Simple Wooden Knobs
Hello, everybody. a few days ago I finished building a table for my drill press. It's not really elaborate, but it has some nice features. you can see it in this video :http://youtu.be/WyN1PWIJPpU .
Anyway, in this instructable I'll show you how I made the turning knobs I used in the project: two of them lock the table to the drill, two lock the fence in place.
This design is fairly simple, you could make it more elaborate, or even simpler: I used a 56mm hole saw and a 20mm forstner bit to make the three semi-circular cutouts you see. You can make them bigger or smaller, or you can make more than three of them, depending on your taste and on what tools you have available!
Anyway, I started by tracing a 56mm diameter circle on a scrap piece of wood. I used John Heisz's compact compass, a simple but real clever tool (give it a look here). Then, keeping the same diameter on the compass, I set it on a random spot on the circumference and started tracing little arcs that intersected it: I ended up with six intersections. Then I marked every other one with an "X": Those are the points where you will have to bore a hole with the forstner bit.
After boring the cutouts, I switched to a hole saw and drilled in the center of the circumference, obtaining the knob's final shape.
At this point I chiseled a shallow recess around the center hole, to host the head of an M8 bolt. All that's left to do now is glue the bolt with some epoxy and give the knob a good sanding. I used my homemade sanding drums for it (see them here) and didn't spend much time sanding them because I'll use them for a shop project, so nobody's gonna see how unfinished they are. Of course you're free to finish them however you like!
I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial, thanks for reading. If you have any question feel free to leave a comment!
Anyway, in this instructable I'll show you how I made the turning knobs I used in the project: two of them lock the table to the drill, two lock the fence in place.
This design is fairly simple, you could make it more elaborate, or even simpler: I used a 56mm hole saw and a 20mm forstner bit to make the three semi-circular cutouts you see. You can make them bigger or smaller, or you can make more than three of them, depending on your taste and on what tools you have available!
Anyway, I started by tracing a 56mm diameter circle on a scrap piece of wood. I used John Heisz's compact compass, a simple but real clever tool (give it a look here). Then, keeping the same diameter on the compass, I set it on a random spot on the circumference and started tracing little arcs that intersected it: I ended up with six intersections. Then I marked every other one with an "X": Those are the points where you will have to bore a hole with the forstner bit.
After boring the cutouts, I switched to a hole saw and drilled in the center of the circumference, obtaining the knob's final shape.
At this point I chiseled a shallow recess around the center hole, to host the head of an M8 bolt. All that's left to do now is glue the bolt with some epoxy and give the knob a good sanding. I used my homemade sanding drums for it (see them here) and didn't spend much time sanding them because I'll use them for a shop project, so nobody's gonna see how unfinished they are. Of course you're free to finish them however you like!
I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial, thanks for reading. If you have any question feel free to leave a comment!