Swapping ratchet/screwdriver handles

[CoThG]

Anyone else swap handles on ratchets and/or screwdrivers to other colors or styles? What methods do you use to change out handles? I recently purchased this used Snap-On SPP1710 handle press to change out newly acquired non orange handled ratchets and other tools with orange. Works great as I've already swapped out three non orange hard handle ratchets to orange.

 

[L.Cheapo]

I mangled the tip of my 90* mini pick. Handed it to my dealer, he put the shaft in his vise, handle hanging down. He used a pair of pliers around the shaft, whacked the pliers with a soft face hammer, and popped the handle off. New shaft upright in the vise, tapped the handle on, rotated some amount for a new "bite". Not pretty, but fast.

Your official S-O handle tool is pretty neat.

 

[CoThG]

I mangled the tip of my 90* mini pick. Handed it to my dealer, he put the shaft in his vise, handle hanging down. He used a pair of pliers around the shaft, whacked the pliers with a soft face hammer, and popped the handle off. New shaft upright in the vise, tapped the handle on, rotated some amount for a new "bite". Not pretty, but fast.

Your official S-O handle tool is pretty neat.

Thanks. It is neat. Your dealer's method seems to fairly common, although using an open end wrench vs. pliers seems to be more commonly used. I've seen one dealer video where he cobbled together a press using a hydraulic cylinder. My dealer uses a vice and prybar and usually ends up destroying the handle during the removal process.

 

[gmt]

I thought about buying one of those, but decided that it would be one of those tools that just end up sitting unused most of the time.
I just use a vise and 2 pry bars method.

 

[JerseyBoatBuilder]

I have done a couple orange handles. Just dril and boil

 

[CoThG]

I have done a couple orange handles. Just dril and boil

What do you drill?

 

[Cruzan80]

That looks quite a bit like the "pen presses" people use for assembling after a wood lathe.

 

[JerseyBoatBuilder]

What do you drill?

The opening of the handle. There was threads years a go here where we were making our own SnapOn hard handle tools. I sold most but still have a t72 I made a hard handle before they were available.
This site used to be great

 

[jakewolf]

I do!

I picked up 3 different soft grip ratchets off ebay recently and have swapped them all out for screwdriver hard handles.

Hot water removed my 1/2 and 3/8 soft grips EASILY. Just pulled them off by hand. The 1/4 grip refused to budge... I got impatient and cut it off.

As for installation. On the 1/2 and 1/4 I actually just used a long Bessey bar clamp I had and slowly pressed the handles on that way. The Tolerance on my 3/8 ratchet and grip was a bit tighter SO I had to resort to clamping that one in the vice and wacking the grip on with a hammer.

I drilled the Combat green grip for my 1/2 ratchet about 1/8" too shallow... that small gap at the top of the handle kills me. I'll fix that eventually.



Also this old thread has some useful information in it:

Snap-on Hard Handle Dimensions for Conversions

Culling all the info from prior threads about Snap-on hard handle conversions, I thought it would be helpful to create a size table so folks can make the best choice for their projects. It looks like Snap-on has updated some part numbers too after reintroducing the hard handle ratchets. I'm...

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