Review of Hemingway Sensitive Knurler Kit

[GrifterGuru]

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.

My intented question was "is it easy to knurl with an ELS or harder".. I should phrase things better.

Seems it may be harder, even when hand cranking since in most cases, the ELS (so far as I have seen) disconnects the gear drive between spindle and leadscrew.

 

[rronald]

My intented question was "is it easy to knurl with an ELS or harder".. I should phrase things better.

Seems it may be harder, even when hand cranking since in most cases, the ELS (so far as I have seen) disconnects the gear drive between spindle and leadscrew.

But when hand cranking, the carriage is not driven by the lead screw or the separate feed bar (if the lathe has the latter). IMHO, there shouldn't be any difference when hand feeding between a lathe with an ELS or with gear driven feeds.

 

[rronald]

It actually looks possible, The servo in place is 180 watts and Stepperonline has a 400 watt servo with the same frame size. Would need a new power supply too.

 

[GrifterGuru]

But when hand cranking, the carriage is not driven by the lead screw or the separate feed bar (if the lathe has the latter). IMHO, there shouldn't be any difference when hand feeding between a lathe with an ELS or with gear driven feeds.

Manual cranking requires a link between spindle and leadscrew, so that the carriage is moved at the same time as the stock (spindle) rotates otherwise you are merely knurling one, static, section the width of the knurl.

 

[Winegrower]

I built the Hemingway knurler kit, apparent the "non-sensitive" kind. Can anybody tell me what the sensitive adjective means here? Some kind of a cam adjustment or such? I've been happy with the one I built, but I echo the comments on the plans being a mix of metric, imperial, decimal, fractions, etc. Kind of a mess really. Somewhat amusing to deal with the unit conversions.

 

[rronald]

Manual cranking requires a link between spindle and leadscrew, so that the carriage is moved at the same time as the stock (spindle) rotates otherwise you are merely knurling one, static, section the width of the knurl.

I'm confused. I can crank the carriage wheel on my lathe and the carriage will back and forth on the ways..... even when all the electrical components of the lathe (spindle motor and ELS) are turned off. I manually cranked the wheel to knurl the 4" section of knurling (shown in post #10) after the ELS had tripped off.

 

[WobblyHand]

Manual cranking requires a link between spindle and leadscrew, so that the carriage is moved at the same time as the stock (spindle) rotates otherwise you are merely knurling one, static, section the width of the knurl.

That's not true. For a non ELS lathe, when the half nuts are disengaged, there is NO relationship between the spindle and the carriage position. You still can make perfectly good looking knurls manually, with the half nuts disengaged. Try it for yourself.

For an ELS lathe, if the lead screw half nuts (or feed) is disengaged there's no relationship between the carriage position and the spindle. If the half nuts are engaged and the servo is active (enabled) then it behaves just like a "normal" geared system.

 

[WobblyHand]

I'm confused. I can crank the carriage wheel on my lathe and the carriage will back and forth on the ways..... even when all the electrical components of the lathe (spindle motor and ELS) are turned off. I manually cranked the wheel to knurl the 4" section of knurling (shown in post #10) after the ELS had tripped off.

No need to be confused. You are correct.

 

[GrifterGuru]

I'm confused. I can crank the carriage wheel on my lathe and the carriage will back and forth on the ways..... even when all the electrical components of the lathe (spindle motor and ELS) are turned off. I manually cranked the wheel to knurl the 4" section of knurling (shown in post #10) after the ELS had tripped off.

Then that indicates that the ELS is connected in some way between the spindle and the leadscrew....

 

[GrifterGuru]

That's not true. For a non ELS lathe, when the half nuts are disengaged, there is NO relationship between the spindle and the carriage position. You still can make perfectly good looking knurls manually, with the half nuts disengaged. Try it for yourself.

I was not referrring to a static knurl as you are, I was referring to a "more than the knurl wheel width" knurl.