Bench -screw with handle and garter

 

The head and shaft of the bench-screw along with the handle are turned on the lathe. I don't mark and cut the groove for the garter until after I have bored the mortise for the garter in the jaw. I set the screw with the shaft over and in line with the garter mortise, it's head pushed tightly against against the outer face of the movable jaw. Then I carefully transfer the mortise location to the body of the screw with tick marks made with the point of a pencil. Turning the screw on the lathe is an easy project. To cut the garter groove, remount the screw in the lathe. Remark the tick-marks while the lathe is running. And cut the groove into the spinning shaft to a depth of about 3/16 inch. Turn the part of the shaft that will be threaded a little undersize in diameter. You want the shaft to fit easily in the thread-box. If the screw binds it can cause the screw-box to hang up and basically turn in place wrecking the tapered thread the box is cutting. If the box binds, STOP. Back the screw-box off the partially threaded shaft. Put it back on the lathe and take a little more thickness off the diameter of the un-threaded section. Thread the shaft down to a point where the threads just pass the plane of the face of the fixed jaw. At the same time be careful not to cut the threads down the shaft to close to the garter groove. If you do, the shoulder of the garter groove nearest the threads is prone to breaking out, weakening the ability of the garter to hold the bench screw in the moving jaw.