TECH!!!! Engine Turning at home on a budget!!!!

So i came up with this a few years back when i was unemployed and working full time on my model t, thanks to the guys on here that planted the idea with their old tech articals on this stuff...

So engine turning doesnt need to be an expensive accent, truthfully this cost me around $10 for some tape, a wood dowel a hand full of hack saw blades and a ton of elbow grease.

Now if you look at many of the high end coachbuilt cars of the 1920's and racers thru the 1960's you'll notice much of the time the turning is hand done and never perfect, so dont worry about it if you dont get it perfect

Here is how I did it for my model T, the dash insert is a 1930 caddy dash i scored cheap at a swap meet

 

First off, i went over to my workbench and chucked up a piece of 1/2" dowel into my drill press conversion setup

A good smearing of rouge to the dowel to aid in cutting (i got it at the local lowes)

 

So i used a piece of scrap and came up with a good pattern, while also breaking in the dowel

Also notice i have a 1"x1/2" peice of tube tacked to a piece of 1/4" plate in the second picture? That will help keep all the rows inline, as for keeping the columns inline, it's pretty easy to eyeball it, not perfect mind you, but close.

Also note the fresh burn on my forarm, 2 years later and it is still there and reminds me of this project, Stainless steel can get hot when cutting it, belive it or not......

 

Now on to the real material, this is scrap 304SS that was thrown away at my dad's work

Also you need to make sure that it isnt deeply scratched b/c they will show through, after every row i move the stop something like 1/2"( i can throw a tape measure on it if you want)

Dont forget to apply a little rouge here and there

 

And 1600 swirls later.......

Now i made a made a template off of the old faceplate to fit my dash, covered it with tape to prevent scratching and went to town with a hack saw

 

Now laid out to fit S/W's, More hack saw work with a ton of die grinder to finish the holes... Btw the dash was all o/a welded to and going to be leaded.....

 

All in and pretty, and the dash is leaded too so the cluster flares out 1/2"

 

Btw.... these are a few years old, but a little teaser....

Full house, smoothed block, traditionally built 283, 32 rails w/'40 crossmember in the middle, 2"channel, '62 t-10, frankand q/c with truck bells, dropped'n fillied '40 axle, oh and the brakes.... thats gunna be anouther story for anouther day, it's now setup with 45 fin buick drums cut to fit '39 hubs up front and frankland hubs in the rear....

Oh, and the other heaps are my dads cars.

 

Nice, work dude

 

it's been a while since i seen that done, ya gotta watch the drill speed & keep the dowel short or it will dance,

 

This is how my dad did his dash. Looks great and beats spending $150 for an "engine turned" dash plate. . .

 

looks great! use a hardwood dowel so it won't break.

 

Thats how I did mine except I used 1 inch wire brush with hose clamp on it to keep it,from flareing out.

 

I did 1" also...Started out on a stainless piece with 1/2", (thought it was more 'in proportion' to the size of the F100 dash insert)

The 1" circles overlap, and classic WWl aircraft that featured engine turning seemed to lean toward larger swirls. But Shaggy hit it right on, 1/2" is proportional here, with the displacement of the gauges and limited size of field.

My F100 has a piece that spans the entire width of the dash, so 1" was good for the mass.
Dash cluster swirls are 1/2", S/W speedo and four 2-1/8" gauges fill the insert smartly.
Wondered when someone was gonna give up the secrets....

 

Thats looks great, nice job. Im gona try a panel and shoot sum kandy over it, see how it turns out, thanks for the info!

 

nice work! Cutting stainless steel sucks, but the end result look great.

 

Nice work Shaggy!!

 

Cool thread. I've never worked stainless, so can someone answer my dumb questions?;
• You just apply cutting compound to the dowel wood?
•Cutting stainless is a bitch. Recommend any particular hacksaw blade? Use cutting compounds/ oil/ ?
Thanks

 

I would never have tried this but glad you showed up with this tip. Gonna get used here , thanks

 

Yup, the rouge has a cosistancy of a crayon, so i just hit the bottom of the dowel with it while it was spinning

The best way in my garage to cut SS would be a grinder with a cutoff wheel, I used a hack saw because it was late at night and i have neighbors, and also i was afraid to cut too much as for oil the only thing i used was some wax on the blade.....

 

That looks great! I made mine out of aluminum, I used a 1/2'' dowel with a 3/4'' felt pad that had a adhesive material on one side, I used a medium compond on it.

 

I love any tech that involves a hacksaw

 

Didn't think of doing this on Stainless... I like that!

I've done this on aluminum and watched it oxidize away after a few short years

 

On aluminum, I've used a dowel with a chunk of red Scotchbrite, the pattern isn't too deep but it looks cool.

My dad used to do it with a reddish plastic-y looking 1/2" dowel... I was like 8 or 9 so I don't know what it was. He put some lapping compound (I remember the name of that) on it and made a jig to keep the lines straight... He made mud guards out of sheet aluminum to make them match the dash of our brand new '73 Gremlin X...

Yes, I was raised dork.

 

I feel robbed, I wanted to see a few completed pics of it with gauges outside with sunlight shining on it Nice job, great thread, thanks for posting.

 

What a great tech thread that just about anyone on here can actually use and do in his/her own shop at home and not need 25K worth of industrial equipment to accomplish.

The cool part is that my son works with stainless every day of the week and can cut it for me or one of my buddies can easily cut out any pattern I can come up with.

Thanks.

 

I have always wanted to try this. I may do it now. Thanks !!!!

 

great job, looks awesome, i learned alot from this tech, i can't wait to get started on mine!
thank you so very much

 

I've cut many feet of stainless with Starret hacksaw blades. Pricier than others, but the stainless doesn't knock the teeth off like cheap blades.

 

I agree. But the sad part is when I go to a show, or see someones ride with an engine turned anything, I assume it was purchased. Sad reality of the exploitation of cool shizz..

GREAT WORK! I can certainly appreciate it!