Hey gang- lots of folks asking why I didn’t use the casting to hold the sheet metal for buffing. The reason is that I have about 30 hours of work in that expensive casting and I was not willing to risk it by using it that way. If the mop knocked it out of my hands, I’d be out a whole lot more than a few character marks. You’re free to do it however you like though.
Plus the screws sticking out are a huge danger for catching the mop. I might have use a small rotary tool with small mops to lessen the danger, but hindsight is too easy for the peanut gallery. Can't wait for your next installment.
would a 3d printed cylinder replica have helped? I supposed you'd still need to fasten it, thus the tiny bolts which would still be no good on the buffing wheel.
Not only would the bolt heads catch the buffing wheel, it would keep you from buffing up to the edge of the bolt heads. If you get a chance, check out Cold War Motors on TH-cam. They are in Western Canada somewhere. Scott restored a 1960 Plymouth 2 door. It had TONS of stainless steel molding. He had straightened all of it. You probably won't do a lot of this kind of work, but his videos might teach you some about sheet metal work.
Quinn - you did a fantastic job on that tricky brass sheetmetal part. I had my heart in my throat as you were polishing it - since the intro informed me that something was going to 'go south'. Nevertheless, it came out very well in the end. Congratulations!
Like Ron said, I was concerned about the buffing after seeing the intro. I’ve been down that road more than once. And since it is the last step on a piece, you look at the hours spent and cry a little tear when that happens.
I love your dramatic-irony format where we know the disaster from the start -- it makes me really pay attention to each step as I try to guess what will go wrong.
That’s exactly where they are from! Only just retired my Micronta multimeter that I bought around the same time. 😁 I miss that old iteration of RadioShack
@@Clough42 I was mighty sad when mine finally died beyond repair. I guess I got a nice new Fluke instead, but the Micronta had character and was good to me for 30 years! RadioShack used to make some good stuff.
Nice job recovering from the polishing wheel boo-boo. 😀 One of the many things I like in your videos is that you show us the whole, honest story of the build, both the good stuff and the not-so-good stuff that happens.
I'm going to show this to my Dad. About 20 years ago he made me a candle lantern out of sheet copper. Imagine a short cardboard milk carton with windows cut in it, so it really is a flat bottom and steep roof top with just angle-irons for the corners. He was doing the final buffing when, what do you guess happened? He straightened it out mostly, but you can tell it. I told him that when you get that good of a result from the first prototype, you've done really good. He felt a little better about it, then. I'll show him this video to show him he's not the only one.
A friend at work was asked if he could polish a Silver tea set on the buffing wheel. It went well till the wheel grabbed the tea pot spout and ripped the pot out of his hands. There was no tapping out the dents. Buffing wheels need a lot of respect.
Beautiful job on the lagging! The polished brass really matches the paint as well. What a gorgeous job! A friend of mine, John York, is a big fan of you. He's a retired machinist and has said there are so many hack big name "machinists" on TH-cam, but you are not one of them. You REALLY know what you're doing and do an outstanding job of explaining everything you're doing as well as owning your mistakes. If you're a fan of steam engines you may recognize his name... He designed, made the patterns for, and built the "York" Marine compound, now available from Elliot Bay.
You could machine that cover out of a solid piece of metal and then just fill the inside with bismuth and finish the outside, then melt the bismuth away and then you have a sheet in one solid piece. When I had a shop years ago that was the method I used for such parts such as this one. Once the inside of the part is machined you have to refill it to make it a solid before you can machine the outside. Nice work Quinn.
We have all done this, put in 20+ hrs on a part only to make a small mistake with the final stage! Very nice save. You are correct, buffing wheels are hungry beasts that can eat a part, and your hand, in a nanosecond. Great job and you mandrel for drilling the holes was very clever.
