Thread: Anyone with a metalwork lathe in Perth

I can do it for you.
PM me for details.

BTW the MWF is still very active.
Currently there are 39 members on line and there have been more than 50 active threads in the last week.

EDIT: looking at the pieces you want knurled it may be near impossible to put a knurl on them as they are very short and by the time they are held in a lathe chuck the area to be knurled will be too close to the chuck jaws so that the knurling tool will come into contact with the chuck jaws. If the threaded bits were heavier duty it would be possible to drill and tap a short cylinder by as your threads are so fine the would be damaged in the process

At best it will probably only be possible to put a very light knurl on them.
The way this would normally be done is to turn a piece down to the knurling dimension and then knurl teh area and then turn the remainder of the pieces.

You may also want to consider using a needle file to make asme simple grooves across the wheel?

it may "ruin the look" slightly, but can to glue some 60 or 120 grit black sand paper onto it for grip?

Rather than Knurl the original I think you would find it simpler to make a new piece wit a knurl on it

Originally Posted by havabeer69

it may "ruin the look" slightly, but can to glue some 60 or 120 grit black sand paper onto it for grip?

Looks are pretty important for this project and it does work ok, knurling is to help with the grip and for some aesthetic reasons

Originally Posted by China

Rather than Knurl the original I think you would find it simpler to make a new piece wit a knurl on it

Really hard to find brass rod of any diameter in Perth, these were feet for a large jewelry box from Rockler bought many years ago and just happened to suit this project

Is it the large or small diameter you want knurled?

If it's the large bit, it could possibly be held in a collet by the small end, which would make it a pretty simple process. Otherwise it might need to go on an arbor.

I could probably do it at work if you're ok paying for post to Melbourne and back.

I'm going to have a go at this for Dave in the next few days.

The large diameter that needs knurling is 25mm and the small one that could be used for holding is 16mm. I have a set of ER16 and ER32 collets but the 16mm collets will be be too small and the ER32 chuck will get in the way of of the knurling tool especially as to work properly/evenly the knurling tool needs to partially be run side to side off the edge being knurled.

If it fails I have a decent stash of 32mm brass rod to remake then from scratch.

can you put a few nuts on the threaded section to both the section in place and give you something grab onto in the lathe?

even a sacrificial bolt may do? if you can centre drill it and put it in a live (or dead) centre just for a quick bit of knurling.

The plan is turn and centre tapped a short piece of 20 mm rod that can be held in a chuck and then to bolt thru the piece with the narrow end up against the cylinder. The head of the bolt will have a centre holding hole drilled in it for a live centre tailstock. This will provide clearance on both sides for the knurling tool which allows the knurling tool to work better.

Thanks for the offer elanjacob but BobL has kindly offered to help

Here we go.
Doesn't look like brass but let me reassure that it is.
I think it's the greenish tinge of the old fluroro desk lamp lighting I used for the photo.

All3.jpg

For those interested here how it was done

Setup
That M6 bolt threads through the brass wheel and into the 20mm diamond steel cylinder in the lathe chuck.
A centre hole is drilled into the bolt head so it can be supported by the live tailstock centre.
Setup0.jpg

The Scissor Knurling tool is then bought into action and it's knurling wheels grab the piece on opposite sides.
Nut N is then slowly screwed down to bring the knurling wheels into firm contact with the workpiece - 30 s and its done.
This scissor action is much better than knurling wheels that just push sideways as this reduces the side load on the headstock.
In this case it doesn't matter so much as the workpiece being brass is quite soft so nut N can be turned just by hand.
Flood Coolant/lube is not really doing either, but is used to flush swarf away from the knurling wheels otherwise they can back embed themselves into the workpiece.
Knurklingaction.jpg

A couple of other photos.
Knurklingaction2.jpg
Knurklingaction3.jpg

Many thanks to BobL for the knurling on the adjustment wheel, you did a great job mate

And this is the end result
DSC00907.jpgDSC00906.jpg

The blade/post are from Veritas and the timber is a beautiful Fiddleback Jarrah and the base is hard acrylic in order to see what is going on

Nice job, Dave! It looks a bit more flash than my home-made router so if it works as well (it should!) you are way ahead...

You can do a pretty neat job on a thumbscrew by hand if necessary. I have done it a couple of ways to show how you cam make thumbscrews without a metal lathe & to make a bit of variation in my thumbscrews - gets a bit boring if they all look identical. Here's one done with a file, beside a machine-knurled example:
Knurled t_screws.jpg

Takes a bit of patience & care laying out the lines. You spin the screw either in your wood lathe or a battery drill (slowly) to file the circular lines. Not to everyone's taste, perhaps, but offers a way for the backyard warrior to make usable thumbscrews...


And a very nice knurling job Bob - beautifully-defined pyramids & indents! I am wondering if that's because the the scissor tool works better on random diameters? I've got the cheap, fixed double-wheel type, which does a good job on some diameters, but it's not so easy to get a good knurl on others. If I persist long enough, it eventually grinds the piece down to a diameter where the wheels match up & I get a decent knurl, but rarely as perfect as what you achieved there!

And I would've made a mandrel just as you did if faced with the same job. As any lathe operator soon learns, the way to make parts like thumb screws is to do the knurling early, while you have a large chunk of metal for the lathe chuck to grasp. But I wanted to re-knurl some of my earlier attempts at thumbscrews etc. and eventually figured out this was the way to do it...

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

And a very nice knurling job Bob - beautifully-defined pyramids & indents! I am wondering if that's because the the scissor tool works better on random diameters? I've got the cheap, fixed double-wheel type, which does a good job on some diameters, but it's not so easy to get a good knurl on others. If I persist long enough, it eventually grinds the piece down to a diameter where the wheels match up & I get a decent knurl, but rarely as perfect as what you achieved there!

And I would've made a mandrel just as you did if faced with the same job. As any lathe operator soon learns, the way to make parts like thumb screws is to do the knurling early, while you have a large chunk of metal for the lathe chuck to grasp. But I wanted to re-knurl some of my earlier attempts at thumbscrews etc. and eventually figured out this was the way to do it...

Cheers,

Thanks Ian.

The Scissors type knurling tool does seem to find an optimum quickly and the way just thumb and forefinger pressure on the pressure nut is enough to cut knurls in brass is a bonus. There's always a limit at which these types knurling tools can be applied on the opposite sides of any diameter and in the case of the one I have it's 2.25", above that and it has to be used as a "push" style knurler. The one I have is out of India and cost ~$75. They also sell a 4.5" with a 5/8" shank version for $133 but that would require a different QCTP holder (mine are all 1/2" shank).