Help increasing size of taper

[Dale B]

I have an old car steering wheel I want to put on an old tractor where the wheel has disintegrated. They both have tapered holes with a keyway . The tractor wheel is about .875 , tapering up to .815 , and the car wheel is .715 tapering up to .630. Is there a reamer made for this purpose ? I have a drill press and a big *** 1/2 inch drill motor , and die grinders , what process should I try ??

 

[ibedayank]

yes they have reamers for that...but they are not cheap for a one shot job i personaly would talk to the local machine shops
might be cheaper just to find another steering wheel on evilbar or a tractor forum

 

[king nero]

I'd talk to someone with a lathe...

5 minutes for putting the steering wheel in the jaws,
5 minutes for setting the cross-slide angle correct,
and 5 minutes for the actual machining.

Job jobbed in 15 minutes - worst case scenario.

 

[gorilla]

Is the keyway straight or does it follow the taper? Machining the taper isn't a big deal but a tapered keyway is. You will need a shaper with an angle vice or a file to do a tapered keyway. Good luck.

 

[Dale B]

Yes it follows the taper , but I figured a little work with a sawzall will be good enough. Wouldn't it be tough to do with the lathe because of the interupted cut from the keyway? But reaming would be feasable ? I have a bunch of reamers , but I'd need to match the taper and bore, not likely. I'm thinking slow speed ?
I can buy a new wheel for $60-70 bucks , but this car steering wheel is perfect except for the hole, and kinda looks like its correct , it's from the '40's...

 

[justanengineer]

Interrupted cuts are a part of just about every part made, and simple to deal with using high speed steel bits on a lathe.

 

[cnc-me]

5 minutes for setting the cross-slide angle correct

Don't you mean compound angle correct?

Job jobbed in 15 minutes - worst case scenario.

Talk about fast, I would think it would take at
least that long just to setup correctly.

 

[Daddy_Rabbit]

... it would take at least 15 minutes to indicate the wheel in correctly

 

[Dale B]

Ok , I guess its time to start collecting the reamers and measuring ...thanx guys......

 

[jabberwoki]

I`ve got a couple of new screws if that will help?

 

[king nero]

Don't you mean compound angle correct?

Talk about fast, I would think it would take at
least that long just to setup correctly.

The angle adjustment on top of the cross-slide? Don't know the english term. You're most likely correct.

So, 15 minutes for setting up both the wheel and the angle.
That's more than do-able, I'd say.

... it would take at least 15 minutes to indicate the wheel in correctly

I've centered some pretty weird shapes in independant 4-jaw chucks, and it's never taken me a quarter of an hour.
I agree, it's hard to say without actually seeing the steering wheel, but if you can chuck it, you should be able to center it in less than 15 minutes...

 

[Dale B]

Well, the wheel is an evenly spaced 3 spoke ,so it should be easy to set up , but it's 18 " so I'd need 9"of swing , and that exceeds the capacity of my Atlas lathe . Actually , there is no need for real precision here, close is good enough..... Jab , I could use some nice polished screws for the puller holes in the wheel. Phillips panhead , 1/4 -20 X 3/4 would look nice........

 

[nate379]

How about drilling out wheel with reg drill bit and welding it to the shaft?

 

[ibedayank]

will take one BIG lathe to fit a steering wheel

 

[robertlynk]

http://www.mcmaster.com/#taper-reamers/=c6gqsh

 

[Daddy_Rabbit]

will take one BIG lathe to fit a steering wheel

or a small lathe with a gap bed

 

[OccupantRJ]

A reamer is not going to work well with the keyway in play. Barring having a lathe, I would black the 2 faces of the hub with a marker pen, then using round objects as close in size as possible to the diameter of both the lower and upper taper, scribe a circle to act as a visual guide. Using a die grinder or drill with a mounted stone, grind the hole larger to fit. This will take some care and patience, but is doable. A 1/2" rat tail file could also be used for the job. Just for inspiration, see this link of a hole expansion I did in some mower blades.

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=67580

 

[Scoobyvroom]

Only correct way would be to cut the new taper and keyway in a wire EDM machine.

 

[Rentawrench]

Why not try something easier . You have shaft end off the car , then drill tap the thread from tractor , screw it on an Weld it . Right taper an your good to go.

 

[ibedayank]

Why not try something easier . You have shaft end off the car , then drill tap the thread from tractor , screw it on an Weld it . Right taper an your good to go.

instant adapter.. weld not really a good idea locktight is better sometimes on tractors you need to be able to remove the wheel

 

[Dale B]

No welding... I don't have the car shaft , only the steering wheel. Over the weekend I'll round up all the reamers I can find and see if anything is close. It doesn't need to be perfect , just close.
Robertlynk : thanks for the look up , but that's gonna be way over budget for this project ....Do they still have that cement Dinosaur on the north side of the Fwy out there ? Hahaha
Occupant : I have several die grinders with Burrs , that will be plan "B" I was doing some more clean up on the tractor today and found the block has a 4 inch crack in the water jacket just above the starter...Mr.J, meet Mr. B. Just jump in the mixing bowl and form a bond..........

 

[OccupantRJ]

I thought of another way. Drill out the center of the car steering wheel. Cut and grind away all the tractor wheel except for about an inch of diameter hub. Insert tractor hub into car wheel and weld into place, cooling often.

 

[nate379]

What do you mean by no welding?

 

[Dale B]

You know RJ , I'm going to go study that idea......I never even considered that !!!! I'll get back to you.....

 

[Dale B]

Nate , I don't want to weld on the steering shaft , theres lots of other ways to whip this problem , and RJ's is looking feasable

 

[larry_g]

I have an old car steering wheel I want to put on an old tractor where the wheel has disintegrated. They both have tapered holes with a keyway . The tractor wheel is about .875 , tapering up to .815 , and the car wheel is .715 tapering up to .630. Is there a reamer made for this purpose ? I have a drill press and a big *** 1/2 inch drill motor , and die grinders , what process should I try ??

You could drill the car wheel out to .815. Scribe a .875 circle on the back side, (if the hubs are the same thickness). Go to work with a file or grinder and connect the circles. You also have to consider the length of the taper. If the hub on the tractor wheel is 2" thick and the car wheel is 1" thick then the new large dia in the taper will be .845. You could also measure back on the shaft taper the thickness of the car hub and measure the taper diameter at that point. Once you get the tapered hole in then cut the keyway with a cape chisel, that is what they are made for.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[bamatj]

Do you have any calipers? If you can get some close measurements you might find it is a common taper, might could find a used reamer on ebay etc. I would find out what it is before I went to cutting and welding imo. Of course you would still have to file the keyway, which would be a pita to. If you can measure the ID of the hole on both sides, and the length, I will tell you what the taper is.