M6 adjusting/clamping knobs - female with LEFT HAND THREAD - source?

[robgul]

The adjusting knob on my small router lift has broken - the thread is M6 but LEFT HAND THREAD (to allow the knob to wind the platform up and down)

Anyone know where I can source a replacement please? - done the obvious Google/ebay searches to no avail. The knob can either be a blind hole or through hole - it's held with a locknut so doesn't matter.

Thanks

 

[Jamesc]

It sounds like an ideal thing to 3D print. Is there a nut or treaded insert in the broken knob? If so it could be embeded in a new printed knob.
If no one else has a better idea and you have the insert or nut I would be happy to give it a go for you.

 

[transatlantic]

If you can't find one, you can simply epoxy a left threaded M6 nut into a suitably shaped piece of wood. Works great

...or as mentioned 3D printing the shape is a nice solution too.

 

[robgul]

... the insert is damaged (it's very thin Chinesium of some sort)

- the nut idea with epoxy into a bit of wood is an option (I've found nuts and ordered a couple) - back-stop is to ask my brother who has a 3d printer if we can make something with an embedded nut . . . . but I'd sooner try and find a knob* if poss.

* the actual lift gadget was <£10 so worst case I just buy another!

 

[TheTiddles]

Get a standard M6 knob, a length of steel, some thread locker and two taps... which is probably more expensive than the new one

Aidan

 

[robgul]

Get a standard M6 knob, a length of steel, some thread locker and two taps... which is probably more expensive than the new one

Aidan

I'm open to all ideas but can't quite see where you're going with that . . . . ?

I'm after the knob with a female left hand M6 thread - either blind or right through - that fits on a threaded rod (locked with a nut against it) that operates the lift mechanism.

 

[TheTiddles]

Oh I see, female thread, get an M8 or M10 knob, screw in a plug of brass with adhesive, then tap that M6 left hand

 

[robgul]

Since my earlier post I've sourced an M6 steel insert with a female LH thread - it's about 20mm long - I'm going to see if I can find a small steel bar and get the insert welded on (just a small squirt with the arc torch!) and make a sort of "key" that will probably give me better fine adjustment of the lift mechanism.

 

[rwillett]

Other people have already offered but I'm happy to print you a number of M6 knobs for free that will work with nuts. I spent part of Sunday designing some in Fusion 360 and they are all parametrised. I wanted long (100mm) M6 clamp nuts for my MPCNC and all the ones I saw were thin and rubbish. I ended up with 2m of M6 threaded rod, some nuts and some glue. You can doublestack the nuts inside the knob if you want more grip. I liked the knobs higher so they are easier to grip. All the ones I saw were very thin and difficult to turn and had rubbish horrible plastic.

People on this board have been helpful to me, so it's payback time

These are the parameters you can change, can't remember what Nudge Diameter is now

Let me know if you want any printed and I'll do a run for you at 60% infill unless you really, really need a lot of torque and I'll do 100%. They'll be in fire engine red as that's the filament on the printer.

I can also send people the F360 file. I'm not precious about it.

Rob

 

[robgul]

Other people have already offered but I'm happy to print you a number of M6 knobs for free that will work with nuts. I spent part of Sunday designing some in Fusion 360 and they are all parametrised. I wanted long (100mm) M6 clamp nuts for my MPCNC and all the ones I saw were thin and rubbish. I ended up with 2m of M6 threaded rod, some nuts and some glue. You can doublestack the nuts inside the knob if you want more grip. I liked the knobs higher so they are easier to grip. All the ones I saw were very thin and difficult to turn and had rubbish horrible plastic.

People on this board have been helpful to me, so it's payback time



View attachment 93232

These are the parameters you can change, can't remember what Nudge Diameter is now

View attachment 93233

Let me know if you want any printed and I'll do a run for you at 60% infill unless you really, really need a lot of torque and I'll do 100%. They'll be in fire engine red as that's the filament on the printer.

I can also send people the F360 file. I'm not precious about it.

