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Engine turning


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51 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

I know at least one builder who's done very respectable engine-turning in 1/24-1/25 by hand, using a sharpened eraser. Very tedious, but possible.

I used to have a bunch of old Popular Mechanics and that tweaked a memory, though the modeler in question used an electric drill.  The man's nome was Allan Leohr, and the article was in the November '64 issue of Popular Mechanics.   He built models from scratch, and his material of choice was aluminum.   Here's a Google Books link to the article:   https://books.google.ca/books?id=PuMDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA135&lpg=PA135&dq="Popular+Mechanics"+"1964"+"Aluminum"+"models"&source=bl&ots=qbclqagyIA&sig=4BjVlMJlXp0qq6TYR7CKBjfgZHw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8_efQp6fbAhWEwYMKHStfAygQ6AEIRjAJ#v=onepage&q="Popular Mechanics" "1964" "Aluminum" "models"&f=false

 

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1 hour ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

I know at least one builder who's done very respectable engine-turning in 1/24-1/25 by hand, using a sharpened eraser. Very tedious, but possible.

I've done it using a Cratex polishing point in a Dremel, but as you say, it's quite tedious. And hard to keep even, straight, and neat looking. 

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Let's see if I still remember how to post a pic.

Engine turned aluminum firewall. I used a round toothpick mounted in a Dremel (with Dremel drill press fixture). The end of the toothpick was cut off square to the end and cleaned up. Dupont No. 7 compound was used for cutting. Another vote for tedious. This picture doesn't do it justice. Looks pretty good in person.

https://public.ch.files.1drv.com/y4mGM4VEyN9Qup2X69gl-9YxUFuRWH8ngfB5803IFvN-1IGucFttrHV2cM6Q7yag1EyzYIeE9qKA9m-W3YQrzMNEcro-IhsBEqeSwF53i3gtYN8FxQYP5_fQDmHaesGOMOMK8XMbardEkdHKPfHXiItyQ5zzmXSVa11kREmqdYX8Gx9HzxoUNWlT9v7VSLhUHvAAsHsNz3C_WYwXf9UOJG1mg/Img_2134c.jpg?psid=1

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I've been contemplating how to do this for a project I have going on (the Kurtis Sport Car has an engine turned dash). My thought is to find a good image online of a flat engine turned piece, size it appropriately, print it on to clear decal film, then apply that decal over thin metal or a Bare Metal Foiled piece.

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There was a scratchbuilding school article in the magazine some time ago (it was written by either Scott Colmer or Alyn Loya) that showed how it was done. It looked very tedious but the article went into detail on making the tool to do it and demonstrating how to use it on foil. I'll have to see if I can see which particular issue it was in, unless somebody beats me to it. 

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Since you mentioned Bugatti, here is a shot of an engine I am working on.  The engine turning is done with the wire brush in the photo.   I made it by taking brass tubing and stuffing it with stainless wire and super gluing it in place.  I then put it in my Sherline mill and had at it.  Tedious as all get out.  I had to stop frequently just to uncross my eyes.  

wire brush.jpg

clips test fit.jpg

Edited by Pete J.
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4 hours ago, Pete J. said:

Since you mentioned Bugatti, here is a shot of an engine I am working on.  The engine turning is done with the wire brush in the photo.   I made by taking brass tubing and stuffing it with stainless wire and super gluing it in place.  I then put it in my Sherline mill and had at it.  Tedious and all get out.  I had to stop frequently just to uncross my eyes.  

wire brush.jpg

clips test fit.jpg

Nice work.

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On 5/28/2018 at 12:50 AM, Alyn said:

...well, this one is one more try ...

Very nice.

On 5/28/2018 at 1:47 AM, RancheroSteve said:

I've been contemplating how to do this for a project I have going on (the Kurtis Sport Car has an engine turned dash). My thought is to find a good image online of a flat engine turned piece, size it appropriately, print it on to clear decal film, then apply that decal over thin metal or a Bare Metal Foiled piece.

Sounds very promising.

6 hours ago, Pete J. said:

Since you mentioned Bugatti, here is a shot of an engine I am working on.  The engine turning is done with the wire brush in the photo.   I made by taking brass tubing and stuffing it with stainless wire and super gluing it in place.  I then put it in my Sherline mill and had at it.  Tedious and all get out.  I had to stop frequently just to uncross my eyes.  

Very nice indeed. Being able to raise and lower the rotating brush precisely, and accurately advance and position the work on the mill table makes such evenly spaced results more consistently achievable. I'll have to give that a shot on my old Unimat.

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2 hours ago, landman said:

Anyone have an idea as to the actual size 1:1 of the swirls on a Bugatti engine?. I am going to attempt making my own decals. If that doesn't work I'll spring for one of Speedway Decal's sheets.

I'll save you some time.  No there is no standard size.  In fact there is no standard finish. When working on this engine I found thousands of photos out there.  Probably far more photos than actual engines were ever built.  There are four main finishes: Engine turned, scraped, dull metal and polished. I could not say that any one finish predominates.   Because engines and drive trains were often swapped from car to car as racers the only sure way to have it "correct" is to pick a specific example and use that for the entire model.  Having said that, it would be hard to argue with any choice you made.  I choose to use engine turning for aesthetics.  The vehicle this is going in, I have photos that show that, as well as a scraped finish and a plain metal finish.  

Edited by Pete J.
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I've seen a fair number of engine-turned parts in my time. We (a shop I worked for) once had a Hispano Suiza that had been owned by Valentino, with an entirely engine-turned aluminum body.

The usual diameter of the swirls I've seen could be anywhere from about 3/8" to 3/4" inch, with adjacent ones overlapping a bit.

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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