New WC Lathe Werks custom shift knob:
After doing a little shopping around at different online sites for shift knobs, I kept coming back to both TWM and
WC Lathe Werks. For those not familiar with WC Lathe Werks, it's a one-man operation in Whippany, NJ run by Chris, the founder/owner/hand-machinist. He offers a number of shapes, materials, and customizations for his knobs, including a custom laser etching option. He also has a cool half sphere/half conical knob shape, which really struck my fancy.
I sent Chris a few emails back-and-forth, trying to learn about the limitations of the design that can be etched, and found out his machine takes in a scalable vector graphic (SVG) for input, and can output the image onto the curved top of the knob just fine. As an avid Miami Dolphins fan, I set out to get the Dolphins logo in a 2-color SVG file, which I could not find online. However, going to Wikipedia, I was able to track down the logo in color:
After getting the artist on my team at work to give me a hand converting it into a black-and-white image, I further touched it up and was left with this:
I verified that Chris could use this SVG, and he said it should work fine. A few days later, I got an email saying it came out perfectly and had shipped. Then today, I checked my mail, and found the knob in the mail, wrapped in a paper towel (it's a small touch, but really makes it feel more like a custom, special, real-person made item, as opposed to some mass-produced carbon copy) inside of all the packaging material. Once I finally got to the shift knob, this is what I saw:
Compared to the stock knob:
Another comparison:
Standard view of it installed in the car:
Side view, showing that the blued titanium is carried over into the grooves of the silver portion:
This thing makes shifting a joy compared to the stock shifter. I love feeling the little ridges on the length of the knob as it's in my hand, and it's easy to move your hand around on the half-sphere top portion (I do this a lot when double-checking I'm in neutral with my neutral wiggle back and forth). The added weight (a bit more than twice the stock shifter) makes the shifts feel even smoother as they find the gate I'm shifting into. It's also a lot better looking in person than I seem to be capable of capturing with my phone's camera.
In any case, I
highly recommend giving him a look, as his work is outstanding.
