For the winding key, you need a square socket to fit over the square winding peg. Wilding says to drill a hole, then use a square file to take out the corners and make it square. This seemed very hard to me. Especially trying to square up the hole 1/2" down.
So, I chose to make the square socket this way. I sliced off one edge of a 1/2" 303 round bar with a slitting saw.
Then I completely removed that slice off the bar and cut a 3/16” channel in the end.
And silver soldered the slice of bar back onto the rod to form the deep square hole. At first, I tried using those titanium strips to clamp the two pieces together for soldering. But that was a bad method as the two pieces would slip apart as things got hot. So I got smart for my second try and used some stainless steel wire, twisted tight, to hold them together. That worked MUCH better.
Here’s what it looks like after some time in the pickle bath. The top part of this looks flat, but that's just an optical illusion caused by the bad angle of the photo. The top is actually rounded; it's just a little shorter than the rest of the bar due to the saw kerf.
I put the bar in the lathe and skimmed the surface off the rod till it was round again. Then made the shape I wanted for the winding key. I made a little mark with the grooving tool to indicate where I want to cut the bar, which I did using the band saw. Note that I just put the center in the square hole. This worked just fine. (It’s a live center).
After cutting it off, then cleaning up the end, I cut a 3/32” slot in the other end of the rod.
I wanted to make the key all out of stainless steel. I don’t have any 303 sheet, so I sliced off a piece of 3.25” round bar and faced it to the correct width, just like I did for the gears.
Here’s the pattern I’m going to use for the top of the key. I put spray glue on the back of the pattern and glued it onto the 3/32” thick disk.
To help keep the rounded sections looking round, I chose to drill them. I marked the centers with an optical magnifying center punch. (I have really used that thing a lot on this build!) Then I drilled them out. I also made some smaller holes in those center cut-outs.
Then I cut the shape using the scroll saw. However, my attempt to do this on the stainless steel was thwarted. That’s tough stuff to cut! So I opted to switch to aluminum plate. I didn’t have any 3/32” plate either, so this was actually made from a slice of 3” round aluminum. But I can tell you, it was a LOT easier to work with than the stainless was.
After cutting it out, I used the die filer to bring it to the lines on my pattern. Then removed the pattern.
Here are the two parts of the winding key:
And here it is, put together. It really isn’t firmly attached yet. I won’t do the final attachment till after I’ve buffed up all the pieces.
I had hoped to have the key be all stainless steel. I thought it would look more cool. But that stuff was just nearly impossible to cut on the scroll saw. I'd considered trying to figure out how to mill the shape, but that just seemed like a LOT of work. So aluminum it is!
I think it will look pretty good when it gets polished up.
Kim
