So…the knob on my gearshift fell apart. I’m not sure how it happened, but I suspect the issue has been there for a while. A piece of plastic fell out when I unscrewed the knob to clean the boot, and the leather piece with the faceplate came loose shortly thereafter. It wasn’t long until it came out completely.
Unfortunately, the only way to fix it would have been to pry off the faceplate, which is impossible to do without damaging the leather. So the choice was to either buy a new one or make a new one.
Obviously, I chose the latter.
I recently joined a makerspace not too far from home. The makerspace has wood lathes. I’ve never turned wood before, and I thought it would be fun to try. After taking an intro course (thanks Alyssa!), this seemed like a good opportunity for practice.
The design is pretty simple. I mean it’s just a knob. A few details were unintuitive, though – I ended up using a threaded insert like the one below to try to spread the load over a larger area in the bore. I also realized almost too late that any moments about that insert would likely wear out the threads in the wood. So I drilled out the threads of a second insert to use it as a bushing at the base of the knob.
All things considered, I think it turned out well. If I did it again, I probably would have ebonized or dyed the wood to match the color scheme in my car. But I’m happy to be shifting with something other than a bare threaded rod again, and grateful to have learned something new.