 1V2" longer than the size of the finished handle you are planning, because you need some extra material at the tailstock end to prevent the piece from e asily splitting as you shift centers.

I usually turn tool handles on a screw chuck; I drill an appropriately-sized hole in the blank (of a size that will be correct for the tool I'll be inserting later), and choose a screw chuck to fit that hole. I keep an assort

ment of different sizes of lag screws (with the heads ground off), and use the one that fits for a given project. I put the lag screw into a Jacobs-style chuck on the lathe and it's ready to go. This is a very secure way to drive the

90 ■ Popular Woodworking October 2007

photos by al rarrish