So I've noticed that literally every Friday night I have a moment before going to bed where I think, "oh awesome, new Blondihacks video tomorrow!" You're easily one of my two favorite channels, alongside Stuff Made Here, but you also post every week! I'm going to be extremely prepared whenever I have space and funds to finally get a mill and lathe. My students love your videos too! I teach math, but used to teach shop, and your videos do a great job of showing one of many ways in which some math skills can be useful to their interests. Edit: the tip about cutting holes in thin sheet stock with an end mill is great! I might get a set of cheap end mills for our drill press at work. We do often use thin sheet stock with the kids, and that lifting is a real problem.
A tip from a jeweler to a machinist, when you scratch metal you aren't making chips, you're moving metalto the side. If take a smooth polished piece of steel and burnish over the scratch it will smooth out the scratch.
My spidey sense started tingling as soon as I saw the buffing wheel, glad you're ok and the part wasn't ruined. I fully understand why you didn't want to use the casting to hold the sheet metal, I probably wouldn't want to either. What came to mind though was you could have traced around the casting onto timber and cut a couple of rough and ready patterns that the sheet metal could be screwed to while you buff it. You live and learn though and it still looks good.
Back high schoor metal shop, as a final project, I machined a small engine piston out of a piece of brass to show my skills with the lathe, milll and other shop tools. I too wanted a mirror finish. As you may guess, the same "oops" happened to me. I got an A on the piston as it diid show my skills, and got an A in the class and came back the next semester as a student helper for the metal shop teachers. I actually think the shop teachers felt worse for the "oops" than I did. The pistion, along with its damage, sat on my desk for many years. Don't know what happened to it. Several moves and then getting married and it has not disappeared. Nice recovery.
3D print a model of the cylinder with a handle on it and attach the brass to it before buffing. Easier to hold, and it’s only plastic if something does go wrong. Nice work as always!
Been there on a few projects. Good on you for not restarting . Sometimes you need to keep mistakes as reminders of when and where one can lose focus on a project.
If you can't hide it, make it a feature. Some dings will make your steam engine look older than it actually is. Just a bit of patina! Keep up the good work, you are one of my favorite TH-camrs. 😊👍
In the engine room where I served my apprentiship. we polished the brass and copper on the engines and boilers every week. Our favourite polish was the "BON-AMI" glass polish that used to be available in solid cakes. Each shift was responsible for part of the plant so it was not hard to tell who the lazy SOBs were.
Another way to locate holes on a template like that is to make the main template with generously oversized holes, and have another small piece of cardstock with the correct hole size. Put the main template in its proper position, then match each small piece to its fitting, and tape in place to the main template.
Love the Chanel !! pro tip from texas for you. Buffing red metals is fun, the mirror is beautiful !! but to help protect the newly buffed metal, use a final polish of turtle wax buffing compound, then alcohol clean, last thing use any good carnauba car wax, yes the same stuff for car paint, and apply liberty. fist coat use a new wool wheel, then hand rub a second coat. sounds like a lot of work, but A, the results are stunning, B, it lasts a lot longer than you might expect. keep a nice clean micro-fiber cloth close to buff off finger prints now and then, and you will have a mirror for years !
I have been using a stitched buffing wheel for about 40 years (on finish items for airplane interiors). I have lost count of the times I relaxed my guard and allowed the part to catch with predictable disaster. Sometime I can ‘save’ the part - sometimes not. But I can really sympathize with your disaster. Nice recovery, though.
Me too! My first car had a Notek spotlight which was a thing of beauty. I wa working in a plating shop so no trouble to replate. I stripped the nickel and was buffing it prior to re plating when it caught the mop, being about the same diameter it momentarily jammed on before changing its mind and ricochet round the shop and landing roughly hexagonal. Fourth five years later I spotted on on the front of a narrow boat, sadly it too needs replating, but I’m not offering……
So glad you discovered the Diamond tool holder. I’ve been using one for years now. For a small hobby lathe they can’t be beat IMHO. So versatile and so easy to keep sharp. Wish I could post you a picture here but I mount mine in a post style tool post vs the quick change holder setup. This positions the cutter over the cross slide without overhang. Gives the most solid and precise cut on a 9” south bend.
