Making a Wooden Shift Knob

[geezer]

Thats cool Capt! Nice coloring, looks great!

I have the $9.00 aluminum knob that I bought on Ebay in order to dissect. The font is slightly larger and the inner circle will have to be cut right into the ridge around the map to lessen its presence. Really can't round that ridge off much without cutting into the shift map.

Once both circles are cut and I have it powder coated black with the white lettering, I'll post a pic of it mounted in my original knob.

I've been studying it to see if the bottom insert can be cut from this knob as well. It can, but I would have to enlarge the inside hole in my original knob to recieve it. I wanted to avoid that so, I may just make a new insert that can fit the existing hole.

Edit: Woops, this should have been posted in the Making a Wooden Shift Knob thread. Can anyone move it? Thanks.

Edited December 1, 2012 by geezer

[Captain Obvious]

geezer,

Thanks for the follow up with the info on that aluminum knob.

If you need to increase the diameter of the flat on the top of that aluminum knob, you might be able to skim a little off the top. Of course, the depth of the shift map numbers will decrease if you do that, but it looks like they're deep enough that you could afford to make them a little shallower and still have enough relief. All they have to do is hold red paint, right?

Don't know if that will make the flat area large enough in diameter to fit comfortably in the old hole, but might be worth a try.

As for the threaded portion, the hole in the original knobs is already pretty large... Why do you think you would need to make it bigger? Sorry, but I'm not understanding the issue. If you've got the means to cut the map out of the top, then you should have the means to cut the threaded portion down to any diameter you need?

Nine bucks, huh?

[Mikes Z car]

Geezer,

Is the 5 SPD shift knob in your picture the same as the one provided with cars that were sold in Europe with a 5 SPD? If it is would you take a picture of it straight on looking at the map, not at an angle and post it here? If you can get more close up that would be great too!

Thanks,

Mike

[geezer]

Capt, thanks for the interest in this concept. No material needs to be removed from the top. Both circles can be cut starting at the edge of the flat and emulate the original in size, as well as fit perfectly into the recess in the top of the knob. Once powder coated and the white circles and map are applied, I'm hoping it looks quite similar, just made from different material and be more durable as well.

This pic may help you visualize the delemma with making an insert from the remains of the knob. The inner thread is much larger because of the plastic adapters used to make the knobs a universal fit. Only so much material could be removed before reaching a safe diameter that won't weaken the thread. It can be done but the hole in the stock knob would need to be a greater diameter, thus perhaps weakening the old wood. It is plain to see how the original knobs were made from two booked pieces joined together as I mentioned before.

[geezer]

Mike, That is a new OEM 5 speed knob that I turned down a few years ago. It was much larger in diameter originally. In the 3rd pic after turning it down, you can see it is shaped differently than an original stock knob and is a bit taller as well but still quite an improvement over a new OEM IMHO. The first pic as well as the overhead pic showing the map is before I turned it down. The milky white coloring of the map still throws me off too. Why they changed that as well as the dimensions is a mystery to me.

Edited December 2, 2012 by geezer

[Captain Obvious]

geezer, I see what you mean about the thread mount. I wasn't aware that the aluminum knob had plastic inserts to adapt to different cars. Here's an idea... Can you move the base portion from your new OEM replacement knob over to your original knob? Does the new OEM have the same center hole as the old OEM?

Sounds like a lot of people have plastic bases that have seen better days... Haha! Maybe I should get into the threaded base business? That and AAR's :pirate:

[geezer]

...Here's an idea... Can you move the base portion from your new OEM replacement knob over to your original knob? Does the new OEM have the same center hole as the old OEM?

Wouldn't want to disect that one, it was costly and is now finished. I don't know if the new OEM knobs have the same center hole or what the differences are between inserts, not having had it apart. I only turned the wood down and refinished it with Minwax "Ipswich Pine" stain and a few coats of a polyurethane clear spray.

[Mikes Z car]

Geezer, Thanks for the straight on picture.

Mike

[71Nissan240Z]

Damn those knobs look great. Does anyone know where I can get an original shifter with a dragon looking thing on the top? Ive seen one before on datsun classifieds. the dragon or animal is yellow.

[hls30.com]

The griffin emblem was never original to a Z. The S30 came from Nissan with a shift pattern emblem on the shifter, early Datsun Roadsters came with a form as you describe-later roadsters came with the knob that would be passed to the 240Z-when the console changed and the shift pattern was removed from it..

These are similar to what would have come with the "Dragon" on them http://www.datsunroadster.com/SUB_SECTION_DIRECTORIES/accessories.htm#SHIFT

Edited December 11, 2012 by hls30.com

[bhermes]

Not sure if this is still active; however, I am going to attempt to make a couple knobs from bowling pins. I went to the local bowling ally and they were more than happy to give me a couple old pins. I teach at a high school that has a large machine shop. One of the students is going to make the knob as a class project. I do not have a sample of an old knob so I am going to wing it. Make to my liking the best I can.

If successful I will let everyone know and who knows maybe I can make more.

[Captain Obvious]

Not sure if this is still active; however, I am going to attempt to make a couple knobs from bowling pins.

I was never planning to make a bunch of these, but if you were, the device you need is called a duplicating attachment for your lathe. Such devices are relatively common in the woodworking realm. Not as common in metal working venues, but certainly any well tooled wood shop should have such an attachment available to be fitted to one or more of their lathes.

If you had a wood lathe with a duplicating attachment you would use a template as your guide and you could crank out multiple copies of the wooden part of the knobs easily and quickly. The metal base would still be an issue, but the wood part would be easy.

I am tooled more for metal working though, and have no such device. That's why all my stuff was made one-off by eye.

So your school has a machine shop... Does they have a wood shop as well?