My First DE

[Tackleberry]

3" :icon_rolleyes: a little too much me thinks. Ideally around 15mm diameter and no less than 90mm long would do it, I like the sound of the tiny ridges, brushed or smooth and shiny I like both.

 

[The Mackem Shaver]

Here are the UFO handles, made by Rafael in Spain, which are much coveted on this forum.

I saw the handles a few nights ago after seeing them mentioned so many times on here. He turns out some very nice work and the knurling he does is top notch. Knurling can be a very tricky thing to do and get repeatable results that are perfect every time. At first they might seem expensive for what they are, but the time Rafael would have put in to be able to get knurling of that standard will be very high. The knurling tools are also very expensive for high quality ones and putting them onto stainless steel will take time and most likely multiple passes, and that means getting all those lovely lines to match up perfectly. To do that you need a good quality, beefy and rigid lathe, again very expensive equipment.
I could look into getting a decent knurling tool, but I would probably have to be able to sell quite a few handles to recover the outlay and with the lathe I have, I doubt I would get results quite as good. Knurling on stainless would most likely not be possible on my lathe but I can give it a go, nothing ventured nothing gained!

If I did make some it would most likely only be for forum members and they would be done to order. I also wouldn't be looking to make much, if at all, from it. I do it for fun and trying to make money from it would spoil the enjoyment I think.
I might even make a couple up and donate them to the forum to sell off for funds.

Give me a few days to have a think and a chat with a couple of toolmakers I know about tooling, got one coming today to buy a cnc lathe from me and he should be able to point me in the right direction.

daz

I'm crap at anything practical like this so am in awe of good craftsman. I love the fact you bought a dirt cheap razor and turned it into something decent just with what you had to hand. If you do start making handles one of your biggest problems would be managing demand from here :icon_razz:

 

[Gogser]

Hi Daz,

Which lathe do you have? I have a Sieg super C3 which I bought from ARC Euro Trade. I'm just learning to use it but I'm having fun; maybe I'll try to make a handle for a Boots DE too...

Cheers,

Gordon

 

[daz]

Hi Daz,

Which lathe do you have? I have a Sieg super C3 which I bought from ARC Euro Trade. I'm just learning to use it but I'm having fun; maybe I'll try to make a handle for a Boots DE too...

Cheers,

Gordon

It is (was) one of these Clarke combo lathe/milling machines. The milling atatchment was next to useless for doing any work to a tollerence better than 0.1mm, which was no use for some of the stuff I was being asked to do at work. So I removed the milling head to leave befind a half decent lathe, I then talked the boss into letting me buy an Eagle 30 milling machine. I am hoping to accidentally damage the lathe at some point in the near future (beyond repair would be nice) so I can spend some money on a new one, I have just been given my budget for the department and should be able to squeaze it out of that somewhere:icon_razz:

The handles are pretty easy to make as long as you are going for something reasonably simple, as with anything though if you start wanting nice shapes, knurling etc it becomes more time consuming. You have to start thinking more and more about the process and which bits you are going to do when, and how. You also need to start being able to grind and make your own tooling, but that's a whole different ballgame altogether. And of course a lot of the stuff I do has press fitted parts, not that hard when using aluminium and brass but much trickier on harder materials like stainless steel.
I don't know your experience level, but if you need any info/advice on the lathe then feel free to fire me a pm and I will help as best I can