I made many local tuning cranks for SCR-274N / AN/ARC-5 receivers from ends of otherwise unusable tuning cables. Cut off the end, saving the female spline, the retaining nut and the washer. Take the tuning crank off one of the many three-receiver control boxes and attach it to the spline, usually by drilling a tiny hole and inserting a pin. Looks as though it "belongs" and does a good job. If you can find just the spline you can do the same thing with a standard nut to retain it.

The SCR -183/283 receivers used a slightly larger spline. I have never (going back into the 1960s) seen the tuning cables for these receivers in surplus...