6 String Electric Solid Body Lap Steel Guitar

[Steve Woods]

So Art, here's that set of four so far. I think I have about as close to a matching set as I can with the funky old wood lathe I'm using. Working with this stuff makes me wish I had a small metal lathe with carbide tooling. Now if I can just get up enough nerve to try drilling the holes for the pot stems. I don't know how to do reeded or fluted bores to match the knurled stems so I was thinking of a tapered smooth bore? If I can figure out a way to make them tapered? Maybe a tapered reamer? Any advice anyone? Randy?

[Randy Cordle]

When I do knobs I do all the shaping and prerequisite machining first, then polish them when they are done.
If I were you I'd go ahead and just drill a straight hole from the back center (it is solid stock initially?), cross-drill and tap for a course thread set screw. You might be surprised how well a threaded screw will preform in material such as this when it's tapped. It doesn't require all that much force to hold a knob on a pot shaft.
Once you're all done just attach it to a short section of 1/4" drill rod, chuck it in a drill press spindle, sand and polish.
If you really feel the need to have the set screw in metal just J.B. Weld a brass bushing into a larger hole before cross-drilling and tapping.

I always purchase high quality solid shaft pots. Nothing says cheap to me like the slotted and knurled shafts on import pots.