Art & Inspiration The History and Art of Engine Turned Material - Lets See Yours

Now that's a tach!

 

I wrap tape around a fine wire brush to keep it from flaring out then grind the face flat. Can resharpen if needed. Been doing it for 30 years and even sold some panels. Works on stainless or aluminum, polished is best

 

I did this on stainless steel with a half-inch Cratex. I was going to put in a 3-3/8" hole in the middle for a tach, with an oil pressure gauge on the left and a water temperature gauge on the right in 2-1/16" holes, but I'm going to have to start over because it is a half inch too deep for the overhead console I've crafted for my '29AA. I may use this for my engine stand, or send it on its way to someone who needs it later.

 

@osage orange I have this if you're interested, I just finished this one.
11" long
7 1/2" tall ( at its peak in the center)
Center hole 3 3/8" for a standard tach or speedo

 

Thanks for the offer, Speed-On, but I made an engine-turned panel 5-3/8" deep for a console that is less than 4" deep, so I've got to go in the opposite direction. Just gives me an excuse to play with the drill press and Cratex again. Practice makes perfect, or good enough for my purposes.
By the way, what are you guys using for a hole saw? I just used bi-metal, and it doesn't hold up very well to stainless 14-gauge. Anyone using diamond-tipped?

 

Carbide. Low speed, heavy pressure, lots of cooling oil.

 

Thanks, David. I use pipe threading oil and it helps.

 

This one sure doesn't look like it was done by hand...a bit too perfect. I think it was from the 1980's.

 

I had a fellow hot rodder and HAMBer stop bye my place as he's looking to have some panels engine turned. He's building a '40 Ford coupe and with nice weather quickly approaching he's looking to make some progress on his build.

Here are the 3 panels.







It's difficult to see in the photos, but these panels are a little rough. I pulled out my buffer as I wanted to start with the smoothest and shinest surface possible.

The weather was decent enough today and I was able to buff one panel before the cold air and flurries began.





Cleaning the buffing compound out of the holes




This particular aluminum is pretty hard. Also, it was difficult to get the panel as smooth as I'd prefer which made engine turning this panel a little more challenging than most. Because of these two factors it made my Cratex stick far more susceptible to scaring, which in turn wants to make burn marks in the swirls.
It's a balancing act, you allow the stick to have contact with the aluminum juuust long enough to make a nice swirl, but not too long or it will create an ugly "burnt swirl". The challenge with this piece is the aluminum is so hard I had to slightly increase the contact time or the swirl would be too light and looks faded......too long and you'll create a burnt swirl. Walkin' a fine line.







This is as far as I could get today. 2 more panels to go.

 

Looks great. I have an aluminum lump of column drop I have been meaning to polish and turn. Waiting for better weather, it’s too cold and rainy here for running the buffer in the driveway, and it makes too much mess to run it in the garage.

 

My dad and I engined turned some steel for my Rambler's center console

 

I didn't review every reply or example but there's some groovy stuff here (pun intended). I always liked the tighter pattern, like a bunch of crowns visually. 1/2 circle down, 1/2 circle over. 1/3 works too. I think industrially multiple arbors were used and the whole panel was only moved 2 or 3 times to whatever square footage was being done, vs 1 arbor, 1 guy, 1 machine but we gotta do what we gotta do. I always used cut scotchbrite pads, red for stanless, grey for aluminum, penetrant for lube and pad life.

 

I also engine turned the leatherman I use daily, sometimes when working on my Rambler.

 

Nice work guys

 

Onto the next panel today. The surface was quite rough so I took off a layer of aluminum so I had a smooth surface to work with. Then onto the buffer, then a good polish.

Once that was complete it was time to do some engine turning.

After I worked the panel for a while I took a photo of it next to the 3 hole panel which I have not started preparing yet. It may be difficult to appreciate in photos but these panels definitely require some prep work.










I think this one turned out a bit nicer. Far less issues as the extended time spent preparing the panel sure paid off during turning.

Onto the next one soon.

 

Well after some snow yesterday, today brought warmer temps and sun. Since it was so mild I was able to pull my buffing wheel out to the driveway (pretty messy) so I let that crap fling outside.
This last panel needed a lot of prep work. After a lot of sanding, buffing and polishing it was ready.




Initially I was a little concerned this panel wasn't going to turn out well. As I laid the first row I knew it was going to come out nice.






In the end I was really happy with the results.





Hopefully our fellow HAMBer and hot rodder will be pleased with the results.

 

Since I was working on gauge panels today, I also
finished this one.




