Machining A Set Of Vintage Style Rope Knurls

Awesom Alan! I hear you on the 2 day jobs, its never simple is it!

Clickspring

Hi Chris, made the cutter and my first knurl disc. Learned a lot ... and ended up doing some extra tooling to allow an ER25 collet holder to be fixed to my Sherline CNC rotary table, then tooling to allow the Sherline to sit on a variable angle machine vice. Also had to make a screw stop for the VMB milling table so the depth of cut was repeatable. Why do half day jobs end up being 2 days ? Going to make a couple more discs at various angles as you suggested. Thanks for the stimulation to do these things.

Alan Wood

Hi Alan, I've just updated the cutter drawing to show those dimensions. Download them again for the updated version. I chose those numbers to give a 7 degree rake, which was kind of arbitrary, but it worked ok for me. All the best mate, Chris.

Clickspring

Thanks Chris - on the end view of the cutter, what is the offset for milling the cutter faces from the true diametric cross hairs ? Otherwise all understood and the project very much appreciated here.

Alan Wood

Hi Alan, absolutely! Here's a link to the cutter dimensions, and form tool: <a href="http://www.clickspringprojects.com/uploads/3/8/2/2/38221101/double_angled_cutter.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.clickspringprojects.com/uploads/3/8/2/2/38221101/double_angled_cutter.pdf</a> <a href="http://www.clickspringprojects.com/uploads/3/8/2/2/38221101/form_tool_profile.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.clickspringprojects.com/uploads/3/8/2/2/38221101/form_tool_profile.pdf</a> The knurl blanks were cut from 1" stock, reamed 1/4". The tool holder dimensions are pretty straight forward, based around the knurl. Cheers, Chris.

Clickspring

will you be publishing the dimensions for the cutter etc ?

Alan Wood

Terrific John! Thanks for your support mate :)

Clickspring

You must! Cheers mate :)

Clickspring

Cheers Pierce, I'll be putting them onto a few tools I have in mind, as well as a modification to the clock design - it will make a big improvement I think :)

Clickspring

I really like being a patreon for this channel. Now I never miss a video!

John Creasey

Hi Chris, I must say every time I watch one of your videos I'm left astounded at the amazing work you do! Please keep up the fantastic work, and I would love to see those knurls on some projects ;) Regards

Excellent Chris, have to get myself a mill!

Ruben vd Merwe

Yes I agree with you, it was amazingly quick to make the pattern compared to a diamond knurl, it just chewed its way in, and boom! it was done. Have a great day PJ :)

Clickspring

Nice Chris...make a cutter, make custom knurl wheels, make a bump knurler, and a profile tool, then some pretty knobs...doesn't get any better than that. WOW! Think your bump pressures were much less than diamond or spline knurling because your custom knurls would be more of a hybrid of a cut knurl so the diameters aren't so critical and brass can be forgiving. Besides I wouldn't want to have to calculate for whole convex/concave helix cut...I'd probably break out the light saber and punt. @¿@ Great series, beautiful work and very inspiring!! Thanks for all you bring to us! ~PJ

PJ

Hey Paul, yes I have learned so much from Frank Ford, including this technique. I have so many tools inspired by his designs; he really is one of the greats of home shop machining - not bad for a luthier! Cheers mate.

Clickspring

Great series - Are you familiar with Frank Ford? He published a similar series about a decade ago. It's great to see it these old school techniques and your video adds a lot! <a href="http://www.frets.com/HomeShopTech/Projects/RopeKnurl/ropeknurl.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.frets.com/HomeShopTech/Projects/RopeKnurl/ropeknurl.html</a> Great channel - thanks!

Paul Rothrock

I'm so pleased with the way they turned out Micah! I can't wait to incorporate this into more designs going forward. Have a great day :)

Clickspring

Beautiful knurls! It's inspiring to see the variety of tools you make for yourself.