I have a tendency to overtighten things, and the drawbar on my micro milling machine (MT2 spindle taper) is no exception. Unable to find an 8mm square socket with 1/4″ drive for the torque wrench, I opted to make my own by chopping the end off the drawbar wrench, and welded it to a regular old socket from the junk drawer. Turned on the lathe to clean up the weld and make it a uniform diameter, then blackened it with Caswell Black Oxide gel. The blackening process it pretty finicky and I had to do it over 3 times before I got an acceptable finish, but it’s good enough for now. Certainly won’t win any beauty contests, but it’s functional!

Incidentally, from now on I will tighten the drawbar to 60 in-lbs. Morse tapers don’t need a lot of drawbar pull, as the angle is so shallow.