Engine turning

[ieezitin]

Hello

Does any of you out there have any suggestions on what to use for an engine turning tip/end tool, and any knowledge on speeds of the quill and lubricant.

Thanks in advance

Anthony.

[chucketn]

Just Google "Engine Turning", "damascening", or "Jeweling", lots of info out there. I have not found any particular speeds, most instructions call for experimenting on a scrap piece. I found folks using wire brushes, wood dowels, pencil erasers, scothbrite pads, valve grinding compound, felt pads and comertially made tools from Eastwood. One fella uses Craftex pads.
HTH.

Chuck

[stevec]

I "engine turned" a dash panel for my '62 Bug Eye sprite using a drill press at top speed and emery cloth glued to the end of a 3/4" dowel. I quickly learned that I needed 5 or 6 of these "burnishers" and dried them off and replaced the emery cloth pads often. I used water and detergent as a "cutting fluid" I spaced them by eye and kept at it 'til I was done. Then I toweled off my Dad's drill press well.
It looked pretty good but if I were to do it again I'd use the pre-mounted abrasive cloth bits that are now available and a rust preventative cutting fluid. I'd set it up in the mill and do precise spacing.
Just some thoughts, it ain't gonna happen again, for me.

[oldgoaly]

The Spirit of St. Louis was done with angle grinders and wire wheels.
A guide to keep you inline is very helpful, I used a small fine wire cup in my drill press, playing with jeweling on this vfd cover. It was a old scratched up piece so this hid the them.

[ieezitin]

Thanks to all very useful..

these looked interesting to me http://www.cratex.com/cratex-rubberized-...it-no-778/

it was a suggestion offered.

i played with the rubber ends that come with the plastic tube holders for endmills, it worked ok but not quite right. there's is a trick to it and I will nail it, will post my findings.

Anthony.

[stevec]

I have some CRATEX products, the ones I have loaded up real fast and eroded just as quickly, Just my experience from my typical
miss-use.

[Will_D]

(08-16-2014, 08:05 AM)ieezitin Wrote: Does any of you out there have any suggestions on what to use for an engine turning tip/end tool, and any knowledge on speeds of the quill and lubricant.

Engine turning is basically a form of abrasive lapping:

A soft material and an abrasive will abrade the harder material. The abrasive (like carborundum/emery/diamond paste) will embed into the softer material and so abrade the harder material.

So to engine turn stainless steel:

Mount a brass blank of desired size onto a shaft and secure in drill press. Use a carborundum or emery water or oil slurry on the work.

With the drill stopped just press down hard to embed some grains.

Turn on the drill and start making those little circles.

If your tool needs more abrasive then repeat the stop/press down to reload the tool as above.

Some people mistakenly think that if you fit felt pads to you chairs that will stop them from scratching your polished wooden floors.

By the above logic felt is the worst thing to fit to chair legs. The best would be polished, glass hard hi-carbon steel pads!

Hope this helps

Will

[PixMan]

I've used hardwood dowels and Clover lapping paste for engine turned finishes before. It came out great, but that was years ago and before people were in the habit of taking photos of work in progress. The material was an aluminum plate used to make a dashboard/instrument cluster for a Ford Model A.