Making wooden knobs

[Cerb]

Originally Posted by nateo

The system worked and produced some reasonably nice bits but there was still plenty of room for improvement.

I still have a set of your wenge/padauk tophats and a set of buckeye burl/kingwood (?) domes on my main player.

[kencasino]

I have found that buying dowels is the easiest way to start on a knob project!
Cut them to size drill a hole and round off the top by mounting in a drill press

[scottyd]

It's much easier if you've got a lathe.

[Sardine]

Please, do yourself (and your drill) a favor and don't get one of those drill-lathes. They don't work very well and they will kill your drill. I started turning with one of those drill-lathe things, and I wore out a drill in just a few weeks. The centers lined up poorly and the tool rest was very wobbly. For the same price or not much more you can get a mini lathe that will do the job perfectly and last pretty near forever. Use proper turning tools too. They may seem expensive, but a good chisel will last for years (if all you're turning is knobs, probably forever), and it's much more enjoyable to turn with nice tools than it is to save a few bucks and go to the emergency room.

On a side note, if you plan to do any turning, at least buy a book and if possible take a class too. Turning is very safe and fun if done properly, but if you don't the lathe safely and correctly, it is dangerous, just like any other power tool. But don't let this put you off; using a lathe for this purpose is much safer than trying to use another tool for something other than it's intended use.

[Rob17]

After reading this thread, I was so inspired, I've bought meself a second hand lathe, 35 euro's I've payed, which is about 10% from the price new (320,00 euro).

These are my first knobs, from some scrapwood, put some veneer on them, just to gain some practice, and see how it looks.

I'm now in the procces of making a veneer cross in the knobs.

The wood and the Cad drawing I've made.

A piece of 400x26x26 Mm I have sawn lenghtwise, gleud veneer inbetween and wait till tomorrow to saw it again lenghtwise, cross the veneer, put a second piece of veneer inbetween and glue it up again.
I should have a cross then.

[Rob17]

Well I skipped that cross, only one line.
This is how it turned out.
This is only my second attampt, so it's only to see how things go, these will go in the bin.

[Woodpecker]

Originally Posted by skguitarsbasses

I've never tried it out before, but I have always assumed that you could use one of these plug cutters, and then just saw it from the larger block: http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...ry=1,180,42288

That's exactly what I did ; http://koti.mbnet.fi/bassment/Jessic...0Woodwork.html

[JR Bass 62]

Originally Posted by Josh Curry

I tried my hand at making some wooden knobs last night. I actually made one, and it took about an hour. It looks pretty nice, but took way too long and I'm not sure I could make another one the exact same size. basically here's what I did.

- Using a 3/4" pen blank I cut off a 3/4" chunk so now I have a 3/4" cube. It was curly maple if anyone cares

- mark the center of the piece on one end, drill a tiny hole (for later use) and use a bench sander to remove most of the material to get a basic round shape. Looking back, I really should have used a circle template and removed a LOT more material during this part.

- using an (**unknown tool**) from my dremel I screwed one end into the hole that I drilled. Then put the whole thing in my drill press. Does anyone know what this part is called? Basically, it's a 1/8" shaft about 1.5" long and has a course thread wood screw type thing on one end with a stop collar? I have no idea what this thing is, but it did the trick.

- now you spend about 1/2 hour sanding the living daylight out of it getting it down to size and rounding the top part. Then, (and I know this is REALLY WRONG) using a chisel, while still spinning in the drill press, flatten what would be the bottom of the knob so that it's square with the sides.

- once it got to shape I used some very fine grit papers to get a very smooth finish on it. Then used some lemon oil on a rag to oil it up, all while still spinning. This worked real nice.

- Then drill out the bottom etc... so it can be pushed onto a split knurled pot shaft.

So, it all worked fairly well and I 'm happy with the result, I'll post a pic tomorrow. Although I don't know if I could make another one that's identical without twice the effort.

Anyway though. I would like to hear some advice from you guys who make wood knobs. I've seen your work. I'm most curious to know what you use to 'turn' the knobs and how you ensure some sort of tolerence between them so they all match.

You could buy a plug cutter they come in lots of sizes,Put it in a drill and drill through the wood