Material Suggestions for Shift Knob

[tonydi]

The leather covering on my car's shift knob is failing so I'm thinking of creating a whole new knob. It's an automatic trans so it has a spring loaded button on the top to release the detent lever so the design can be fairly straightforward. However, none of the aftermarket knobs I've been able to find will fit correctly which is why I'm looking to just make one.

It won't be complicated, basically turning down some rod to something around 2" OD, around 4" long and boring a .500" hole through it. I'd make a button to sit up inside. I can put some big chamfers with some generous radii on the top and bottom to eliminate the sharp edges and at least give it a tiny bit of style.

But I need some suggestions for material. I'm shying away from aluminum because it sits in the sun all day and just the chrome trim on the leather knob gets hotter than snot. I'm leaning towards black Delrin, which I know would look cool after turning but I'm not sure what the finish will look like after some wear and tear, if it would lose the sheen.

Actually something red would be really cool also, as it would go with the red interior accents but red Delrin is $$$ and I've never seen it machined.

I know there are tons of different plastic materials out there but have zero experience machining them, thus my post here.

Any suggestions?

 

[Reddinr]

Rosewood. Should machine well and is beautiful. Usually deep redish-brown.

 

[Flyinfool]

There was a vendor that used to advertise multicolored plastics on this site as a material to machine cool stuff out of.

Another interesting choice would be to save up a bunch of bigger aluminum or brass swarf from the lathe and or mill, wash it real good to remove any oils, and stuff a bunch in a mold and fill it with clear casting resin and then machine that. Looks really cool. You can even tint the resin to make it transparent red with all of the swarf inside sparkling.

Some other choices, a carbon fiber bar, one of many kinds of exotic wood.

What car is this for?
What colors inside and out?

 

[silence dogood]

Cherry wood would look nice and should be easy to find.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

Rengas !

 

[silence dogood]

I used to tune pianos. The handle on my favorite tuning hammer is rosewood. When you spend all day tuning, wood has a more relaxing feel to it than plastic or hard rubber. That is why I have replaced many of the plastic handles on my machines with a hardwood even though I could use metal.

 

[matthewsx]

It will make the car faster if you make from Carbon Fiber

Seriously though you can get all kinds of composite rods from McMaster-Carr.

BTW, I'm working at the SJCC this week.

John

 

[Flyinfool]

Many of the composite rods have an interesting look when machined.

 

[FOMOGO]

I've made them out of pool balls. Mike

 

[tonydi]

Wood? We're machinists, not heathens! (been watching too many Blonidhacks videos)

Thanks everyone for the ideas but I'm not feeling the wood vibe, too old school luxury car. Same with novelty knobs like pool cues, skulls, sword handles, etc.

It's a Genesis Coupe Track 3.8, so I'm looking more high tech/race car/simplicity. Here's the interior....



Carbon fiber would go with the rest of the pieces but I swore off machining carbon fiber. In a previous life I had faced off the ends of some CF piston pins and those pins disintegrated into dust 30 seconds after the brand new race engine fired up. One rod out the side of the block, totally trashed lots of other pieces.

If I could figure out a way to vinyl wrap a cylinder then I'd go with my Delrin idea in a heartbeat.