Lathe Chuck Spanner

So I bought some spindle nose tooling for the HLV-H and didn't happen to have a spanner for things like collet chuck closers.

This was fine un till I needed to use one. So...I had to whip out something real quick. I had this 1/4" bar laying around so I marked out a rough outline with a sharpie.

The first thing I had to do was make a 1.5" radius to match the outside of the collet chucks. Fortunately it occurred to me this should be the first step so I could hold it securely in the vise.

I hacked out the rough curve on the band saw and finished up with the boring head. I bought this SPI unit from MSC and it's fine, but nothing to get excited about. You get what you pay for...or you get what you make. But I'm not quite industrious enough to make my own boring head...yet.

Some slots...

This "free" band saw really is dreamy. I don't know how I used to get along without it.

90 seconds later...
Viola!
Time for a little refinement of the shape.
Now I just need to weld on this little chunk of drill rod.
I wish I had a TIG machine so this hack job had to suffice. I didn't weld the part where the pin intersects the arc because I didn't want to try and grind that back down. I seriously doubt this will fail during its intended use.

I left the part sticking out of the top so I could weld it securely all the way around. Some day I might get around to grinding it off but it works as is.

Looks like I'm in business!