Quinn, sorry to see your accident when you were literally in the home stretch of your part. Just kinda shows that no matter how careful one is, sh*t still happens. In regards to the black polishing residue in tiny scratches. Unfortunately I have many years experience in polishing aluminum parts, Lol. Alcohol obviously works, but what we used was ammonia. Household ammonia is strong and harder to find these days, but the easy solution was glass cleaner. Aluminium with lots of little stone dings would be covered in residue, and glass cleaner would disolve it all quickly. Alcohol works great before clear coating, but this may may useful info the next time you polish something ! Great job on your project and I was impressed on your discovery that annealing the metal would make it roll better. Just shows how ‘Smert’ us Canucks can be some days !
Nicely done, I share your pain. Having done much the same on a Stuart engine kit many years ago. It is interesting that you call machine screws ‘bolts’, I remember from my days being told that bolts need nuts but screws don’t. Some folks call them metal threads. Interesting when you think about it and what the difference is between a bolt and a screw, a bolt having a blank shank of nominal size for a portion of its length to be a close fit in a clearance hole, to clamp two pieces together nut & bolt, the threaded portion is usually a lesser diameter. A screw goes into a tapped hole and is a neat fit it’s full length. Keep up the great work in your new and bigger/better workshop.👍😁🛠
I feel your pain from the little mishap with the buffer. When I was 15 and making a base for lava lamp from mirror stainless, [this was an exam piece at school] I too had minor lapse of concentration, a split second later it was caught on the leading edge and around the circumference of the wheel. Not just destroying the piece, but also leaving me with a nasty gash in my forehead requiring 12 stitches. Needless to say concentration is paramount. I'm now 58 and learnt the hard way. Keep safe everyone.😢😢😢
i find when it comes to buffing, polishing and scotchbrite-ing lol take the guards off of the wheel, that way your not trying to work within the confines of the guard and less likely to get caught up plus it will keep you well below centreline. well done!
Well Quinn. You may be annoyed with yourself about the buffing wheel incident........ BUT, personally, I think the shroud looks significantly better like this. I've been the temporary custodian of a fair few vintage hobby engineering tools over the years. Usually I'd find something like an unloved classic hobby lathe or vintage vice going for scrap money, and see it's potential. Some just needed bearings, ways scraping true, plus a lick of paint, and some needed totally rebuilding, but one thing they all had was indications of their age, and I always tried to preserve that. Every ding displayed that the tool had a lengthy past. Every home made belt guard showed that a machine had been someone's pride and joy. They all had storys that started before I was born (Some's tail even predated my late father's birth !), and it would have felt wrong to "Sanitize" their history. Unfortunately, the head sometimes has to overrule the heart, and over the years, when space got tight, most my treasures had to be found new keepers, but this usually just lead to me finding something else in need of some sympathetic work to fill the now vacant space. :D Your engine may "Only" be a recreation of what sort of thing would have been reasonably commonplace 100+ year ago. But even so, It would feel wrong if it looked brand new. Giving it the look of a period machine that's been restored, loved, and cared for is great, but no machine exists for 100+ years without earning a few dings and bumps. Something like this really should at least give the impression that it's seen a few years pass (even if it never actually earnt it's crows feet, scars, and wrinkles). Making it appear factory fresh would kind of cheapen it for me. It would be like machining a large replacement part for a vintage machine, and leaving that one piece looking shiny and new, when the rest of the machine tells the story of projects completed, jobs gone awry, and maintenance being attended to, while that one component is standing out like a solar array and wind generator on the roof of a picturesque thatched cottage ! I hope I'm getting my point of view across without sounding "preachy" here. :)
You just taught me two more 1-2-3 block tricks. Thank you! I'm sure glad the brass sheet apparently didn't slice up your hands when it got out of control. That could have been very bad. The lagging looks quite good to me. Good save! I giggled that you just had to move to a different country to cut down your vise bolts. The intro segment looked very very white to me; I think something with a different color hanging on the wall behind you would soften the scene, whether it's just a poster or something functional. Thanks for sharing yet another delightful and educational video with us! I send some virtual pats on your mill's back to console it after stoically powering through the indignity of getting cellulose on its lovely machined surfaces.
