Billet aluminum hand wheel

[HSulley]

I am newly registered on this forum but have owned a BT3000 for several years and have visited this forum many times. I would like to say thanks to everyone for all the great information.

I was looking on Ebay for a replacement handwheel after I broke mine for the second time. I came across a listing for a billet aluminum wheel (ebay item #160566751734). Does anyone know anything about these? Seems like it would be worth the price considering how much I have spent on broken plastic wheels.

[pelligrini]

That's the first I've seen of it. It's been a while since I searched ebay for BT stuff though, but that wheel has to be something new.

I know of a few on here that would like it.

[dbhost]

I'm one of them. That looks REALLY nice...

[pelligrini]

I contacted the seller and he quickly replied with the following:

Dear pelligrini,

Thanks for your interest in the hand wheel. We have been selling used BT3K parts on Ebay for a few years now. We were constantly getting inquiries from customers who had broken their factory plastic wheel and were looking for something better. We received enough requests that we decided to design and produce a billet aluminum wheel. This is a direct replacement designed specifically for the BT3000 and BT3100. The aluminum wheel mounts the same as the factory wheel and has roughly the same dimensions. If the original wheel on the saw is the same design as the one pictured in the Ebay auction then the original handle can be used with the new wheel. If not, we also designed a billet aluminum handle. This wheel is very solid and heavy and provides a much better feel than the plastic handle. Best of all you don't have to worry about breaking it.

Please feel free to copy this info into the message board.

Thanks again,



- hubbard66

I told him that this will probably make some people happy.

[pelligrini]

I am newly registered on this forum but have owned a BT3000 for several years and have visited this forum many times. I would like to say thanks to everyone for all the great information.

Welcome! and thanks for the heads up on the handwheel.

[vaking]

I am a bit concerned because I thought Ryobi deliberately made a plastic wheel weaker than other parts of the lift/tilt mechanism. If your lift mechanism jams - it is better to brake the wheel than gears. Replace the plastic wheel with more solid metal wheel and next time something else will break with worse results. Having said that - I have never broke mine, so I do not have first hand experience.

[LCHIEN]

$50 incl shipping... some used BT3000 go for that much...
But it looks like a beautiful machined piece of Aluminum.

However, it seems like it would be a lot cheaper to buy a commercially available all-metal handwheel of the appropriate size (should be a lot less than $45) and make the small special adapter required (maybe $10-15; shipping would be real cheap) to mount it to the BT3000/3100 shaft.

P.S. Look on www.grizzlytools.com and search for handwheels.
A 5" handwheel should do the job for a BT3; they have metal and what look like Heavy duty plastic for anywhere from $4-5 to about $12. I see a nice one with handle for $8.50. Just need to machine an adapter for the BT3 sort of unique shaft to the 1/2" bore on the grizz.

http://www.grizzly.com/outlet/Hand-Wheel-5-/H3472

[dbhost]

The same seller is offering Ebay item #150585090405 which is the same hand wheel along with the handle. My hand wheel isn't broken, but it IS badly discolored, not to mention it suffers from the Crayola Box color treatment to begin with...

Yes, there is a little bit of a concern over the impact on the gears, but not that much. I don't believe Ryobi made the choice of a plastic hand wheel due to longevity reasons, but rather financial. The original BT3000 was fitted with a rather nice cast metal hand wheel.

I would love to get my hands on one of these and give it a whirl. I applaud the guy selling these. i am pretty sure he's a hobbyist with access to a metalworking CNC, and is whipping these things up as an income generator for his home shop.

I just wish he would sponsor here like our other fine sponsors such as LeeWay Workshop, and T-nuts.com. I bet that would go a long way to supporting his business, and help us keep BT3Central alive and well...