Review of Hemingway Sensitive Knurler Kit

[woodchucker]

I'll now claim partial success. Here's a test knurl. It's obviously not perfect.. I started by doing several sections.....under power and by hand. At some point, I decided to do multiple passes. And that seemed OK, so I decided to go over all the previous knurls and make one long one. So the pattern shifts a little bit.
View attachment 499539

I bought two knurling wheels along with the kit. I believe they are left hand/right hand wheels. Since they can be flipped over, I can run them as left and right (which is the way they were in for this test) and I believe that makes for a diamond pattern. Or they can be installed with both wheels having the same angle. Not sure what that pattern would be. The following pic shows the wheels in their current installation:
View attachment 499541
I do have another problem. My ELS (Electronic Lead Screw) on the lathe doesn't seem to have sufficient torque for knurling. I'm going to post in one the PM Forums specific to the CLough 42 ELS to see if anyone over there has any ideas about how to fix or mitigate this.

I don't have an ELS, but I would assume it's based on the servo or stepper that you have, the more powerful the .... more powerful.

 

[WobblyHand]

How often do you knurl? Is knurling under power feed worth the increased expense of a significantly higher torque servo? Usually you also need to get a new power supply too. It's up to you, of course, but I do have an ELS, and I wouldn't want to bother with the additional expense for something I can do by hand easily. I have a 4Nm stepper and wouldn't be able to fit a higher torque motor where I have it installed. There's no room. My two cents.

 

[woodchucker]

How often do you knurl? Is knurling under power feed worth the increased expense of a significantly higher torque servo? Usually you also need to get a new power supply too. It's up to you, of course, but I do have an ELS, and I wouldn't want to bother with the additional expense for something I can do by hand easily. I have a 4Nm stepper and wouldn't be able to fit a higher torque motor where I have it installed. There's no room. My two cents.

I usually power feed on a knurl, sometimes manual.

 

[rronald]

How often do you knurl? Is knurling under power feed worth the increased expense of a significantly higher torque servo? Usually you also need to get a new power supply too. It's up to you, of course, but I do have an ELS, and I wouldn't want to bother with the additional expense for something I can do by hand easily. I have a 4Nm stepper and wouldn't be able to fit a higher torque motor where I have it installed. There's no room. My two cents.

Only once, so far

 

[GrifterGuru]

Only once, so far

You will knurl again.. You will find odd things and think "if I knurled that, it would be better to use".

At least, that is how it has worked out for me.

 

[rronald]

I do agree that it wouldn't be worth a large expense/hassle to upgrade the ELS just for knurling (especially given that many folks seem to be satisfied with hand feeding).

 

[GrifterGuru]

I do agree that it wouldn't be worth a large expense/hassle to upgrade the ELS just for knurling (especially given that many folks seem to be satisfied with hand feeding).

Is that easy with an ELS or is it more difficult?

 

[WobblyHand]

I do agree that it wouldn't be worth a large expense/hassle to upgrade the ELS just for knurling (especially given that many folks seem to be satisfied with hand feeding).

If you can find an inexpensive upgrade, why not?

At least in my case, it didn't make much sense. I've knurled a bunch of stuff, but if I'm honest with myself, it's a small proportion of the stuff I do on a lathe.

 

[rronald]

If your are asking about whether it's easy of difficult to upgrade the torque of the ELS driver, I'd bet on difficult. Primarily due to lack of space. A bigger servo would be difficult to fit. An intermediate idler shaft to reduce speed is likewise unlikely to easily fit.

 

[WobblyHand]

Is that easy with an ELS or is it more difficult?

The motor torque requirements for knurling are higher than for cutting threads. So you need a better motor, which is usually larger. And you usually need a higher voltage power supply to power that motor. And you have to repackage that stuff to fit on your lathe. If the lead screw motor had the required torque, an ELS can handle it, it's no different than feeding.