Mini Mill Fine Feed Z Axis Crank

Every time I use the boring head on my mini mill I've told myself I need to make a crank for it.  The stock knob for the fine feed is pretty small so it's a pain to run the cutter down & then back up.  I had held off because I had been thinking about a crank that's similar to the X and Y axes.  Then I realized that I just needed a longer lever (and a handle) to get what I wanted.  After that, I got to work and made this:

The crank is made of flat aluminum stock.  I made the handle out of brass and polished it up a bit using some quadruple-0 steel wool.  I used an off-the-shelf shoulder bolt so the handle could spin freely, and eased the head a bit using my lathe and ball turning attachment.  The crank is attached using a couple of drilled/tapped holes in the fine feed knob.

The ball turner turned into a project as well -- I figured out that its design really required a mod to the lathe so I could manually drive the lead screw (to drive the carriage).  So the first crank I made turned out to be for the lathe.  Of course, the handle isn't nearly as nice because I did not have a functioning ball turner at that point.

I had thought the crank would be in the way too much to leave it installed all the time, but it has turned out to be so handy that I haven't removed it.  When the fine feed is not engaged the crank hangs down, as shown in the photo.  I suppose if it gets too annoying I could come up with something to hold it in some other orientation.  But to date it hasn't been a problem.