Knurling tool

A very small one, perhaps. I have such a tool, commercially made, and it is about the half the size of the common clamp knurling tools. It is intended to be held by hand, NOT clamped into the tool post. it has a 'tail' that needs to be braced against something to prevent the whole tool from rotating under load. It works fairly well with some practice, for very small work (about 3/4 inch diam. is it's limit). The knurl wheels are also much smaller than standard knurls (perhaps a half inch diameter). Still, it's all steel construction, unlike the pot metal of most tubing cutters.

You would probably have a lot better luck starting with a heavy duty forged or cast pipe cutter, rather than a tubing cutter.

Dan Mitchell ============

With a larger forged pipe cutter, If I replace the cutter with a knurl, Keep the rollers on, figure out a way to mount it to a tool post on the lathe, do you think it would work?

Replace all three with knurls, lest you smash your nice pattern on every rotation.

LLoyd

Maybe he has a real Ridgid pipe cutter, the kind that weighs about 15 pounds. - GWE

"Clamp" type knurlers work one knurl against another one, on opposite sides of the work. A plane roller on the back side would crush the knurl almost as fast as it's generated, and make a mess. The free floating kind, as I discussed earlier and you propose, use TWO knurls on the back side (like a pipe cutter) so they will self center on the work.

Another problem is that knurls are usually a lot thicker than the cutter wheel in a pipe cutter, and thus would not fit without removing considerable material from the wheel-frame of the pipe cutter. This might seriously weaken the cutter frame (knurling requires considerable pressure).

A single point knurl can be used in a lathe, but puts a LOT of strain on the headstock bearings, the cross slide leadscrew, and the whole carriage assembly (especially on smaller lathes). That's why "clamp" knurlers are popular with smaller lathes.

Dan Mitchell ============

It is probably possible to put ballet slippers and a tutu on an elephant and teach it to dance Swan Lake .. but why would you want to?

Decent working, knurling tools aren't that expensive and it would be easier to machine one from scratch than to attempt forcing a pipe cutter to the job.

Boris

Daniel A. Mitchell Jun 10, 1:12 pm show options

Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking From: "Daniel A. Mitchell" - Find messages by this author Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 13:12:52 -0400 Local: Fri,Jun 10 2005 1:12 pm Subject: Re: Knurling tool Reply | Reply to Author | Forward | Print | Individual Message | Show original | Report Abuse

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

"Clamp" type knurlers work one knurl against another one, on opposite sides of the work. A plane roller on the back side would crush the knurl almost as fast as it's generated, and make a mess. The free floating kind, as I discussed earlier and you propose, use TWO knurls on the back side (like a pipe cutter) so they will self center on the work.

Another problem is that knurls are usually a lot thicker than the cutter wheel in a pipe cutter, and thus would not fit without removing considerable material from the wheel-frame of the pipe cutter. This might seriously weaken the cutter frame (knurling requires considerable

pressure).

A single point knurl can be used in a lathe, but puts a LOT of strain on the headstock bearings, the cross slide leadscrew, and the whole carriage assembly (especially on smaller lathes). That's why "clamp" knurlers are popular with smaller lathes. >>

Good advice, to see a homebuilt knurling tool, check out:

But how can they work? =20

As long as we're on the subject, can anyone tell me how knurlers can produce an even pattern around the workpiece when the pitch of the knurling roller doesn't divide evenly into the circumference of the work? Also circumference changes as the wheels dig in deeper, which makes it less likely.. =20 Or is that it, you apply enough pressure so the work circumference becomes an even multiple of the knurl pitch and the pattern evens out?

To reply, please remove one letter from each side of "@" Spammers are VERMIN. Please kill them all.

Agreed. So if you *start* with a perfect match, you *should* end up without one as you dig deeper -- absent a self-correcting behaviour of the knurls pulling to lock into the previous depressions.

That appears to match my experience. Or at least the knurl rollers pull slightly ahead or behind to match the previous rotation once the knurl is deep enough. I start out deep (feeding on from the end when possible), and I have no problems.

Enjoy, DoN.

Quite often I get a repeated pattern of a wider groove from both knurls where they seem to adjust their tracking. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

They work by the 'teeth' of the knurling wheel slipping into sync with the workpiece. If you start a knurl with a gentle pressure, there is a high probability that the newly formed pattern won't be in sync when it meets the old, and you get a 'crossed' knurl. If you increase the pressure slightly you just reinforce the mismatch.

If, however, you start the knurl with a good hard pressure, the knurling wheel slips into sync with the existing pattern and you start to get a nicely defined knurl. Added pressure simply reinforces the existing pattern and you can continue the operation until its deep enough. If you get a crossed knurl early on, you can often rescue it by suddenly applying lots of pressure to force the teeth of the wheel(s) to slip into the valleys of the existing pattern. It has to be sudden so that when the wheel meets the 'new' valleys, they are deep enough to force the teeth to slip into them rather than create new ones. Try it and you'll see that it works just like that.

But how can they work?

As long as we're on the subject, can anyone tell me how knurlers can produce an even pattern around the workpiece when the pitch of the knurling roller doesn't divide evenly into the circumference of the work? Also circumference changes as the wheels dig in deeper, which makes it less likely..

Or is that it, you apply enough pressure so the work circumference becomes an even multiple of the knurl pitch and the pattern evens out? ^^^^^^^^^^

Yup. LLoyd

To reply, please remove one letter from each side of "@" Spammers are VERMIN. Please kill them all.

Its all done by FM.

Gunner

"Considering the events of recent years, the world has a long way to go to regain its credibility and reputation with the US." unknown