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

Cratex is the name you’re looking for ‘Beaner.


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First attempt, got sanded down over the weekend, prepping it for second attempt.

For the Cratex stick, a piece of brass tubing is a perfect fit for the 3/8” stick, and the drill press chuck keeps it from slipping.



I found that 1/4” of stick out was about perfect.


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I did these for my 32 sedan. Dash and kick panels. I prefer 50% overlap horizontal and vertical. 1" cratex

If you want to spend the entire day on the drill press,with most of that cross-eyed, nothing looks quite as beautiful.

Here's an action video.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bnup-e2HyHZ/

 

Turn your piece first, then cut your holes. The edges are hard on the Cratex stick.



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The car I learned to drive in. '63 Impala SS w/ 327, power glide. Absolutely gorgeous car and covered inside and out with factory engine turnings.

 

Mab

Maybe Able was 'turning his vegetable wheelbarrow and Cain got jealous and knocked him off?

 

Almost done with this project.



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You guys are doing great! Thanks for sharing your projects.

A few of my recent projects.

 

There is "engine turned" vinyl wrap in a variety of colors and pattern sizes, I used some on my truck instrument cluster. It simulates the look but in no way approaches the beauty of examples shared in this thread.

 

I can see where the old Bridgeport would come in quite handy when lining up and carrying straight rows. My gramps old 30/06 deer rifle is a sporterized WWI P-17 Enfield, had the big "ears" machined off the receiver, custom barrel and stock, and the round bolt is engine turned- yeah, it's purty

 

REDNECK ENGINEERING

Piece of aluminum roof flashing laminated (conact cement) on a piece of 3/8" lexan. Built jig board for the drill press marked every 1/2" (top & sides). used a 1/2" dowel with a piece of 0-0 steel wool on the end, held on with a small hose clamp. Cheap and easy

 

Dash insert in my '62 Ford unibody:




Insert in my '32 5 window:


Both are 1/2" diameter swirls. Always liked the look of engine turned parts.

SPark

 

This is a stainless drink bottle that I decided to use as an overflow tank for my roadster. I peeled off the plastic wrap that was on it and then free handed some swirls on it. Didn't come out to badly I think.

 

Hey guys ( @GordonC @LM14 @hotrodjack33 @David Gersic @51farmtruck ) thank you for participating in this thread and sharing your work. Your stuff looks great! As you know, engine turning is a lot of fun. Yeah, it can be a little time consuming, but that is part of the fun. It's nice to be out in the garage with the radio on making something that is going to look killer when finished. Here are some other panels I have completed recently.





I will be in the garage doing some more engine turning today as I have a few more gauge panels I want to do. I will probably sell them when they're finished.

@MeanGene427 Yep, a Bridgeport would work great for this. I have my floor mount drill press pictured on the first page of this thread. I will take some photos of the "jig" I made. It allows me to make straight passes.

 

Looks good. I have a couple more turning projects I’m slowly working on here.



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Today, it’s too cold for garage work, and snowing, so spent some time in the basement turning.



Will go behind my rear license plate on my ‘37, which kinda hangs out in space over the tail light and fender.



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You don’t need much fancy equipment to turn. Just a drill press and some scrap wood to make a table.



Yard stick and a couple of clamps to keep the lines straight. Pencil and ruler for measuring row offsets.

This one was 3/4” horizontal x 3/4” vertical and a 3/8” offset on each row.



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My 32 dash done in stainless with a 1/2" Cratex stick in the drill press with a yard stick as a guide and 1/4" overlap.

 

1928 Chrysler panel I put in my Model A cabriolet


Dodge did a different turning pattern in 1933-34 that I find attractive. I was planning to use it in my cabriolet before I found the Chrysler panel, so I used the dash panel for wood graining practice.

 

And a killer set of Stewart Warner 2 5/8", smooth bezel, crescent needle, curved glass front mount gauges. Very nice!
That's how it's done.

 

This is a really cool thread. Thanks guys

 

It must be something in the water in Wisconsin...amazing.

 

This is "faux" engine turning but it was a factory finish. This dash is out of a Studebaker Hawk, it was quite a bit more attractive (to me) than the stock 53 Champion dash. It needs to be dusted, just got the side windows installed last week View attachment 4608594

 

the bottom of a 34 ford dash is not flat, so i made this little panel to fit the contour. started with a piece of stainless i had saved from scraping an early 50's greyhound bus years ago, gotta have era correct parts ya know! i did the wire brush method, with motor oil learned off a youtube video. in my experimental piece i marked off 1/2" increments, then tried two different size brushes just freehand aiming for the cross hairs. for the project i chose the smaller brush, about a 1/2" diameter when tied up, and used my bridgeport to do 1/4" travel, or half overlap. not sure, do you guys always start from the same side? i did not, i would go left to right, move down, then right to left so i did not loose my place on the mill. once i had it trimmed to size there was some remains of magic marker in spots from the layout and i could not find any chemical in the shop that would completely remove it, so be careful of that. i wish i had some nicer gauges, but overall i am happy with the project

 

Speed-On You do beautiful work. I read that the engine turned cowl on Lindbergh's plane was done with a rotary wire brush on an angle head grinder. The cowl material might have been aluminum rather than stainless. Greg

 

For a dash insert size project, what diameter stick is most appropriate? Also what grit for aluminum v/s what grit for stainless? Can I assume using the Cratex stick on stainless, it will wear down much quicker? How much quicker? The smaller the diameter, and the larger the overlap, the more tedious the project will become.....when doing a close to minimum overlap (both horizontal and vertical) will it still look good?
Thanks, if someone answers!

 

The "Hollywood" engine-turned dash by Stewart Warner was standard factory equipment on all Muntz Jets from 1950-1953. Originally equipped with their 6 volt winged gauges, this one (not mine) has been "updated" ...

 

i am no expert, but i can elaborate on my little project a bit. i chose the wire brush because i had some in stock, no waiting. i think it worked good, the brush did not seem to change pattern, so not much wear i assume. the oil keeps it from wearing but also makes a black oily puddle at the work site, so hard to see unless you keep wiping it off. i didnt wipe to check very often because i read the dial on the mill instead of free hand onto a grid pattern layout. another method on youtube the guy wiped oil all over the part, then sprinkled sand blast material evenly around the part with like a pepper shaker, then used a wooden dowel for the tool. the theory is every time you move over you are landing on a new supply of grit to keep the pattern the same. my little two gauge panel took about two hours at 1/4" moves, so i can appreciate the effort the guys put into large parts

 

There’s no hard and fast rules, experiment to see what you like.

Here’s my 37 dash insert



1/4” row x 1/4” column spacing, 1/8” offset for each row. Using a 3/16” coarse Cratex stick, with a piece of brass tube from the hardware store to keep the tip from wandering. RPM on the drill press was 800. Lubed the panel with WD40. About 2 seconds on each pull of the handle.

I had about 1/8” sticking out of the tube, and had to readjust it every couple of rows.

I tried the medium Cratex first, but it didn’t make enough pattern on stainless. It’d probably be better on aluminum.

The license plate backer I just did



I used a 3/4” steel brush restrained by heat shrink tube, 1750 RPM, about three seconds per pull, and no lube. The brush spread a bit, I probably could have restrained it tighter, but I think it came out ok.

Before committing to a good piece, turn some scrap. You don’t have to measure closely or even have much prep, just play around with your abrasive, speed, pressure, and time to see what makes a nice pattern.

For the good piece, in stainless, I sanded first with a random orbit for the major smoothing, then 800 and 1000 wet by hand with a block to an almost mirror shine.



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