Hello from Melbourne, Australia

[Spyros]

HOW TO CUT THOSE THINGS

Safety first: wear a mask, don't breathe dust, wear safety glasses, read the manual, etc.  Watch a woodworking safety video, there's tonnes on youtube.  If you havent done this sort of thing before maybe let someone else do it, at the end of the day you need your fingers to make beautiful things out of leather

With the safety thing out of the way.  Print 1:1, cut along the solid black line and glue the patterns on your plywood.

The fastest and most accurate way to cut those pieces is to make one copy with a band saw, clean it up to perfection with sandpaper/files and use it as a template to cut the other part with a router and a flush trim bit (I've linked a video in the previous page).  And that's what I started doing as well on my router table, and I've done it dozens of times before, however for whatever reason my router bit absolutely hated this type of plywood, it was catching and wanted to take the piece from my hands and launch it out the window.   Please be careful, routers can be very dangerous, if you find yourself in a situation like that with a router or generally something feels wrong just leave it (that's what I did), there are many other ways to make this cut.   I ended up freehand cutting everything on the bandsaw, and that went smoothly, it just took a little longer and a bit more sanding in the end. Note: bandsaws can also be very dangerous, but I have a lot of experience with it (and a long mental safety checklist I go through every single time)

If you have none the tools above (or those machines scare you, which is perfectly understandable) you could also use a jigsaw or scroll saw or even coping saw, it just takes more time and patience.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Spyros

[Spyros]

All right some cutting photos

This is what I started with, it's half a sheet of plywood and I still have probably 70% of it left.  Like I said you don't need much.

here I'm roughly marking how many pieces I need based on my pattern.

and this is what I used to break it down to small manageable pieces

 

[Spyros]

Those are all the pieces you need

Then I glue the first one on with contact adhesive

and I rough cut it on the bandsaw

then took my time to perfect it with a file on the vice

 

[Spyros]

that's good enough

then I used this piece to trace all the other curved pieces

and then because my router method failed, I ended up cutting everything as closely as I could on the bandsaw.  Notice the 8 curved pieces, I made them all out the first piece and then cut the shorter ones to size.

 

 

[Spyros]

then I kind of assembled everything on the bench and looked at it from every direction, make sure everything made sense before I glued everything up

the clamps were a bad fit initially, so I sanded them down a little

 

 

you can't see it very well from here but the yellow piece was leaving a big gap with the curved piece on the right, so I threw it away and cut it again a slightly different shape.

and then I glued everything up

 

 

 

[Spyros]

Ok time to talk about hardware

You gonna need an M8 bolt, about 100mm long, ideally not threaded all the way.    A coach bolt is much easier to install, I didn't have one so I used the one below which made things a little harder.   Also you need a couple of matching nuts and a spring that will fit snuggly around that bolt.  Make the spring about 2/3 the length of the bolt, or longer.  Longer is fine, you can cut it.

 

  You will also need a couple of fully threaded bolts, one about 100mm long and one 60mm.  I used the ones below and ended up cutting one of them down to 60mm.  Mine are M6, in hindsight M7 would probably be better so get M7.

The other little doohickeys are called insert nut", get a couple of those that match your bolts.    If you can get the ones that are installed with a hex key like the ones below (notice the hex opening)

Last but not least get some nylon washers, and also some steel rod.  Anything 5-8 mm thick will do, you will need about a 80mm length, and probably something to cut it with (angle grinder or hacksaw) 

And a couple of wood screws 30-40mm long.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Spyros

[Spyros]

Next step is make star nuts, we need 3 of them.  Like I said before you can buy plastic ones but you'll still need to make at least one to operate your big bolt.  So here's how you make them:

First you need some hardwood, ideally a little thicker than your plywood.  I repurposed an old cutting board that we never used, it's about 21mm thick

First you draw 3 circles and mark the center and 5 equally spaced marks with an awl.  If you need some help with the mark here's a pattern (print 3 and glue them on)

you should end up with something like this

 My circles were 54mm in diameter, in hindsight this was a little too big so go around 50mm.

You will also need a 20mm forstner bit

 

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by Spyros

[Spyros]

If you have a drill press it really helps right now, you're supposed to drill 5 holes in each circle, exactly where your awl marks are

my forstner bit was travelling a little bit on the first hole so I pre-drilled all the remaining holes to guide it.

Note: this is a lot of drilling with the forstner bit.  After every hole check its temperature and if it's too hot to touch (or if you see smoke while drilling) spray it with water and wait a few seconds.  High temperature has the ability to anneal your drill bit and then you basically have to throw it away, it's useless.

Ok so this is what it looks like at this point, kinda interesting in a strange way

Then I cut them on the bandsaw and there you have it, 3 artisan star knobs 

A little bit more pleasant to the eye and to the touch than the plastic ones.  When you get to that stage you're starting to feel that you're making something nice

 

 

 

Edited May 27, 2020 by Spyros

[Spyros]

Alright the next part is a little challenging but it will make you feel like a real woodworker: you have to make this big bolt to operate with this wooden knob.   

And the way to do it is by sinking this nut inside the knob:

I know it sounds difficult but you guys can skive and tool leather, you are practically neurosurgeons compared to the average woodworker!  ok first step is you drill a hole in the center of your knob, big enough for your bolt to go in freely, but not much bigger than that.  You just have to find the right size drill bit, about 1-2mm thicker than your bolt.    And you have to drill about 4/5 of the way into your wood (if you get this wrong and you drill right through that's alright, you can cover this hole on the other side of the knob with a bit of leather with your initials - which you should put on anyway  )

[Spyros]

And once you've drilled this hole, then you have to drill a slightly wider one, that is just a bit smaller than how wide your nut is.  You should end up with a hole inside a hole, something like this:]

Then you take your bolt with your nut in the end, and you tap it with a hammer inside your hole, until it leaves an impression: