Shaft locking

Typical shaft locking drills a hole vertical to the shaft’s surface and mating part. This is a totally secured connection. The shaft cannot rotate or move axially. The method described in this article locks the shaft only for rotation. We drill a small pin hole parallel to the shaft axis only for prevent it from turning during assembly operation (screw tightening). Usually the shaft has an abutment (larger diameter) that locking its axial movement (clevis pin fastening). That abutment is drilled (vertical to its flat surface) with the mating part in order to suit the parallel pin (see figure above). With this configuration, a different abutment shape (across flats, hex) is not needed for fastening the shaft with the mating part (a lever in figure above).