Human Machine Interface - my new shifter knob!

Humans are an odd contraption.  All the other creatures on the planet were given physical tools with which to survive.  Claws, fur, fangs, shells, etc.  We humans are remarkably weak in all respects.  Our skin is laughably soft to any animal's teeth or claws.  We grow hair in annoying places but in a quantity far short of what would keep us warm in winter.  Our teeth are so inadequate that we had to learn to cook to predigest our food!

What we do have is imagination.  You may have seen that Chimpanzees can use sticks to collect ants and eat them?  How long would you guess it takes one chimp to teach another to do that?  Maybe a week or two?  How about ten years!  If you don't have the facility to imagine what might be done, rote repetition takes forever.

So we learned to make things from what is around us to magnify our pitiful physical abilities.  Our brain is our lever.  It's also interesting that our worship of the individual inventor doesn't hold water.  Almost every invention was simultaneously created on different continents.  Why?  Because it was time for the broader human consciousness to invent that.  In a sense, we are all neurons in the larger human brain.  Of course some "neurons" are passionately motivated and cross the finish line first but the inventions are coming, nonetheless.  

Hence, I am interested in using levers to multiply my pathetic strength and working with others to create new things!  Case in point, the shift lever of a transmission allows me to control 232hp on its way to the rear wheels.  And crafting a shift lever knob with my Dad, gives me a collaborative touchstone for every shift!

Above, my Dad is shaping the rough block of Ebony, from which, he and my son, Eric, had previously made a shift knob for Eric's Mitsubishi Eclipse.  I used my Sherline CNC mill with a 1/16" end mill driven by a program from Meshcam software to cut the letters.  Not too shabby!

The final shape is very close to the original shift knob.  It was black leather with the plastic inlay but the Ebony is close in color.  

By the way, if you spend much time holding steel while it's 20F, your hands glow red when you wash them!

The white paint and wipe-on poly make a nice finish!

In order to allow flexibility for different purchased transmissions, the MG folks had a sheet metal cover over the tunnel.  Very thoughtful of them!  I made my own to align with the Mazda 6-speed.  

I may need to freshen up the carpet but it looks pretty good!  There's a hope I might actually use that to shift gears one day soon!

Thanks for reading and keep having #funwithcars!