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- Jan 7, 2016
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Yeah, there is a formula for that!Thanks for liking the idea. The only problem that one can encounter is that the diameter
of the roller may not match the knurl requiring one to machine off several thousandths off
the roller until the knurl pattern matches the knurl. A lot of the time it works fine on the first
try. This phenomenon occurs with all knurling of course.
You take your knurling wheel and roll it along some paper so that it will make marks on the paper. Count off five marks at a time out to at least 80 marks. Measure the distance between the 80. The number that you measure isn't really important, but the larger the number, the more accurate your measurement will be.
Take your distance and divide by the number of wheel marks. In my case, it was 90 marks and a distance of 5.662." 5.662/90=0.0629 This is your circular pitch. Divide CP by Pi. 0.0629/3.14159=0.02002. Now, take this number and divide it into the diameter of your workpiece. You want it to be a whole number. I had a workpiece diameter of 1.375". 1.375/0.02002=68.68, which, of course, is not a whole number. Now, to know what diameter my workpiece should be, I take 68 (a whole number that is smaller than my calculated number) and multiply it by 0.02002. 68*0.0220=1.361. So, my workpiece should be 1.361" in diameter to get the knurler to make perfect knurls. The other option is to find a knurling wheel of a different diameter or number of cutting teeth to make it work.
I did not come up with that, so here is a link to the website that will walk you through it.