Knurling on a Clarke mini lathe

[cheb]

I've bought a Clarke CL250 mini lathe for use while the Harrison hides in the back of a TEU.

There's a few things I'd like to make, some of them involve knurling. The first one will be height adjusters for Dickson type toolholders. In short, will the lathe have the power to do it. I'd like there to be a reasonably high chance of success before I buy a knurling tool, I think my current ones will all be too big. It's got a 150W motor. The time it might take to do it isn't a problem.

The knurled portion is about 6mm wide on a bar diameter of about 20mm.

 

[Gragson]

I've done brass on my Hobbymat easily.
What material are you knurling?

 

[Kram]

You will want to use a clamp knurler on a tiny lathe. The cheaper push type knurler it wont have the rigidity for.

 

[Gragson]

 

[MattF]

You will want to use a clamp knurler on a tiny lathe. The cheaper push type knurler it wont have the rigidity for.

Definitely. The scissor type knurler will work with pretty much any lathe.

 

[Kram]

If you happen to already have a cheapy push knurler, they use the same wheels, you just need to fabricate a pivot/clamp to take that force off the lathe.

 

[MattF]

For what those tools cost, easier, cheaper & quicker to just buy one.

 

[cheb]

Sounds like it's a goer, thanks. It'll be steel I working with in the first place.

 

[brightspark]

just buy the 2 wheels and make your own there simple enough

 

[chrismac]

Another top tip (whats the thoughts on this) from my old foreman was to machine a step slightly smaller diameter than the knurling diameter and touch on it before feeding across, is this normal practice, I see some guys at work just driving the tool in.

 

[BrokenBiker]

Another top tip (whats the thoughts on this) from my old foreman was to machine a step slightly smaller diameter than the knurling diameter and touch on it before feeding across, is this normal practice, I see some guys at work just driving the tool in.

seems like an easy way to sideload a knurling wheel...

knurling isnt a fan of a step in the work piece to be honest...you usually cut a recess after the knurling is dont to pretty the start/stop areas up

 

[chrismac]

seems like an easy way to sideload a knurling wheel...

knurling isnt a fan of a step in the work piece to be honest...you usually cut a recess after the knurling is dont to pretty the start/stop areas up

even its its point something of a mm, he mentioned figures for the 3 sizes of knurl types but I can remember them now, made sense to me to help get it started, the amount of times I see guys trying to drive the tool in with serious pain and achieving very little in the way of an effective knurl,

 

[BrokenBiker]

given that its not a cutting operation i cant see any benefit to relieving the start area. i was always taught to apply plenty of oil, start light to check the pattern isnt double forming and keep the tool engaged til you are done, if you need to go back to the start just run it back while its still on the work, put a bit more on and run it back down again.

 

[MattF]

given that its not a cutting operation i cant see any benefit to relieving the start area.

In theory though, the fact that standard knurling is a displacement method should be helped by providing an initial relief to start it off. I never personally bother doing that though.