engine turning; jeweling...

T

T. Hendrickson

Joined
Sep 18, 2003
Messages
138
How do you do it?
there was recntly a thread on this at ckd forums but I want to hear your methods and ideas.
Thanks for any input.

th
 
but I will make a suggestion here that you get or make up some kind of xy table for your drill press.

Get a dowel of the diameter you want the finished turning to be (approx), and cut a length off about 4 inches (enough to hang out of your chuck by about an inch or little more). make sure your cut is straight 90 to the side of the dowel or you will get some odd results. Then glue a small piece of leather (whatever you have on hand in a 5 ounce or thicker should be fine) with the smooth side down toward the work. Dab the end of the dowel in valve lapping compound, (depending on the metal you are working you may need a more course/fine compound) and have at it.

Your overlap from one jewel to the next can be judged by eye, but approximately 30% is a good figure for you to start with, and you can always use a test piece of the same material to judge for yourself.

I have done aluminum this way on some of my bike stuff with great results, and some I knwo have done this with stainless as well.

Just keep in mind that the smaller the dowel you use the longer the work will take, and it gets tedious really quick.

Hope this helps,

Doc
 
If you just want to try it out you can even use a pencil and eraser, coat the eraser with an abraisive and spin it as described above...you will soon find the drill press is the way to go. I bought a few jeweling "tools" from I think Brownells http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/Home/default.aspx , and got a couple with my Dremel set. Just a "bit" with short fine wires (like a wire brush). Chuck it up, apply an abraisive, and move it over 33 to 50 percent.

Do not push too hard, let the abraisive do the work. Also put melt some tubular shrink wrap around the wires to keep them nice and tight (or some good tape).
 
I use a Brownell's jeweling device. It is a solid piece of steel with a brass sleeve that slids in and out, and hold a piece of 1/4" Cratex rod. Moderately fast speed on the drill press, do one, half overlap the next, next, etc. Start a new row and do the same thing.
I prefer the liner to be at least a 400 grit or Beartex fine finish.

When I got it, it came with 4 pieces of Cratex rod and to the best of my memory, 10 years later I still haven't had to order any more.

Edited to add,
Bruz,
Looks like we posted at the same time. The one I have is like this
http://www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=8870&title=DAMASCENING+TOOL
 
Is that from the tediousness of doing it, or are the rods just that good?

I do most things on the cheap, but that certainly doesn't mean it is the only way. I just can't afford all that stuff, but it is fun to look at and try to design something that works well and for less than 10 bucks......

Doc
 
Doc,
It would be easy to make one similiar to this one and the 1/4" Cratex rod is easy to find.
 
Most machine shop supply stores will carry cratex in varying widths. Most knife suppliers carry it in only 1/4" or thinner. I like it much thicker. You just buy it (I like 1/2" - 3/4" diameter), stick it in your Drill press, maybe wrap the base in maqsking or electrical tape or even just paper. Tighhten the press and then jewel according to what you like. It looks best ofcourse how you usually see it with each circle overlapping eachother just a bit. I alos like the coarse grits because they are more prominent than tha lighter grits when jeweling. Like a nice engine turned finish. Like this...
 
Thanks guys!

I will have to look into the cratex rods before I start anything again. Too busy right now trying to get my forge building up. The wife is gripeing because she can't put anything else in my way in the garage, and the neighbors don't like all the smoke from the coal forge when I use it on the patio.....LOL.

I keep telling myself "SOOOOOOOONNNNN"

Impatience makes the walls go up faster!

Doc
 
Originally posted by Doc Hollywood

...and the neighbors don't like all the smoke from the coal forge when I use it on the patio...
Click to expand...

Hey Doc, have you tried charcoal? I was taught to forge with coal and used it many years. Then on a whim I started playing around with charcoal. Now I won't use anything else when I'm not using propane.
 
very intersting.
I'm dying to try this.. first chance I get.
Doc your method sounds like a good one for me the tightwad. if I get serious about it, I'll get some better tools maybe.

So should I Put the fence on the drill press table to make them straight? What abrasive do you use? Iv heard you could use toothpaste for this.
 
Clover brand from Napa works really good. If the steel is super hard then you can try it with just the dowel. Either way it should work.

The leather method works great on aluminum, and yes I would use the fence. If you keep things uniform the jeweling looks better.

I am planning on trying charcoal in the near future and have plans on making a small charcoal furnace for making the stuff on the cheap. Lindsay books has some great books on metal casting, and I am using the machine shop from junk set to start with and making the equipment that I cannot afford to buy. It may not be the biggest stuff, but I don't machine big stuff anyway. The charcoal foundry book is worth the cost of the set. They have another book on making charcoal that one old timer uses to make charcoal for a coupola furnace, and says it works better than the junk at the store. He even says the exhaust from the wood burning can be filtered into fuel to run a generator or keep the fire going.

I figure after reading the Revolutionary Blacksmith books on anvilfire that charcoal may be a cleaner (and cheaper) way to go so my neighbors don't complain about the foul smoke.

Did I stray off the subject?

Doc
 
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