engine turning

as the ***le says engine turning for aluminum how do you do it??

tips tricks and pics anything would help all i do know is that it looks way cool

 

I used an Eastwood Kit on thin aluminum plate for my dash. Chucked it into a drill press...

 

Good info in here...

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=239042

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36927&highlight=dash

 

The hard part is indexing . It's very easy on a mill of course but more difficult on a drill press . You'll have to make a simple indexing jig of some sort or the pattern will look ****py . I can vouch for this first hand. Have beer and music at the ready as this stuff takes awhile to do .

 

Yup, Bob the Ferret's right. I used a small piece of angle iron, clamped to the drill table, and moved it a half an inch each time I started a new row. Used a machinists ruler to measure how much to slide the plate along the iron to do the next turning. Very time consuming, but like everything else, if you take the time to do it right it turns out nice. Practice on some s**** to get the feel for how much pressure to use...

 

cools thanks guys

 

Zach, I dug an old HAMB tech article out of my files.
From about 6 years back.

I'll put it up as a separate post in a few minutes.

 

Use Kroil in a spray can for lubricant(Kroil smells good). smere it around your area that your working on as you go. Otherwise you'll burn it and it'll look brown/burnt. You also have to dress the cray stick every 6-8 turns w/ sand paper. the 1" cray stick tends to concave out. Most important is patience...

 

I have used 1 in. scotchbrite pads with WD-40. The one advantage I had was I used a CNC mill to do my indexing. But the pads and the wd-40 worked pretty well.

 

a drill press, a wooden dowel, some chrome polish and a ****-load of patience.

 

I used Cratex rubberized abrasive rods (there are three grit levels identified by color and I used the brown ones). I cut a piece off about 2 inches long and chucked it in my drill press using a piece of stainless. As stated above the hard part is the jig. I made mine out of a piece of plywood with a piece of square stock tacked to it that I had marked off with evenly spaced lines. After each row was turned I repositioned the work to recenter the swirls half a swirl lower and offset a half-space to the upper row.

 

I wanted to try my hand at this on some door panels, any one use large diameter swirls like 2 or 3 inches? Does it look bad with larger patterns?

 

Here's some picts of the stuff I made for my car. It's easy, but it takes patience and time. I used a piece of angle Iron for a fence. I used craytex sticks chucked up in my drill press and 3 in 1 oil to lube area I was working on. I also had to dress the stick with sand paper every few minutes. I made the dash, door panels, shifter plate, and the console under the dash. Give a try on some small practice pieces first to perfect your technique.


http://www.myrideisme.com/FullImage/e9082007ea7c75813a03479c0d6da687.jpg/848/

http://www.myrideisme.com/FullImage/c9d4cb77528f767e1d8f06d7a070c53e.jpg/848/

http://www.myrideisme.com/FullImage/f4828b81db3cfa9fd5b75d5addfc41d4.jpg/848/

http://www.myrideisme.com/FullImage/f5807c09693aec9876b564e0f1536748.jpg/848/

 

I left out that I was engine turning Stainless Steel. I did my whole firewall on my Model A coupe.

I bought the kit from Eastwood, but I used the whole 2 Cray sticks. So I had to buy some more. I found this place in Downtown Los Angeles across from Farmer John Plant called Tool & Abrasive supply Inc. I bought the 1' cray sticks for $8.99 a piece in May 2008. Here's the website: www.toolandabrasive.com I don't know if they also sell the mandrel? Hope that helps??

 

What is the thinest gauge plate that you whould use? I want to make an inlay for my dash but, I want it as thin as possible. Whould it be easier to burn or distort.

 

I used to much pressure on my first try on some fairly light mirror finished SS and yes it will distort from the heat.