DIY Potentiometer Knob - Build

If you look carefully , you will see that in most cases it's cut with a thin circular cutter. The groove inside is curved. The curvature depends on the dia of the blade . Looks like a static cut . You could do it off the lathe if you can't lock the spindle.
 
If you look carefully , you will see that in most cases it's cut with a thin circular cutter. The groove inside is curved. The curvature depends on the dia of the blade . Looks like a static cut . You could do it off the lathe if you can't lock the spindle.

The problem with that approach is it will catch up human error which are listed below.

1. Sometimes the depth of that groove will go too deep or too thin.
2. It should come perfectly opposite to the grub screw hole and a slight lack in presence of mind will screw up that process.
3. Aligning knobs one after another is painful and prone to misalignment/error.
4. Once you are done, you are done ! there is no rollback which in turn will end up with lots of QA test failed units.
 
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You'll have to make a jig to hold the knobs the right way around. That way there will be no alignment error. However the whole machine assembly will have to be set up to cut the grove in the knob and depth of cut can be fixed like in a vertical drill press. This would also mean that you will need to make a fair quantity of knobs for each setup.
If you can't do it, a plain round dot is better than nothing !;)
 
You'll have to make a jig to hold the knobs the right way around. That way there will be no alignment error. However the whole machine assembly will have to be set up to cut the grove in the knob and depth of cut can be fixed like in a vertical drill press. This would also mean that you will need to make a fair quantity of knobs for each setup.
If you can't do it, a plain round dot is better than nothing !;)

Yes, This is what I am exactly planning to do to solve this issue.

Just a dot of 2mm will do on the top. And the setup will be like this.



Sorry for the poor drawing.

Each knob after drilling the grub screw (3mm) will be inserted to that jig, then align the drill bit of the bench drill to the actual position where the mark should come.
After that need to set the depth of the mark in bench drill.

Then its a matter of changing the knob one after another doing the marking.
 
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Today done with the machining of the Tone Control Knobs.

Now need to do the tapping for 3mm Grub screw and do the anodizing.

Sharing few images below:







Done for 6mm and 6.35mm shaft diameter pots.

 
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There appears to be two grooves near the front edge. Was this requested for by someone ? Can you post a pic of a single knob from an angle so that we can figure out how it looks. The present picture of a bunch of knobs doesn't do justice to the appearance.
Cheers.
 
There appears to be two grooves near the front edge. Was this requested for by someone ? Can you post a pic of a single knob from an angle so that we can figure out how it looks. The present picture of a bunch of knobs doesn't do justice to the appearance.
Cheers.

Hi Fantastic,

Those two grooves were purposefully laid to improve visual appeal since without those, the knobs seems quite plain after done with the prototype.

I have left the CNC shop without taking the close up of those and now its anodizing is in progress.

I will surely post its close up image very soon.
 
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Hi Folks,

Completed the CNC knobs last week. Got them anodized in Black, Gold and Silver.

Diameter: 18mm

Height: 19mm

Material: Aluminum

Shaft hole diameter: 6mm / 6.4mm

Tighten by M3 hex grub screw

Applications:
  • Tone Controls
  • Volume Controls
  • Audio Source Selection

Just sharing few images below for your reference.




I personally liked the Black color. Lemme know your comments to improve further.
 
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There's a guy who posted some cool "geeky" knobs on
another forum....some ideas for the ace DIYers here -

20151108_130656_zpsuxu7dgna.jpg


20151103_180319_zpsi2dp7iuo.jpg
 
A beautiful, well-constructed speaker with class-leading soundstage, imaging and bass that is fast, deep, and precise.
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