January 8, 201214 yr Author unfortunately there is a lot of wasted wood to make circles. Plus i want to make a couple in the other grain direction. I can always find another piece of wood, shouldn't take more than another year. Nice try steve. You can make these yourself anyway.
January 8, 201214 yr Kevin, sand some of the scrap Ebony wood to get a 1/2 tsp. or so of fine powder. Mix that with a little wood glue, and rub into the crack. Sand smooth once dry, and that crack will hardly be noticeable. Actually I do have some Ebony large enough to make a few knobs.
January 8, 201214 yr Author Yes i saved the ebony scraps just for that purpose. But i consider that cheating. Was planning on fililng the hole that way. On the other hand its a thing of beauty as is. Very little wood is absolutely perfect. Same thing the red mallee knob. A slight roughness and color change is in the red mallee too. I have more ebony to work with, for now
January 24, 201214 yr Author i'm beginning to hate ebony. http://gilmore.chem.....edu/ebony8.jpg tried a different direction for the 3rd ebony knob, broke after machining, and had 2 cracks by the time i got it home. The other one is perfect, so unless i screw it up, senior voltron will get his knob. I'm also really liking the rosewood knob. Edited January 24, 201214 yr by kevin gilmore
January 24, 201214 yr Wow, Kevin that is extremely cool! I can't tell from your post which one you are thinking about for me, but I would feel guilty taking your only "perfect" one. I would be very very happy with any of them. Thanks for keeping me in mind. The rosewood is beautiful too.
January 24, 201214 yr i'm beginning to hate ebony. Must make the lignum vitae ones seem easy by comparison! Craig
January 24, 201214 yr (Quote) and had 2 cracks by the time i got it home. (Quote). Those aren't cracks, they're features........ Edited January 24, 201214 yr by wink
January 25, 201214 yr Drinking... Working... Listening to high-end stats on a great amp That sounds like a great plan
January 25, 201214 yr Thus ending Al's lifetime search for the perfect Ebony knob. Kevin it's most likely the small size of the knobs that is causing the Ebony to check. In all larger pieces I've turned I've had no issues. Cut it thin though and it curls like hell.
January 26, 201214 yr I think a metal knob with an embedded peltier would be a fun idea, you could have a control on your amp to set the knob's temperature to your liking- cold or warm....
January 26, 201214 yr Knowing how warm T2 knobs get I worry about the life span of a wooden got getting temp cycled like that.
January 26, 201214 yr I think it is OK for my LV one. It is linked to a delrin shaft, and is not in contact with the (toasty hot) casework, and is a wood with a very high internal oil content (which is why it was used for ship's propellor bearings). I might get a bit more concerned with a really hard wood like ebony or african blackwood. Anyone think about a one made out of natural stone, like marble, limestone or slate? Or one of the polymer composites like Corian.
January 26, 201214 yr Author We will soon find out how well the ebony knob tolerates the heat. Clearly the titanium knob and the aluminum knobs don't care. Machining corian turns out to be really miserable, dulls even carbide bits real quick. Which is one of the many reasons that wilson speakers cost so much. I did some corian stuff a while back, not going to do that again. I think i have a line on a piece of wooly mammoth ivory that is big enough to make a knob out of. I refuse to buy black market ivory for the obvious reasons. I think i can do marble... Lets find out. Voltron's knob should be done tomorrow when i have some more time. Then i have to find a suitable wood presentation box for it. Afterall you have to have a box to put your knob in
January 27, 201214 yr The cool thing about Corian though is that you can use a Drimmel tool to make the edges look like chipped stone. I did this on some table tops I made some years ago. Similar to this... Might make a unique faceplate too.
January 27, 201214 yr Cool! We're just expecting a kitchen designer to arrive, and here in the UK Corian is twice the price of real marble. Allegedly this is because DuPont are focused on the large installation market, like top quality hotels, and the prices for the sort of quantity you need for domestic kitchen worksurfaces are through the roof. Kitchen through the roof???!!?? And I haven't had anything to drink. Yet
January 27, 201214 yr I will poor my own concrete counter tops, when I build my retirement home. The material cost is extremely low, and of coarse I'll cut myself a deal on my own labor.
January 28, 201214 yr Author http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/ebony9.jpg The "Knob of Voltron" is done and ready to ship. (the ebony one) I kind of like the rosewod one for now. Trying to find a decent size piece of snakewood.
January 28, 201214 yr Nice! How about Cocobolo http://www.exotichardwoods.co.uk/Woods_List/Cocobolo.asp
January 28, 201214 yr Author cocobolo is also on the list. practically due to the setup time on the lathe, it makes much more sense to do 5 or so at a time, it goes so much quicker that way. Cut 5 on the band saw, live center and spin plate on the lathe, then step collet gripper for inside hole, then boring bar, then do up the aluminum pieces. Assemble, then micromachine. doing a marble one requires diamond tools, probably not ready to do that at the moment.
January 28, 201214 yr http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/ebony9.jpg The "Knob of Voltron" is done and ready to ship. (the ebony one) I kind of like the rosewod one for now. Trying to find a decent size piece of snakewood. Those came out nice. Snakewood would be my personal choice, can't wait to see that one.
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