Learning how to engine turn today

[David Hodgkins]

Today I am going out to visit a man I met on the Internet.


No, it's not as crazy as it sounds. I was surfing the Internet to find examples of engine turning, or jeweling, which is the process of creating patterns on top of metal. The most common example involves using a drill press and a jig (or CNC machine) to spin a pattern but this guy does complex curved surfaces so I'm going to go watch and learn.

Pics (hopefully) soon!

:)

[Ray]

I used to jewel my own rifle bolts and small panels using a drill press and various items. Remember those hard pencil like "ink erasers?" They worked great on the rifle bolts....

It's not difficult but you have to remember your pattern/overlap. Just have fun with it.....

Ray

[David Hodgkins]

Today I learned the secret:
http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=28777&d=1399298622

This guy has a technique that blew my mind. He's been doing it for 20 years and when he showed me how it is done I was just...

I'm talking too much already. Now I want to engine turn the whole engine bay. Or maybe I'll do the whole trunk.

Wow.

:)

[68GT500MAN]

That looks great David. Can I send my firewall down to Hodgkins Metal Art?
Doug

[David Hodgkins]

Doug, I'm going to start gearing up this week. Who knows, maybe I can become a supporting vendor. :D

One thing he did tell me is that you want to start with a polished surface in order to get the diamond pattern to "pop".

:)

[skullandbones]

Hey,

What happened between post 3 and 4. I can't see dead people and I can't see a pic either. I am logged in. WEK.

[CHOTIS BILL]

I started to do an engine turned dash for the type 65 but found PDM Metals a company that specializes in that type of product. I sent them a DXF file of what I wanted and they sent me back a finished dash with all the holes and bent flanges where I wanted them in .030 engine turned stainless for $240 delivered and I couldn't be happier with it.

Bill Lomenick

[David Hodgkins]

Well, as you can tell by my avatar, I completed my first test panel with my new jig.

I ran into a few problems while testing:

The part moved.
The drive cable that was attached to the motor gave way.


I didn't clamp the board down that I had mounted the panel on prior to Jeweling! Oops! I was too eager to try the jig out. I won't make that mistake again.
You can tell by looking at the panel below that the pattern is not perfect. I tried to match the original position but it's really hard to find the EXACT original position!

Another thing you might notice is that the swirls are not consistent. That's because I had a weak link in the system: The motor drives a cable that turns at 1750RPM. The small square cable - it's a speedo cable - was attached to the motor's output shaft with JBWeld. The JBWeld gave way during the test so that I couldn't press as hard as I had for the first 1/2 of the panel. It finally gave way completely, bringing the test to a halt. I fixed that problem after getting some forum help and now the motor has a deeper hole for the cable to plunge into and it is constrained with a set screw that I drilled and tapped into the motor shaft.

Here's the test panel. I plan on using the jig to create a jeweled firewall so I put the piece in a place that allows me to image what a much bigger part would look like:
http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=32140&d=1407174409

I'll be cutting up this piece to use as a bevel for my 5-gauge cluster on my dash. I'll post pics of that when it's installed.

One thing I found out along the way is that you want to perform the Jeweling on a polished panel. The swirls "pop" a lot nicer. And it still takes some time to do the panel, although the technique is a LOT faster than using a drill press!

I'll be doing a few more smaller pieces before I try the two big pieces, which are the firewall and dash. I have an extra dash from my 1st build that I can't wait to try this on.

Bill, I'm curious to see what your stainless dash looks like. Do you have a pic?

:)