Hatchet 2

Similar to Nick said, however I tend to drill a through hole and then get a bolt with a straight shank to push through with a nut on the other side. It takes a lot of the stress out of the shaft that tapping puts in.

ready to kick ass and chew bubble gum...

And I'm all out of gum

On a side note Hatchet broke itself, the troublesome grub screw that I thought I had fixed decided it would carry on turning on the shaft regardless of how tight it was and has just cut a massive gouge all the way round. I'm working on trying to have the sprocket welded on but that may have to wait a while, the axe is out of commission for now though.

That's a shame, weld the pinion on and it'll sort it.

Or upgrade to a Magmotor. That would also work...

You're really pushing that Magmotor aha, I've ordered a 350w scooter motor instead of 300 for a bit more power though, a welded on pinion should hold.

Keyway?

The new motor shaft is threaded with a flat, would cutting a keyway in the sprocket and then tightening a nut on the end of the shaft to stop it slipping off hold do you think?

Weld the end and be done with it :)

Did you get one of those geared 350w motors? I recall that style of shaft on them. They have a lot of power but be careful as they are low inductance motors.

No it's not one of the geared ones just the normal mahoosive motor, I think I will just weld the pinion on if I can get it done, seems the least hassle.

Hatchet's all up and running again after the whole *grubscrew eating the motor shaft* thing, had the sprocket welded onto a new motor (350w this time instead of 300) and that seems to have sorted it. Managed a little video, just to clear it up the axe doesn't actually hit the floor because it's travel is stopped by the front bulkhead about 5mm from the ground. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=346043228929766