RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Drill and tap stepper motor shaft?

I had some scrap motors around and tried this on 4 motors. Only one was
successful.
Those stepper motor shafts are pretty hard material. I believe they are
stainless steel. You would have to chuck up the motor shaft side in a
lathe, center drill it, then carefully drill and tap it. You have to be
very careful not to get chips into the motor so pack the area around the
shaft with clay. If you have a nema 23 motor then the shaft is only
1/4"D so you would have to drill and tap for a thread no greater than
8-32.
The other problem you would have is that when turning the handle
clockwise the retaining screw would tend to get tighter and when turned
counterclockwise would tend to loosen so figure to use locktite on the
threads at assembly.
Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: andesign2@... [mailto:andesign2@...]
Sent: Monday, November 05, 2001 7:42 PM
To: CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Drill and tap stepper motor shaft?

I am in the process of adding stepper motors to my Taig mill. The
motors are single shafted, however I would like to be able to put
handles on the motors so I can use the mill in manual mode. While
playing with the motors today I realized that there was a hole in the
back case under the specification sticker. The hole exposes the back
of the motor shaft. Is it possible to drill & tap the back of the
shaft so I can rig up some sort of handle? Will drilling & tapping
hurt the motor?

Thank You,

Jason