Hot Damn---I learned something new today!!! I had to slip across town to see a customer (well actually, it was so nice I wanted to get out for a drive in the roadster). While I was down in the south end, I decided to stop at BusyBee and buy a knurling tool, as they are on sale. I believe that I only tried knurling once before, in grade 9 machine shop, and it was a disaster. ---Anyways, I paid $25 for the knurling tool, and did a big search on my machining websites to gather information on how to use it. I had a 2" length of 1" diameter aluminum scrap, so I chucked it up and ---Voila---It worked like a charm. My real motivation was to be able to make nice, machined aluminum peices with a 1/4-20 thread in the center and a knurled outer diameter to hold the new Lexan windows into the hotrod.
What a coincidence... I've been looking around on a couple of sites today to buy just that, a knurling tool for my lathe. The result looks nice!
That is killer? Uhh,how do they work? On a spiral turn or ? I was lathe,chrome and hot rod intolerant as a child.Times were hard,but I've made inroads!
it rolls the pattern into the work. it doesnt cut at all. the 2 rollers have opposite helixes and form a diamond pattern. depending on the style of the knurling tool, i find it works best to feed the rollers into the revolving work to form the full shape then engage the feed, disengage the feed, then back off the tool. it also works good to slightly angle the tool away from the direction of feed. slow speed, high feed is key. looking at your pic it looks like the type with one roller on the bottom and one on top. ive never used that type. the knurl looks real good though.
Here is a picture of the tool I bought today. This style is called a "Pinch Knurl" because the adjustment screw pinches the part to be knurled between the two arms. This type of knurler is best suited to small lathes, because it doesn't apply a lot of side loading to the spindle bearings like other styles of knurling tools do. Strangely, it doesn't machine grooves into the part--instead it displaces metal from the grooves into the raised ridges, and actually makes the diameter of the knurled part "grow" in diameter. The unmachined portion of the peice in the chuck is 0.998" in diameter. The knurled section measures 1.008" diameter after knurling.
No, its not a windshield. Only Dept. of Transport approved safety glass is legal for windshields. the knobs are for my Lexan side windows.---see link. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=350203
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