I miss making my acrylic eggs so I bought a harbor freight mini lathe and a WEN LA4444 Chuck, The final piece of my puzzle is getting a handle for my negative rake carbide blade. All I see for handles are $100 +. I am just looking for something to get me through the downtime until the space is live again. Anyone have some advice on where I can buy one cheaper, or have one they want to sell, or even rent for a couple of months?
what does the raw tool end look like. A tang of some sort or round bar?
OneWay handles have a 1/2" hole on one end and 5/8" on the other and $58 for their longer handle.
They are also available at Craft Supplies USA. I’d be surprised if Wood World didn’t have one on hand.
A few of us have purchased these for our own tools/home shops. You’re looking a little cheaper ($70) per tool handle, or the set for $175. They take the same size cutter as the EasyWood tool heads. I’ve used both the square and round head negative rakes on mine, and they work great.
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I’m assuming your egg is small (<4"). You can probably get away with a carbide pen turning set. These are much smaller (and cheaper) than the full size versions.
for $149 at Rockler (you can get a DMS 10% off discount at one of their stores).
I made my own set of full and medium size carbide tools. I used 5/8" and 1/2" square 1018 steel stock (Metals for U or any online metal store for < $5 a foot). I used a belt sander to shape the end, then drilled and tapped a hole at the end. I turned my own handle. The official carbide cutters for the Easywood tools are expensive ($16-18 each). You can buy off brand carbide cutters on amazon for $5-$10. I can’t tell the difference between Easywood and non-Easywood cutters. Total cost was about $15 per tool. They aren’t perfect but in a head to head comparison done at the MakerSpace, I couldn;t tell a difference between my homemade and the Easy wood tools. There are videos on youtube on how to make these.
Good luck and stay safe!
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