Building a knurler for making custom handlbars?

[Tooblue]

Hey GJ ,, Just thought I would post a question on here to see if anyone has any suggestions. I have started building some custom handlebars for Harley motor cycles . I am to a point where I would like to be able to do the knurling at home vs taking the portion of the bars to a machine shop. The guy that current machines the knurling at his shop does a great job but the length of time and the travel is getting old (He does a great job & quality = very nice) Anyone familiar with a place I could purchase a knurl@home device that would perform a similar type knurling on mild steel? I could very easy continue to use the machine shop but thought maybe I would see if anyone had experience with this or a suggestion.

Thanks in advance,, Roger

 

[king nero]

do you have a lathe?

 

[rsanter]

Hey GJ ,, Just thought I would post a question on here to see if anyone has any suggestions. I have started building some custom handlebars for Harley motor cycles . I am to a point where I would like to be able to do the knurling at home vs taking the portion of the bars to a machine shop. The guy that current machines the knurling at his shop does a great job but the length of time and the travel is getting old (He does a great job & quality = very nice) Anyone familiar with a place I could purchase a knurl@home device that would perform a similar type knurling on mild steel? I could very easy continue to use the machine shop but thought maybe I would see if anyone had experience with this or a suggestion.

Thanks in advance,, Roger

What does he use? A lathe?
Do you have a lathe?

I will say I have seen hand knurlers that you tighten on and spin around the pipe by hand like a pipe cutter, but the ones I have seen are all old and I don't know if they even make them anymore

Bob

 

[larry_g]

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INPDFF?PMPAGE=248&PMITEM=250-1715

AS linked above hand knurls are available. I'm not recommending the above just showing they are available. Search on hand knurl.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[bobadame]

You can easily do this at home. There are knurling tools that are similar to a pipe cutter. You simply pre-load the knurling wheels into the tubing and then rotate the tool around the tube, or do the oposite. Hold the tool stationary and rotate the tube. The second method is the way it works in a lathe. I'm assuming that you are knurling the area where the handle bar is secured to the top tripple clamp.

 

[454ragtop]

Easily done in a lathe, assuming you don't have, I'd look into making one out of a large pipe cutter, Shouldn't be hard to adapt some knurling wheels.
HTH, Jim

 

[darkk]

As said, that's easy if you have a lathe. Just buy a knurling tool. You could also make something to hold and turn the bar section, (a chuck and a steady rest) probably even on a drill press, just make sure it turns slow....

 

[Tooblue]

Thanks for all of the replies.. No lathe at home and if I had to guess, a lathe is what the Machine shop uses.. GREAT INPUT and thanks for the links !!
Roger

 

[bad_idea]

Time to buy a lathe. So much stuff you could add to the list of homemade items then.

 

[theknurl]

too funny.....

buy a hand knurl.....

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRvdCzXxntyDg4lCDMF5TLWXtt6tzlALYRYJ4H85ZJDY-PPrJFQ7ncBzCgV

 

[stanleyoutdoors]

I Really hope you intend to only knurl the area where the grips glue on.

DO NOT knurl the bars near the triple clamps as they have high stress there and the knurling will create stress concentrations and they can fatigue and break.

Hopefully this is obvious to all, but I see a lot of really stupid (from an engineer's standpoint) things done on custom bikes.

 

[daveroy]

I Really hope you intend to only knurl the area where the grips glue on.

DO NOT knurl the bars near the triple clamps as they have high stress there and the knurling will create stress concentrations and they can fatigue and break.

Hopefully this is obvious to all, but I see a lot of really stupid (from an engineer's standpoint) things done on custom bikes.

Have you ever seen a pair of bars off the bike? They are all knurled where the clamps grip.. How else would you expect the clamps to grip a hard chromed surface? The bars are/should be more than thick enough, that a bit of surface knurling is not critical.

 

[daveroy]

Time to buy a lathe. So much stuff you could add to the list of homemade items then.

You couldn't do this easily with a lahe at all.. You wouldn't be able to determine where to knurle till the bars are all bent up... And once bent up, putting them on a lathe would be a nightmare.

 

[adam728]

I Really hope you intend to only knurl the area where the grips glue on.

DO NOT knurl the bars near the triple clamps as they have high stress there and the knurling will create stress concentrations and they can fatigue and break.

Hopefully this is obvious to all, but I see a lot of really stupid (from an engineer's standpoint) things done on custom bikes.

Steel handlebars are almost always knurled in the clamp area. Aluminum ones almost never (fatigue, as you said).

There are always exceptions, that's why I say "almost".

 

[isaac338]

Time to buy a lathe. So much stuff you could add to the list of homemade items then.

This. Everyone before this post should forfeit their garage card.