I made a shift **** because the factory one is ugly. I'll probably make some other sizes/designs to see which one I like the best. This one is bird's eye maple, bubinga, and aluminum. The aluminum is pretty but it was hard to turn. I would have polished it more but it kept leaving gray dust in the wood. I guess if I keep this one, I'll polish it better. Maybe I'll try a thinner accent piece and see how that goes.

 

nice

 

thanks. i just finished a shorter one that only has the aluminum on one side. I think i like the short one better but I need to try driving with both versions. I also want to do one that's more of a ball. Then i need to figure out how to take the E-brake handle off so I can make one that matches the shift ****. The bubinga wood goes with the interior better than i was expecting. I think solid figured maple would also look good but wouldn't be as heavy. The bubinga is very dense.

 

Clear coat it with acrylic. Then polish it up. Looks nice.

 

Some incredible skills here ! The blend with the metal accent is very striking. You have an Eye! kudos to a unique piece of art.

Stu Aull
80GS
AZ

 

I'm usually a stock guy but your shift **** looks amazing in the car. Great job!!

 

I'm with Rick in that I prefer the stock stuff but the shift **** that you made looks terrific!! The blending of wood and metal really sets the **** apart. How does the shifting action feel with the extra weight?

 

Thanks all.
If the stock **** was not so ugly, I wouldn't have bothered making another one. But the faded maroon vinyl is just too ugly for the car. O.o

Also, making shift ***** is kind of fun. I want to try some that have inlays in the top. Like a tiny rotor or some other thing. Maybe do one with a celtic knot. I can also cast stuff in clear acrylic and get some cool designs like that. I've done it with pens and the results are always interesting. I made some with moss and corn that were really neat. I'm having my friend who has a machine shop save brass and aluminum shavings for me so I can use those.

I have not actually driven the car yet with a new shift **** so I can't say how the extra weight feels yet. It certainly looks nicer. So mostly I've been sitting in the car pretending to drive while muttering 'zoom-zoom' to myself.

 

Something with a rotor shaped top, similar to the RX-8 ****, and maybe aluminum rings alternating with wood going down would look nice.

 

those look neat, but that shape would have to be done by hand instead of on the lathe. But that might be fun too. i was looking at those keychains that are just rotors or rotor-shaped with the old mazda logo, but i wasn't sure how big they were. I can put a recess in the top and set something in there in epoxy. Then when i turn it, it will be embedded in the top and shaped with the rest of the ****. I guess even a sticker would work if it stays flat.

Anyway, I had to buy a set of long lug nuts to use as the threaded inserts and I have 18 more. So I'll just mess around and see what I can do.

 

this is what corn looks like as a pen in case anyone was wondering. It's fun to just make turning blanks with weird stuff.

 

This is what the celtic knot would look like. I'm not using this blank because it shifted during the glue-up. You can see on the second pic where the maple doesn't quite line up. I threw it on the lathe just to see how bad it was.