Now to list it for sale

 

Quite some time ago a friend laser cut some dash panels for me in exchange for engine turning some items for him. He used several materials for the dash panels such as stainless steel, aluminum and copper. The copper dash panels really caught my eye when he dropped them off as they looked amazing in their raw form. They are quite thick as well. He was anxious for me to engine turn a copper dash as he was convinced it would look amazing. For some reason I was a bit skeptical as I was thinking the swirls would be dull and give more of a brushed look.

Fast forward over a year to today. They say idle hands are the Devils playground. This afternoon I was bored and looking for something to do. There, hanging in my garage was a rack of dash panels that have sat for far too long. I pulled out my buffing wheel and polished one of the copper dash panels



Initially I had no intention of engine turning the panel but curiosity got the best of me. I decided to run a few rows of test swirls on the backside of the dash; if it looked terrible I could easily sand it off and buff it to a shiny finish.


I sent a txt to @fleetside66 looking for his opinion. His response was, "Are you crazy?? of course you should engine turn it"

So under the drill press it went...


As I made the first few passes I was surprised as to how great it was beginning to look. I made several observations as well. 1) This thick copper was a very friendly material to engine turn. Sometimes certain materials do not take well to being turned. Also, the stick can influence the outcome. The medium grit stick was perfect. 2) I was wrong (and glad I was) as the swirls were not a dull brushed look, but rather a beautiful shiny swirl that looked very nice (and similar to the type of swirl I'm accustomed to seeing when turning stainless steel).



I was rather ecstatic with the end result. I must say engine turned copper looks AMAZING! I'm kinda chuckling as this panel has been hanging in my garage for over a year as I was apprehensive to engine turn it. It's one of those instances where you say, "I should have done this sooner". At any rate I have more of these copper panels, some of which are modeled after the vintage Stewart Warner 5 hole Navigator dash and accept the larger 2 5/8" gauges.

 

1952 MG

 

A very long time ago I read an article in a magazine about home engine turning dash panels, so I ran out and bought a handful of Cratex sticks and, being young and impatient, I free-handed an aluminum gauge panel for my ’33 5W. It came out ok, but I didn’t want to do it again.
Fast forward to a year or so ago and my 215 Buick powered ‘57 Morris woody desperately needed a dashboard redo. I’m older and wiser (lazier?) now, so I just ordered up some pre-turned material and went with that. It’ll do.

In the car with the rechromed wooden wheel….

 

TJ that looks fantastic, I don't know if I have the patience to engine turn, but this makes makes me want to give it a go.

 

Thank you @e1956v I can tell you that you certainly have the patience to engine turn. Repairing gauges is a far more detailed and tedious task.
I have a hot rod friend that lives in another state. This past Winter he wanted to try engine turning so I gave him a quick tutorial via Messanger. He practiced for about a day, after that he was ready. He has a very nice steel 1932 Ford 3 window coupe with Ardun heads. He was so impressed with the beautiful results of engine turning that he turned his firewall, dash, radiator, door panels and a host of other parts on the car. Point being, once you see how great it looks, you will be hooked.

Once you start laying the rows, it goes pretty fast. I engine turned that copper dash in about 20 minutes. The most time consuming part is repositioning your guide after each row.

With your talents, Rusty you would have this down after turning a few practice pieces.

 

How hard was it to make your guide? Have any pointers?

 

@e1956v

I made this guide with an 8" long scrap 2x4. I bent a piece of metal that creates a gap (j channel) between the piece you're engine turning and the guide.

This gap allows you to lay your first (top) row and allows the Cratex stick to hang over the top edge of your piece.


In this photo you can see where the gap is important. You don't want the tip of your Cratex stick to come in contact with anything else while laying your top row.



I cut a piece of metal and screwed it to the top of the 2x4. I use vice grips to clamp my guide to my drill press. After you lay each row, you have to release the guide and line up your next row. This is why some people dislike the work involved in engine turning as it's a time consuming/tedious process. I however do not mind it, I enjoy the time in my garage. Turn on your XM radio and enjoy the work.






I recently engine-turned copper...and it looks quite amazing.

 

Here is a dash I've been working on the past month. Vintage aviation and hot rods have many parallels so I thought I'd make a WWII inspired dash. All these gauges work great and are ready for someone's hot rod.












@kadillackid @Scramboleer @Squablow @fleetside66

 

@Speed~On Thanks TJ, I appreciate you taking the time to answer and demo.

 

Loving that copper, great work and photos, thanks Speed-On...

 

I'll second that on the copper.. and I'm assuming you have to have a lighter touch?