Rob

Thanks - at the moment I'm erring towards the idea of making an all steel key/t-bar - possibly even a "cross-top" like a sink tap - style of knob as it will give me more leverage on what's a quite stiff mechanism on the lift working against the springs on the router plunge - or a much larger round knob (broken one was only about 30mm - I'd make it 50 or 60 or so to get some leverage) if that doesn't work.

My brother has a 3d printer and has made me quite a few adapters for my dust extraction system in the workshop - very much trial and error with thicknesses and precise sizing!

I'll post progress or otherwise on steel manufacture!

 

[TheTiddles]

Other people have already offered but I'm happy to print you a number of M6 knobs for free that will work with nuts. I spent part of Sunday designing some in Fusion 360 and they are all parametrised. I wanted long (100mm) M6 clamp nuts for my MPCNC and all the ones I saw were thin and rubbish. I ended up with 2m of M6 threaded rod, some nuts and some glue. You can doublestack the nuts inside the knob if you want more grip. I liked the knobs higher so they are easier to grip. All the ones I saw were very thin and difficult to turn and had rubbish horrible plastic.

People on this board have been helpful to me, so it's payback time



View attachment 93232

These are the parameters you can change, can't remember what Nudge Diameter is now

View attachment 93233

Let me know if you want any printed and I'll do a run for you at 60% infill unless you really, really need a lot of torque and I'll do 100%. They'll be in fire engine red as that's the filament on the printer.

I can also send people the F360 file. I'm not precious about it.

Rob

What problem are you trying to avoid with using two nuts? If you go over 4D on a standard ISO course thread it’s within tolerance for the threads to clash, you’ve also got the start location different on each nut, so you might be creating another problem with your solution

Aidan

 

[rwillett]

I use two nuts to provide a wider surface area for the knob to turn against. So I make the knob a little higher and thread two nuts onto the rod. I use a glue to fix the nuts on the rod and then glue the nuts and M6 threaded rod into the knob and set it. As we have double the surface area turning against the internal knob, it reduces the load on the PLA filament. So far I appear to have been lucky and the nuts have aligned. I've only done two as a test.

Rob

 

[Lons]

If you change your mind about a DIY solution which is the way I'd go then maybe worth checking out WDS Components as they have a large range.

 

[MusicMan]

Umm, you can get left-hand thread taps quite easily (do a google search), so why not just make one out of whatever material you like?

 

[transatlantic]

Talk about over complicating things ...

 

[Inspector]

Any reason you can’t epoxy the original back together again?
If the mechanism is that tight perhaps a disassembly is in order to clean and lubricate.

Pete

 

[robgul]

Any reason you can’t epoxy the original back together again?
If the mechanism is that tight perhaps a disassembly is in order to clean and lubricate.

Pete

The plastic part (sort of Bakelite) is shattered, and the brass insert is so thin that it's distorted - and it's not the scissor-lift mechanism that's stiff, it's that it's pushing against the spring on a plunge router (working as a lift on a home-made router table)

 

[Inspector]

My nearly 40 year old Makita has a Bakelite knob and has broken a few times. I make a tape dam and fill with epoxy. When cured shape and sand it back again. It does have a substantial shaft with a separate threaded piece. What many do is to take out the plunge spring when in a table. Gravity lowers it so fighting the spring too is unnecessary.

Pete

 

[robgul]

My nearly 40 year old Makita has a Bakelite knob and has broken a few times. I make a tape dam and fill with epoxy. When cured shape and sand it back again. It does have a substantial shaft with a separate threaded piece. What many do is to take out the plunge spring when in a table. Gravity lowers it so fighting the spring too is unnecessary.

Pete

Yep - I hadn't yet got round to looking at taking out the router springs - I'm still fiddling about building the table - it's my #2/old router and will be staying in the table so no issue with spring removal. That my adjusting knob is female (and LH) makes it an impossibility to attempt any sort of moulding/epoxy/whatever repair - it's in about 10 bits!

 

[Inspector]

I poked around eBay and Amazon in the UK and both have 6 x 1mm LH taps. Some individual and some as a set of three and even a few with a tap and die. That would let you tap a thread yourself and if you got the one with a die you could make some small wooden hand screw clamps to offset the cost a little.

Pete