Passionate Pursuits

In the spring semester of my freshman year at Olin I chose to lathe a titanium shift knob for my newly manual swapped car. I first created a test piece out of stainless steel stock to practice lathing and various finishing processes. I then designed the shifter in SolidWorks to visualize how the finished product would look. Finally, I created drawings from which I could machine the part to specification. Throughout this project I learned a lot how to use both a manual and a CNC lathe, machining characteristics of harder metals such as titanium, and how to achieve the polished finish that I desired.