How I made tapered wood knobs

[MPU]

Here’s a pictorial of how I made tapered wood knobs.
First I drilled a recess for potentiometer nut.

Then I changed to 5mm drill.

Then 20 mm plug drill. All the tiime the wood piece was clamped to the vice.

Then I had plugs ready. I threaded the 5mm hole to M6, wicked ca into the threads and rethread the hole. Then I could mount the plug to an M6 thread bar that was attached to the drill press. I used a chisel on a cross feed vice to turn the rough shape.

Then I shaped a scraper to the shape I wanted, attached it on the cross feed vice and turn the final shape.

Then I routed a slot for an abalone inlay, saw an abalone strip and glued it in the slot with ca.

Then I sanded the knobs to 320, pore filled with ca, sanded to 600 and wiped a coat of Tru oil on them.

I’m trying to route six round bottom recesses on the sides for grip. I need to get a proper bit for those and make a jig for the routing. More to come…

 

[bholder]

Knobulous!!

 

[Bruce Johnson]

I’m trying to route six round bottom recesses on the sides for grip. I need to get a proper bit for those and make a jig for the routing. More to come…

Nice work! And a good use of a drill press as a mini- lathe and mill.

For the six flutes, I'm picturing mounting the knob horizontally in your cross-slide vise, milling the flutes with a ball-end router bit in the drill chuck. Mount the knob so it can rotate on a long bolt with a hex head. Then use the hex head to be your six-point indexer. Maybe clamping a wrench on it?

 

[Gilmourisgod]

Marko, if you don't mind saying, what speed do you set your drillpress at for that type of "mini-lathe" work. I inherited mine, and it was set for metal work, which seems too slow for some of the stuff i do, although other then basic drilling, i'm usually just doing pattern sanding with my Robosander. Knobs look great, and well crafted methodology.

 

[MPU]

Nice work! And a good use of a drill press as a mini- lathe and mill.

For the six flutes, I'm picturing mounting the knob horizontally in your cross-slide vise, milling the flutes with a ball-end router bit in the drill chuck. Mount the knob so it can rotate on a long bolt with a hex head. Then use the hex head to be your six-point indexer. Maybe clamping a wrench on it?

Pretty much what I had in mind. That hex head bolt is a great idea! Thanks!

 

[MPU]

Marko, if you don't mind saying, what speed do you set your drillpress at for that type of "mini-lathe" work. I inherited mine, and it was set for metal work, which seems too slow for some of the stuff i do, although other then basic drilling, i'm usually just doing pattern sanding with my Robosander. Knobs look great, and well crafted methodology.

Slowest speed of my Proxxon drill press which is around 1000 rpm.

 

[Dave Higham]

I’m trying to route six round bottom recesses on the sides for grip. I need to get a proper bit for those and make a jig for the routing. More to come…

Something like this?

 

[Gary_M]

Cross feed vise as a tool holder for the win! This is some serious ingenuity and it is inspiring. Nice work!

 

[MPU]

Here’s my divider. The knob has 6mm threaded rod in the threads. The rod goes thru a hole in the divider block. The knob was tightened to correct position with a nut on the back of the block.

Worked pretty much how I planned.

 

[MPU]

Something like this?View attachment 7402044

Your divider was the main inspiration.

 

[klyph]

Slowest speed of my Proxxon drill press which is around 1000 rpm.

I have some Proxxon stuff, it’s nice. What model is your drill press? Is the cross slide table integral, or did you purchase it separately? What did you make your scraper out of?

 

[Beej]

Those knobs turned out really nice.

 

[Just go for it]

Very nice!

 

[MPU]

I have some Proxxon stuff, it’s nice. What model is your drill press? Is the cross slide table integral, or did you purchase it separately? What did you make your scraper out of?

I have Proxxon TBH drill press and Proxxon MF70 micro mill. Drill press has separate cross feed table, micro mill has integral. The scraper is a small scraper I bought.

 

[Topkat13]

Fun post!

 

[postalflunkie]

Very nice! I've made knobs before, but they were nowhere near that nice.

 

[Slidlow]

Very nice. I made these on a Unimat lathe 35+ years ago. Now I want to make tapered ones

 

[MPU]

Take two. First knobs were a bit too tall and felt somehow wrong. Too light or something. So I made a brass insert in the knobs. They also work as set screw thread base. I also glued a thin rosewood top and used a bigger diameter bit for the flutes. Otherwise the process was same as earlier. I found a bit better looking abalone for the inlays and I like these knobs look and feel better.