Free Metalworking Project Plans: A Knurling Tool
Material: Steel
Units (mm)
Below you’ll find plans for a scissor-type Knurling Tool from Ken.
Here’s what Ken has to say about his Knurling Tool plans:
“This little knurling tool works extremely well, even I was surprised. It was designed to fit onto the saddle of my Unimat 3 lathe via two screws and two tee nuts. Just change the body to suit your lathe.
It is of the clamping style, which has a few benefits over the conventional single sided style, plus, there is a bonus. With knurling rollers on each side of the work, very little strain is applied to the chuck spindle, and more importantly, the work.
This means that very small diameters can be knurled without bending anything.
I am not going into construction details, except to say that some improvisation took place.
The grooves for the circlips were cut with a small hardened screw driver bit. The sort that fits into your battery operated drill, just perfect.
Attached are a couple of drawings showing the assembly and details, and some pictures.
Knurling at low speed took very little pressure to produce a nice crisp knurl, even in mild steel.
I said there was a bonus, if the entire knurling tool is swung around on an angle, say 15 degrees, a diamond pattern will result. Not bad eh from a set of straight knurling rollers?
Might not be orthodox, but it works.”
- Ken
Ken originally posted these plans back in 2007 (along with 4 others) on the Metalworking section of Woodworking Australia’s Woodwork Forums. Here’s a link to Ken’s original Knurling Tool post in the Metalworking section of the forum. Check back next week for Ken’s next project, a Marking Gage.
Thanks for yet another contribution Ken!
Another good Knurling Tool design can be found in “Lathework, a Complete Course” by Harold Hall. I reviewed this excellent book a while back. To see a picture of the Knurling Tool you can make from the plans in the book, click here and read the review. In my opinion, the book is well worth the price.
KNURLINGASSY.pdf (45.3 KiB, 1,273 hits)
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KNURLINGDETAILS.pdf (58.3 KiB, 1,132 hits)
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Brown & Sharpe Boyar-Schultz Knurling Tools 5/8 Shank
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Single Wheel Knurling Tool 1" x 1-1/8" Shank
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Tags: Intermediate, Mill, Units (mm)
