MTFCA Forum

Anyone ever had a door handle completely apart? This is a brass handle for a 12, I'm wanting to extend the steel square shaft to work for the project I'm working on and it's about 1/2" shorter than I need it to be. This is an original handle and I'm just curious as to how these were assembled. Theres a brass keeper that the square steel shaft slides through at it looks as if they were brazen on. Has anyone ever had to repair one and how did you do it?

Thanks
Mike

Most all were cast right on a steel shaft. It was part of the mold making. Before they closed up the two halves of the mold, the little piece of 1/4 steel was inserted in the mold, and the molten metal would pour around it, making a very strong joint. They likely made a bunch of them at once on a tree.
The fix depends on if you need a lot of strength out of that extra 1/2” Mike.

Tim,
So here is what I'm working on. The handle needs to be 3 21/32" long from the center of the handle to the end of the shaft as noted by the drawing.
The handle shaft would be going through 3/4" wood frame for the door area and then through a "Door lock Lever" as noted by T-4286 which is 17/32"
Then it needs to be threaded at the end to receive a nut and drilled for a cotter pin. From what I can see on the drawing and compared to the handle that I have now the square shaft would be ending right at about the end of the door lever lock T-4286. I already have the door lever lock machined and made up. So it looks like I probably going to have to weld a section on the end of my shaft and then turn down to get threads on it? BTW horn reed works great!
Mike

Mike,

Check the brass part real close for a very small pin that you could drive out to remove the shaft. I have never looked for one on a handle like that but my hood lathes on the 25 Indiana had one pin that was real hard to spot that held them together. If it has one, it may not be easy to find. Then again, it might not have one at all. Worth a look anyway.

If you need to have threads on the end why not use a piece of all thread or a cut off bolt and weld it on the end of the handle. That way you don't need to weld a square shaft and then turn it down to round and thread it.