Was asked to post this as a few people have asked to see how i made them , so here we go !!
Well lets get the gear together ,
# stainless rod , i used 304 grade stainless in a 3/16 or 4.7mm diameter cost approx $12 for 4 metres
# bearings where kindly donated by work
large ones are 5/8 dia with 1/4 inside dia , and small one was 13mm dia with a 6mm inside dia # brass rod is 5/16 dia ,
# 4mm round head cap screw 15mm long
#large brass bar is 1 inch
#the black rod is a type of plastic ,i think it is called pactine 30mm dia by 100mm long
#i have reamers at various sizes , used 5/8 and 3/16
#8-32 unc tap set , standard size of thread for .22 plus size cleaning brushes,jags an mops
Now les start , cut your stainless rod to the lenght you want ,i made mine 960mm long , put into lathe , face off ,centre drill with size 1 or 2 centre drill , get a 3.4 mm dia drill and drill 15mm deep !
Grab intermediate 8-32 unc tap , place in drill chuck and line up 3.4mm hole , push tail stock while turning lathe chuck by hand to start the tap true
give the outside dia a touch whit a file to take away any sharp edges ,and take out of the lathe
Next we get the 5/16 dia brass rod , i cut mine to 62mm long , put in the lathe face off ,centre drill ,now here you can do two things either drill 3/16 or ream 3/16 ,
I chose to ream as i have that size ! also is a closer fit to the stainless rod , to keep things true , i drilled and reamed to 45mm deep ! you might notice red tape on some tooling , i done this so i don't need to constantly keep measuring ,clean up any sharp edges , take out and turn around , face this end , centre drill , and drill 3.3 mm through to the 3/16 hole coming from the other end ,clean any sharp edges and take out or lathe
Now we get stainless rod , and 5/16 brass rod we just machined up , the rod should be a nice fit into hole ,Make sure that you DON'T put the threaded end into handle , i soft solder these two together as there is not much load on this ! so now we should hve some thing that looks like this
Now we slip the large bearing onto the stainless rod till it reaches the brass rod ,an place in the lathe with a live centre in tail stock and machine a step to suit the bearing , mine was 1/4inch dia by 5mm long
Note bearing close to lathe chuck , once bearing area is to size you can use the the tail stock to press the bearing on just loosen lathe chuck and line bearing up and screw in tail stock , on a safety note ,i place a piece of pvc tube to act as a suport to the stainless rod out the back of the lathe
alright , now we have fitted the large bearing we should have something looking like this
What now , place the brass rod into lathe chuck ,so we can machine the end bearing , i machined mine to 6mm diameter by 5 mm long ,to suit the small bearing ,press bearing on , this end should also have the 3.3mm dia hole in it , so just run the 3.3 drill to clean up any soldering paste and tap this 4mm ,the same way you did the 8-32 unc , get a 4mm button head cap screw , drop of loctite on thread and tighten screw to retain the small bearing
when you take it out the lathe it will look like this , i gave it a good clean wih CRC and compressed air ,
Ok we ar now finished with the rod
Now we put our plastic handle in ,face off and cut a chamfer on outside diameter ,take out and turn around ,face and chamfer this end , now we start to drill this end , so centre drill , i started with the larger size drill ,which for me was to suit the large bearing , so this size for me was 5/8inch ,i have a reamer this size so it was easy , but you could drill ,or even bore this size , i made mine 15mm deep !
Good ole red tape thing again
now we drill the smaller size for the bearing , which for me i used 13mm dia this one i drlled to 75mm deep , I don't have much experiance with machineing plastics but found that you can comfortaby drill to size , as trying to work up to a size caused a lot of grabbing ect , also noted that if i started wiht the smaller size first , the burring would not allow me to push the bearings in , if any one could shed some light on machining plastic , it would be welcomed 
Clean up any sharp edges and if you can put a chamfer on the larger hole at front of handle , take it out of the lathe , get your stainless rod with bearings attached and tap it down the bore of the handle ,you should use a hollow bush or socket of correct size to the larger bearing and use a weight like a slide hammer to seat the bearing all the way
Note i used a piece of nylon to a puch and a lump of aluminium as a slide hammer , they where pieces lying around ! once the bearings are seated down ,just check that the handle spins nicely , if not it might need a light tap onthe actual handle not the bearings , once all good and free , its time to measure of the front face of handle down to the bearing ,it should be aroud about 9 to 10 mm ,this size is now used as a size for the cover , so back to the lathe , and put the 25mm dia brass bar in , face off , centre drill , and drill 1/4 dia for 25mm deep , clean sharp edges , the size we got from the front of handle to bearingface will now be a lenght on this piece , so we have a diameter of 5/8 inch and a lenght machine these sizes on to the brass ,I made the dia about .010" thou bigger as it will hold better in the handle
Another good idea is to under cut the 90 degree corner to allow it to come flush with the handle
now me measure 10mm futher from shoulder and part off , turn around and put back in lathe holdind the machined surface , and chamfer hole and cut what ever shape you would like on the front , i cut a radius on mine here is a pic
when you are happy with the shape , clean up any sharp edges ,and polish upwith some fine sandpaper , and autosol , once you are happy slip this piece over rod and hammer it home the same way you pressed the bearings in
We are just about there , slip a 3/16 "O" ring over rod and slide down and you are done
Hope you folks enjoy this
any questions feel free to ask
Andree
