This week, I decided to make an aluminum knob for a potentiometer.

The process is pretty simple. I started by mounting a solid aluminum blank on the three jaw chuck. I faced the blank, turned it to a cylinder and then flipped it. Faced and turned the second end as well, and the blank was ready to shape.

I turned about 20mm length from the end down to 16mm to make a top hat kind of shape. Then I drilled a center hole on the tail end of the workpiece. I drilled a 6mm hole to accommodate the potentiometer.

I sanded the piece with sandpaper and scotch-brite. Then I cut it off with a hacksaw and mounted it on the lathe again to face and sand the bottom.