I have some radios that I would like to use a different knob on but
the shaft is usually about a 1/4 inch too short. does anyone have a
reliable method of extending a shaft a short amount and maintain
stability and strength ?

Mike Maghakian ) writes:
I have some radios that I would like to use a different knob on but
the shaft is usually about a 1/4 inch too short. does anyone have a
reliable method of extending a shaft a short amount and maintain
stability and strength ?

You get a shaft coupler. It's a piece of thick-walled tubing with
holes drilled and threaded. Put one end over an existing shaft, and
then tighten the screw that goes in the threaded hole. Then you
put another shaft at the other end, and likewise secure it.

I have no idea where to get them nowadays, though there must
be plenty floating around in junk boxes.

Your problem, though, might be wether you can fit one into whatever
radio you need it. Assuming this is a fairly recent model, there may
not be enough space to get the shaft coupler in, since it is wider in
diamater than the existing shaft.

Michael

If the control turns easily and the extension shaft to be used is plastic or
aluminum, i.e., lightweight, using heat shrink tubing as a coupler may work.

Bill, K5BY

does anyone have a
reliable method of extending a shaft a short amount and maintain
stability and strength ?

Viagra...?



--Guy Kudlemyer
Thurston, OR

---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese...
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------

does anyone have a
reliable method of extending a shaft a short amount and maintain
stability and strength ?

Viagra...?



--Guy Kudlemyer
Thurston, OR

---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese...
---------- ---------- ---------- ---------- ----------

Damn! You beat me to it!

I read:

"... I would like to use a different knob on but
the shaft is usually about a 1/4 inch too short. does anyone have a
reliable method of extending a shaft a short amount and maintain
stability and strength ?"

and I was drooling over the choice of replies!

--
Col. I.P. Yurin
Commissariat of Internal Security

Stakhanovite
Order of Lenin (1937)
Hero of Socialist Labor (1939)

(Michael Black) wrote in message ...
Mike Maghakian ) writes:
I have some radios that I would like to use a different knob on but
the shaft is usually about a 1/4 inch too short. does anyone have a
reliable method of extending a shaft a short amount and maintain
stability and strength ?

You get a shaft coupler. It's a piece of thick-walled tubing with
holes drilled and threaded. Put one end over an existing shaft, and
then tighten the screw that goes in the threaded hole. Then you
put another shaft at the other end, and likewise secure it.

I have no idea where to get them nowadays, though there must
be plenty floating around in junk boxes.

Your problem, though, might be wether you can fit one into whatever
radio you need it. Assuming this is a fairly recent model, there may
not be enough space to get the shaft coupler in, since it is wider in
diamater than the existing shaft.

Michael

I have built some small tube radios useing shaft extensions from Ocean
State Electronics. http://oselectronics.com/ Look at home page-
quick index on left-shaft accessories. You could use brass
tubeing,wood dowels, anything that will fit your situation. Kim

Kim Roland wrote:
(Michael Black) wrote in message ...

Mike Maghakian ) writes:

I have some radios that I would like to use a different knob on but
the shaft is usually about a 1/4 inch too short. does anyone have a
reliable method of extending a shaft a short amount and maintain
stability and strength ?

Its pretty hard to extend a shaft ONLY 1/4". The couplers alone tend to
be longer than that.
The only way I see is to cut back the original shaft and use a coupler
or any of the ideas previously mentioned. If its a metal shaft (not
aluminum) you could probably add on 1/4" with solder (and a file).
It may be easier just to replace the pot???

-Bill

"Mike Maghakian" wrote in message
om...
I have some radios that I would like to use a different knob on but
the shaft is usually about a 1/4 inch too short. does anyone have a
reliable method of extending a shaft a short amount and maintain
stability and strength ?

1/4 inch longer is real tough, especially if you want to slip the knob down
over the extender and on to the original shaft. I haven't done this, but I
might try extending it out with a 1/4 inch OD piece of tubing attached with
a screw through the tubing's center, threaded into a hole drilled and tapped
into the original control's shaft.

The biggest problem would be making a square, concentric hole in the
original control's shaft. A 1/4 inch ID sleeve could be placed over the
original control's shaft, and a 1/4 inch OD tap drill bushing, could be
place through the sleeve on top of the original shaft. The sleeve would
hold the original shaft and the tap drill bushing concentric and square.
This probably could be done well with makeshift parts, although I'd try a
few times on some scrap before I'd have any confidence on the real thing.

Or you could try and find some knobs with 3/8 inch ID holes. Put a 3/8 inch
OD sleeve on your original control shaft, and you're done.

Frank Dresser

Hi Mike. Could you find a small cylindrical knob that will fit the shaft,
and a piece of identical shaft? Slice the small knob to the length you need
and expoxy it to the big knob, using the shaft piece to align them. You
would need a means of slicing the knob perfectly square so that the result
does not rotate eccentrically. And you'd have to be careful not to have the
alignment shaft get set in the glue! (I know - in this group,someone is
going to make some remark about it being a sex-change operation)

73, Tom

"Mike Maghakian" wrote in message
om...
I have some radios that I would like to use a different knob on but
the shaft is usually about a 1/4 inch too short. does anyone have a
reliable method of extending a shaft a short amount and maintain
stability and strength ?

maybe a piece of shrink tubing over the shaft, then fill the open end
with epoxy glue. possibly the shrink tube could then be stripped off
leaving the epoxy extension bonded on the end of the shaft.