Cabinet Knobs

What to do with all of those rocks?  One thing that we decided to do as a family when we are out on our trips is to find unique rocks/fossils that would make nice cabinet knobs. I was not sure I would be able to actually make them, so I decided to experiment with a few polished rocks that came from my leland blue and granite batches. Our plan is to add a few knobs from each rock hounding/vacation that we take and add them to the kids bedroom furniture. We bought the 0 to 18 sets so they will have these sets until the leave the house. We are replacing the wooden knobs that came with the sets. Now each time the look at the knobs, it will hopefully remind them of a specfic trip. Also, they just look really cool.

The images and description below describe the process.  Enjoy.

Step 1: Polished stone
We choose stones that were about 2" (upper right stone)


Step 2: Using a drill press (not shown) and Rigid 1/2" and 1/4" diamond coated tile/stone/glass bits, I drill out a 1/4" deep hole in the back of each stone. I created the initial hole with the 1/2" and added water with an eye dropper during the process. Since the bit is a core bit, I used the 1/4" bit to knock down the center and moved the stone around to create a flat bottom to the hole.


Step 3: For the next step, I purchased 1/2" aluminum stock from HD and using a hacksaw cut it in 5/8" to 3/4" sections.
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Step 4: Once cut, I used the drill press to drill a hole (cannot remember the bit size) in each piece.
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Step 5: I then used a 8-32 tap to thread each hole.


Step 6: I then quickly buffed each piece to get rid of any tooling marks on the outside
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Step 7: I then used a two-part epoxy to secure each aluminum piece into the stone


Step 8: Install the knobs on furniture and enjoy