Engine Turning advice

nick daring

Master Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
I have a project that needs the cool engine turned finish. Like this-

engineturn-1.jpg


Anybody have experience in getting that look with just a benchtop drill press?

I want about 1 in. circles on my piece.

Nick
 
You may want to check out www.eastwoodco.com. They have both 1” and ½” diameter turning kits for around thirty bucks. They also have pre-machined sheets available.
-John
 
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Cool stuff. I only need to make 2 swirls and woudl love to find a home brew recipe that looks good.

I've read a little about using steel wool or sand paper strapped to a wooden dowel and would love to hear any other firt hand accounts.

Nick
 
I don’t see why you couldn’t take a wooden dowel like you said and put a bolt through the center. Probably would be best to counter sink it so you would have a straight flush area on one end. You could then take say 1000 or 1500 grit wet/dry sand paper and adhere it to some fairly dense foam rubber material. Then cut out your 1-inch disks and adhere one to the end of your dowel. Chuck it up to the bolt that was placed through the dowel and you should be ready to make some swirls. Hope this makes sense. Might have to give this a try when I get home from work.
-John
 
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I have limited response time as I am on the tail end of my break at work, but I thought I had heard of someone using scotch brite disks in a drill. Get the drill up to speed and then hit the metal (secured obviously) in the spot where you want the swirl, remove and repeat.
 
Scotchbrite will absolutely work (I assume we are talking about aluminum here) though the outer edge is sometimes not as crisp as you might like.
 
Velcro backed sandpaper on a foam backup pad. 180 grit -320 depending on how deep you want them. I made a 1 inch diameter velcro backing plate that I used a cut sponge interface pad(3M) then cut some 1 inch sand paper discs, put it in a drill and was able to duplicate the finish perfectly
 
First time posting...

Anyway, try the air grinding tool aisle at your local hardware store. they have a disc/pad that has scotchbrite type stuff on it that will get you a similar look. mount it on a handheld drill or use the air tool. gl!
 
You can do it with 3M Roloc pads
GetThumbNail.aspx

They come in a couple of dia. and will chuck in to a drill press.
Then you can tape card stock to the backside of your work piece. Flip that work piece to the finish side and mark your spacing so it ends up even. Practice with some scrap to test how much pressure and time you need to get the look you want.
 
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