So you want this cut in the top of your shift knob? Or do you want it cut out of some material and adheared to the shift knob?
I'm looking for a CNC person also! Its not for my subaru though... I want to have a block off plate made for my camshaft sensor since I dont use it.
You guys need some pictures and more explanation of what you want. What material is this getting cut into? Steel? Derlin? Titanium? Most machine shops charge 60-100 per hour. To engrave the Sti logo. Your talking at least a half hour of programing, plus machine time. That is if you have a file I could pull the lines from. I have done other things to get art work or line drawings into a machine but it takes alot of time. Do you have a DXF of the Sti logo?
^^^^^^im with this guy CNC work is not cheap and unless you get a good deal its going to be $$$$$. But I do have a DXF of the STi logo I did for a laser at work. If you need it let me know.
^^^This is correct, I'm with him, more info needed. I also run cnc. Certified tool and die. Supervisor at a shop. Ive been running mastercam for 5 years now (how I did my knobs below) paired with 2 hurco machining centers. Don't forget the proper tooling to get your sharp, square corners. You can use rastor to vector on mastercam and basically mill any logo, somebody's face, or anything you want into a surface. Us guys just need pics or general dimensions to give us an idea of ending resultsin order to help you.
To mill that whole T-grip will be expensive. Do you know how to use solidworks or any other 3d modeling software? If you plan on paying someone to create the model as well as create the cnc program I hope you have a lot of money. Also, what material do you want it made from? Do you expect it to be nice and shiny like that or do you plan on hand polishing it? It doesn't sound like you have enough experience or knowledge for this to be feasible. Try to find a knob you like that someone else has already done the r&d for to save yourself time and money.
He can get all that from his lack of detailed explanation from the get go. If someone can not be detailed in their original ask for help in a op it tells one of 2 things. They either A know nothing of what goes into the process of doing something. Or B. Have done 0 research to figure it out and are to lazy to do so. In some cases both A and B apply.
i really just want it to be simple! 4in wide 2in high and 1.5in thick logo cut with threads drilled in the center so i can screw it on a use a nut to hold the tension. what ever material is cheapest is fine with me i like the raw look
It is an educated guess. He has so far not demonstrated any knowledge of the work it would take to make a knob like that as he couldn't even ask proper questions without people prompting him. I obviously could be wrong but it SEEMS TO ME that OP didn't put much thought into this before making the post. If OP comes back and answers all those questions and it turns out I assumed wrong I will gladly eat crow!
I do not comprehend these dimensions for a logo...1.5in thick? Do you mean you just want to secure the knob to the shift lever with a set screw? Or do you mean you want a tapped hole with threads to thread onto the shift lever? If the second one then what model and year is your car? Is it Auto or manual? These are all things someone would need to know when designing a shift knob. From these answers I stand by my original statement: OP you will save yourself a lot of time and frustration by just finding something someone has already made.
The problem is as already stated that anything involving cnc work. Even the design you provided in the picture above as your inspiration would take at least a hour worth of work on just the knob its self. I just make a round shift knob for myself on the lathe at work and just a simple knob like that took me 2hrs. Like others have said do the leg work and get the thing you want made up in a file that can be imported into the cnc will save a lot of cost. That still said as Nhibbs stated it seems like not a lot of thought has gone into this request and it still continues to lack in details. You can not expect someone to make what you want with how vague you have been with your instruction do some research or perhaps as Nhibbs suggested just find something you like and buy it as there are very few shift knobs out there that cost more then what you would pay to have a one off made.
A heated discussion about who knows more about knobs on MNSubaru. Surprise. OP: You should have a much better idea what's involved now. If you still want to move forward, engage one/a few of these folks and start figuring out pricing. Don't be surprised if it's much higher than you were initially thinking.
Fondling knobs is my favorite hobby. But really this discussion applies to any one-off cnc project. Most of the time it is not worth it unless you do the work yourself.
1.5 thick would be pretty tough to do, you would have to use a small cutter to get sharp internal corners or it'll look like poop and they don't obviously don't take a big depth of cut. Based on my experience maybee .05" a pass. That means 1.5 divided by .05 equals 30 separate layers. Now dial in the proper feeds and speeds. And your gonna have almost a full work day into just one knob. Pay the guy to cam the part out your looking at a lot of $. Not to mention getting your hands on a 1/16 inch cutter (.0625) that can get to 1.5 deep is next to impossible in the machining world. They are not rigid enough to be feasible. I get what you want in end results, 3D sti logo block style lettering your best bet would be a water jet, as I don't think a laser can do 1.5 thick (ours can't) with close corners without it looking like junk. Then find a guy to drill and tap the bottom m12x1.25 I think mine was when I made my own.
I ordered a ten pack from fastenal for our shop and I'm the only one that's used em for my knobs haha
I'm surprised you didn't grab a piece of paper and draw it up. It would make things easier to know precisely what's in your head. Not everyone has CAD experience, but it's a step that still should happen. I have that experience if you need models/drawings whipped up. Part of design is figuring out what you can actually make and make affordably. We can dream up anything in our heads, we can even create 3D models of amazing looking things. Then, then we need to figure out how to actually make it. That generates compromises, design changes, and a plan of attack to develop something wanted while still being manufacturable and affordable. It's often important to have good problem solving skill and some ability to think outside of the box. You can make the same part 10 different ways if you stop and think about it. Some of them will likely be pretty easy to do and can be darn affordable. For example, thickness can be built up with layers. There's many ways to approach a problem. Like what others said though, machine work can be spendy. You can end up paying for a TON of operating time. You can have a $200 part where the material costs $5. This is where design comes into play. You find ways to make that really cool thing cheaply through alternative methods. Still, cheap is relative to how creative or selective you get. Cost savings typically comes in the form of doing stuff in bulk where you can soak up things like mold costs, setup time, or minimize scrap loss. For a well sized, thick shape, you might want to toy with sand casting to generate the entire thing or core shape and then add simpler parts to that. Finish up with final machining/polishing to finish off the part. I haven't done any of this myself and literally Google this stuff just now, but it can be a very low cost way to make complex parts. If you're making just one, sand works. You can also create the pattern with anything. For example, make your design out of clay or wood (if just pressing in the shape), and use that pattern to create the sand mold. If you mess up on first attempt, you simply retry. The metal, sand, and whatever device you're using to make the mold with is reusable. There's also lost foam casting where you need to make an initial mold that is lost when the part is made. I'll toss on a couple links, but I suggest looking into it more and see if it might be a viable route for your goals. http://foundry101.com/index.htm http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-foundry-and-sand-cast-aluminum/ http://www.metals-china.com/lost-foam-casting-lfc-process.html
