WTB: Looking For Someone To Make A Full Knurl 6/4 Twisty.

bmstrong

Flashlight Enthusiast
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Jul 23, 2002
Messages
1,334
Anyone? Silence.

How about something like the old E1E in Titanium?
 

precisionworks

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Apr 19, 2007
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Benton Illinois
Anyone? Silence.
A few reasons for the lack of response ...

There are many machining operations for which Ti works well - outside turning, profiling, milling, etc. On the other end of the list are deep drilling, tapping & (you guessed it) knurling. IMO knurling is even more difficult that deep hole drilling. Many machinists have one or two form knurl tools like the one shown below:

Image-9853934-152584605-2-WebSmall_0_a340dabbf9d8a34619d29c0f4afe9cfc_1


The orange arrow points to the steel axle pin around which the knurl wheel rotates. These have inadequate strength for Ti work & are replaced with solid carbide pins. Even with that mod it is extraordinarily difficult to cause Ti-6-4 to cold flow into the knurl wheels. A much better tool (and one owned by a few machinists on CPF) is the cut knurler shown below:

Image-9853934-152584606-2-WebSmall_0_c43d527fd31806485f5476fafe747133_1


Lower machining forces mean a greater likelihood of a satisfactory result. If someone runs this tool all day every day it's easy to get great results in Ti-6-4. If this tool is used once or twice a week the set up time is a killer - figure at least an hour's labor plus quite a few inches of bar stock at $8 USD/inch. Figure the cost of the cut knurl tool at $1000 USD & you can see where this is going.

Even if all that tooling & experience is already in place (& it is not in my shop) the body has to be knurled while the bar stock is solid, before it is bored for the battery. A knurled surface looks good & feels good but is far less than perfect for the next machining operation.

There's someone who'll make this for you. Rough guess is that the cost of a full knurl light is twice that of any other surface profile :(

Try contacting Photonfanatic (Fred). This is exactly the sort of thing he does.
Fred would be my first choice but he already said his machine isn't set up for this. If I had the cut knurl tool I'd be happy to knurl the bar stock & send it on to Fred or anyone else who whoud finish the build but a $1000 USD specialty tool isn't in my budget.

I don't have CNC equipment but some machinists have had success using a 4-axis mill for helical interpolation to generate the pattern. Imagine a pair of helix profiles that meet at the correct angle to make the pattern. Cost effective if you need 50 parts or more :nana:
 
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egrep

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Keep up the pressure. I'd be willing to take 2x faucet handles if they had KuKuKnurling! The thing to think about is M.O.Q.
 

KuKu427

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Jan 2, 2009
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452
Just one. But I'm absolutely positive if you put something out there people will line up to buy it.
What did you have in mind?
I know you said twisty, and are probably thinking small EDC, but I've been itching to do one of these.


Screenshot-2012-03-23_09.21.27.jpg


Lots of surface area to cover up with this
Screenshot-2012-03-23_09.31.48.jpg

Using drop-ins would mean I can just concentrate on the shell.
P/C/Z would help with meeting MOQ.

Keep up the pressure. I'd be willing to take 2x faucet handles if they had KuKuKnurling! The thing to think about is M.O.Q.
Bet you didn't know someone in my team does bathroom fixtures did ya? :nana:
 
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egrep

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Bet you didn't know someone in my team does bathroom fixtures did ya? :nana:

:takeit: I'd like the cold water faucet with blue trits & hot water faucet with red trits. Can i get a spoked ring of 20 trits in a rainbow pattern for the drain plug? Oh, and for the commode handle, yellow trits. :naughty:
 

KuKu427

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Joined
Jan 2, 2009
Messages
452
:takeit: I'd like the cold water faucet with blue trits & hot water faucet with red trits. Can i get a spoked ring of 20 trits in a rainbow pattern for the drain plug? Oh, and for the commode handle, yellow trits. :naughty:
LOL, I see him tonight for Thud testing. I'll bring it up.
 
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