Brainstorming some hare-brained schemes
I have the Lyman T Mag II turret press. The turret head itself has 2 holes for the turret handle. You put it in one of the holes and index through your stations until it gets in the way of the press handle and you pull it out and move it to the other hole. What I was thinking about doing is buying 2 new handles from Lyman and chpping them down a few inches so that they can clear the press handle and putting on a new ball handle on the end. The plan would be to keep both handles in and just grab the one closest to me, rather than moving it around all the time. The handles are a metal shaft with a captive ball bearing and a plastic handle on the end. Lyman wants $8.00 per + $4.00 shipping. I'm wondering if I can source these shaft ball bearing handles from some place else (I'm sure they have other uses) but I'm not sure what the 'industry' term for them might be. If anybody knows what I'm talking about and has any input, please let me know. I can take a picture of the existing handle if it helps clear things up.
Thanks for asking our advice.
The term you are wanting is "Ball Detent" (Google it, there are different kinds and you may get some ideas of how to arrange something yourself).
Anything you have machined (unless you do it yourself) is likely to be more expensive than what you can buy from Lyman. Even if you do it yourself, the amount of work to get it done might be more trouble than it's worth.
However, if you just get a metal rod of the right diameter (or a tiny bit smaller than the hole) and wrap some electrician's tape around the tip and wedge it in, that might do the trick. (Expedient method).
As I recall, the Lyman turret also has two flanges with set screws for mounting a primer feed tube doesn't it? Could you use those? If you are not using them for primer feeding, that is.
I shy away from Scrapperz's suggestion of just grabbing one of the dies because I worry about changing the settings (worrying unnecessarily perhaps), but you might see if this would work: Get a sheet of cardboard 24" long and 5" wide. Put a hole in the center that just fits over the center post of your turret. Trim the rest of the cardboard so that it will sit between your dies and the two ends shaped for handles. Use the cardboard as a template, and with a scroll saw or something, fabricate a turret handle from an aluminum bar, a board, plywood or plastic, anything strong enough that won't damage your dies' threads.
You could even make this out of a larger piece of material that would make a big circle around the turret. That way you could grab the thing anywhere, or even with two hands. If you found a steering wheel of the right size, especially if it was some exotic car, you could get really fancy.
Come to think of it, if you found a steering wheel (or bicycle rim) of the right size, you could put two rods or bolts through it, engaging the original holes for the Lyman handles. They would not come out unless you unscrewed them. Since there are only two holes, it would wobble a bit, but if that did not bother you...
Let us know what you decide.
Good luck
Lost Sheep
