Anyone Recognize These Shop-Made Knobs?

[hankgillette]

I downloaded these pictures a few years ago from somewhere. They are simply the nicest looking shop-made knobs I have ever seen. Do they look familiar to anyone? I’ve searched for the images with Google and come up empty.

Apparently the maker did not post information on how he or she made these, since all I have are the pictures.





It looks like the knobs were turned on a lathe. The normal procedure I’ve seen for other shop-made knobs is to drill holes around the circumference of what will be the knob head and then cut out the head. That would be kind of bumpy turning on a lathe, so perhaps the grips were done with a spindle sander?

The shop-made knobs I’ve seen use t-nuts or perhaps threaded inserts.

I am guessing that the maker used epoxy to attach the bolts to the knobs?

Another possibility, at least for the one with the t-bolt, is that the maker either threaded the wood of the knob or used an insert hanger bolt.

Any other ideas?

[DaveR1]

Sorry. I can't help on whose they are. If I had them, I don't think I'd want to use them. They're very nice.

[johndi]

Maybe turned on the lathe and shaped with a file or rasp?

[Dennis Puskar]

My guess is they were turned on a lathe and at high RPM's (2000) you would not feel the bumpty bump.

[iclark]

They look like they were lathe-turned and then fluted with an index wheel and router jig.

Fluting with an index wheel and router jig is a common technique for things like screwdriver handles.

The odd thing is the 5-flute design. That is an uncommon spacing for an indexing wheel. If someone knows of a source, I would be interested.

Making a router jig for the lathe is on my ToDo list, but not very high on the list.

[Steve N]

iclark said:

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They look like they were lathe-turned and then fluted with an index wheel and router jig.

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I think fluted first, then turned, and cut off in appropriate lengths. Though before you said fluted my mind went to the next response, drilled out and then finished by hand.

[Bob10]

That was my thought too. Use something like a meat grinder face place to drill it then remove the waste

[mike4244]

I would bore the diameters with a Forstner bit in 5 equal spaces.
Round over with a small round over in a laminate trimmer. If the hanger bolt is installed first then it could be screwed into a scrap for safety when routing.The two from the left in the bottom picture appear to be turned on a lathe.
mike

[Woodshop]

I don't know who made them, but I make my own too.
I turn them, index them with a pencil and sand the grips with the spindle sander. it goes fairly quick. lately I even stopped marking them and just do 4 grips it is very simple.
looks like the ones you posted were epoxied in. I like mine to be stronger and will put the nut or the bole head on the top using smaller than head forstner bit, and a chisel to square up the corners. bolt or nut depending on my needs.