Review of Hemingway Sensitive Knurler Kit

[bulgie]

The more stuff on the left side, the higher probability that the "stuff" may interfere with the chuck, a part, or a rotating guard for the chuck. Stuff on the right side should be more likely to be "interference free".

The Hemingway kit mentions that the cam lever is designed to fit on either side.

The design could easily be tweaked to reduce the stick-out towards the chuck. I can easily see having one-fourth as much sticking out, probably even less than that. Use a 1/8" thick flat plate instead of a round rod with a knob on top, and have that flat plate just skim the body, with none of the shaft sticking out past the flat plate (maybe it can be welded on?), then you have a total stick-out of 1/8" toward the chuck. You still have to keep your fingers away from the chuck though, they'll always need a little clearance.

Then again, the extra rigidity you get from that modification may not be worth all that much. The nice thing about scissors-type knurls (as opposed to bump-type) is there's not much force pushing on the toolpost. The shape as built by @rronald will be plenty rigid enough, so there's not a lot of improvement to be had by dovetailing it directly to the post. Unless I'm missing something big (which happens a lot!)

 

[GrifterGuru]

The design could easily be tweaked to reduce the stick-out towards the chuck. I can easily see having one-fourth as much sticking out, probably even less than that. Use a 1/8" thick flat plate instead of a round rod with a knob on top, and have that flat plate just skim the body, with none of the shaft sticking out past the flat plate (maybe it can be welded on?), then you have a total stick-out of 1/8" toward the chuck. You still have to keep your fingers away from the chuck though, they'll always need a little clearance.

Then again, the extra rigidity you get from that modification may not be worth all that much. The nice thing about scissors-type knurls (as opposed to bump-type) is there's not much force pushing on the toolpost. The shape as built by @rronald will be plenty rigid enough, so there's not a lot of improvement to be had by dovetailing it directly to the post. Unless I'm missing something big (which happens a lot!)

A direct-to-toolpost mount Vs convential mount (mounted in a tool-mount, then onto the toolpost means less stickout and more rigidity. At least, that is how it would appear to my way of looking at it.

There is also the point of that extra inch plus of travel to be gained if you ever want to do a "full-available-bed-length" knurl.. Not that I have ever known that to be done, but there is always a first time for everything.