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On 28 April 2026 at 21:02 Bazyle Said:

Rather expensive for a 3D print.

Please give the eBay reference to the “expensive” one you have located.

As above, one example is:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235961528922

This is £15. Others to very similar designs also hover around this price. Take off eBay’s fees, postage cost, cost of filament and the seller is not making much.

In addition, each gear is accessible with no shuffling.

A friend had one and he does a lot of screw cutting of various pitches The 3d printed holder has worn quite badly with continued use. He has reverted to the plywood base and dowel solution. The badly worn 3D printed holder has been binned.

They are probably OK if there is little in the way of usage. But if this is the case, then the plywood / dowel solution is just as good. Hope this helps.

Andrew.

On 29 April 2026 at 09:24 Journeyman Said:

Plenty of choice if you want to print your own:

Would yo uupload the model to one of the Chinese 3D printing services (including the one whose adverts are in the magazine), choose a long-lasting material and report a cost.

That might give Bazyle a cost-comparison and could overcome the limitation that Andrew has identified.

We should note that not all 3D printed materials are the same – PLA is the most common. Also, the infill (density) of the print along with shell thickness can affect longevity.

Mike

Search for my recent post #837670 for the one I made a couple of months ago. Would this fill your needs?

John

Mine live in a “preloved” box that had once held some sort of laboratory apparatus, and is divided by vertical partitions into cells conveniently the right width for the wheels. Easier to use than a “towers-puzzle”.

And there they slumber, each in the polythene bag retaining its label from its purchase from the Myford exhibition-stand, as I have fitted a gearbox to the lathe.

The one wheel that does hang in its little bag above the lathe, is the 12T tumber output pinion, for cutting threads finer than 28tpi: most of the time I use the stronger 24T pinion and set the gearbox to (cut tpi X 2).

One of my fellow club members reverted his Myford lathe from gearbox to change-wheels, actually finding that more flexible and more convenient for his purposes. I have kept all my lathe’s original parts to retain that option.