Friday, February 5, 2016

Decorative Wardrobe Knobs

Project:
Making a few replacement knobs for my parents' 1926 solid wood wardrobe

Difficulty Level (Easy, Medium, Hard, Insane):
Easy

Process:
My parents came for a visit and because they know that I like to work with metal they asked me whether they could get me to make them a few knobs for their wardrobe's door hinges.

Although I had never done curved profile parts, it ended up being pretty easy to do. All I had to do was grind a 5/16" square HSS tool bit to match the original knob and then do the following steps 5 times:

1. Face the 1/2" piece of aluminum
2. Turn it down to .0406" diameter
3. Chamfer the edges
4. Drill with 1/8" drill bit to 0.375" depth
5. Tap the hole using an M4 by 0.7 tap
6. Use the ground form tool to cut the center grove at 0.160"
7. Use the ground form tool to cut the end curve at 0.460"
8. Part it off
9. Finish sand the end on the belt sander

By the time I was at the last piece (they needed 5 parts) I was able to crank out one part in about 7 minutes and they turned out really nice.

Pictures:
The original hinge pin with two original end caps
The thread was measured at an M4 by 0.7 metric thread
The 5/16" HSS tool blank with the radius marked
Close-up of the marked HSS tool bit
Marking the lines for the center groove and the end radius
My parents thought I should get in the picture too
Dad trying out the lathe with mom watching 
Turning the curved profile into one of the parts
Tapping the hole
A view of the curved profile
The finished parts with one of the original ones (very left)
One new and one old knob mounted on the hinge pin
Another view of the finished parts
Yet another view of the finished parts
Close-up of one of the new pieces
Two knobs on one door hinge pin
Another view of the door
Almost 100 years old
Zoomed out a little bit
The wardrobe in it's 90 year old glory
Tools:
Lathe & accessories
Tap & die set
1/8" drill bit
Bench top belt sander

Materials:
3" of 1/2" diameter round solid aluminum

Cost:
$0.00

Time:
1hr

Savings:
No idea. Probably at least $100 if they had to get a machine shop to do it for them.

Conclusion:
I had fun doing it and my parents are happy with the results

1 comments:

wk-eigenheer said...

Yes we are !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally " my Buffet " is complete again! We are so proud of our son and his abilities . Love you Christian !

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