Nice save! Cladding material thickness is one aspect of modelling that doesn't survive accurate scaling from full size practice - we'd be faffing with tinfoil and it's just not worth it!
That is a thing of beauty. Prögressing around, so many times, to get it just right. Artisans excellence. Keep polishing stuff please. And looking forward to the paint.
You have really grown as a machinist! Been watching for a few years and you only get better and better and would run laps around me at this point. Nice work.
I repaired props for 27 years, I always said the one tool I had that always wanted to kill or maim me was my 20" cotton wheel on the buffer. When they grab, you can't hold on to your prop, in your case brass cover. Still looks alright though.
Quinn: "these 2-56 mounting screws are tiny" Me: *Laughs in watchmaker* I love this channel and all the great content, Quinn. Thank you for making my Saturday again :)
At least it was brass that got mangled; about 30 years ago I was doing the final polishing on a complex item made of lexan. Like you, it was literally the last pass. The wheel grabbed the piece, and it bounced off the floor, the wall behind the buffer, and then flew across the room. Amazingly, it was still in one piece (acrylic would have exploded!), and usable, but it didn't look very nice.
Buffing - it's amazing what can happen in a split second! Nice work though, it fitted well. I made a stainless steel wrap for mine and bound/stuck coffee stirrers on to give a wood effect.
Enjoying the build immensely. And kudos to the "disaster recovery" as well. After all humans do err. It's how well we recover that defines our skills. Being a fan of Karl's as well I wonder if a slap hammer might have smoothed it out a touch more? It's fine as it sits but I still wonder based on how it worked for him and other sheet metal YT gurus. Another option for the cladding would be the $15 packs of muffler repacking material found at pretty well any motorcycle shop. One pack will do one muffler or a few home shop jobs just fine.
Like others here, I was wincing a bit watching you holding that sheet with bare hands. I still have a numb spot on my finger tip from a slip while polishing without gloves. You are a lucky woman! Well talented also but the combination of Sheet metal and polishers are some kind of scary. I am a closet steam enthusiast so really enjoy watching your progress.
Turned out really well,Quinn. I'm glad to see you have discovered the diamond tool holders, I also bought one recently and love it. I have to say I cringed when you were buffing the brass jacket cover. I've been there before and had the sore fingers to remind me of my error. A support former made from MDF or simply cast from Plaster of Paris makes that task a lot less hazardous.
Today I learned that you can get that contact adhesive off super easily with heat. I use that adhesive to stick sandpaper onto glass sheets, I can't tell you many countless hours of wd40 soaking and awkward chiselling I've put into changing sandpaper.
I have had my share of the buffing wheel catching my work. In my case the work is a wood turning. The buffing is between coats of wipe-on-poly. I mount the buffing wheel on the wood lathe. When the wheel catches the work, it can thrust it into the lathe beds and make a nice ding. After the adult language, it is time for some re-work. Never fun. Glad you rescued this part. Looks very good. Dave.
Well done. Your precision and accuracy continue to wow me, even if it doesn't really have to be particularly precise and/or accurate. Thanks, and Meow to Sprocket.
Think it's time for a gear cutting video, Quinn. That nifty little cigarette--ER-- SLIP roller begs for brass module .75's. If you're gonna do steampunk... Always a great Saturday checkin in with the shop!
I know I'm just a rather 'ham-fisted' metal worker...but one suggestion I would offer (should you ever want to make another fully polished case) would be to actually install the 'wrap' on the cylinder, and THEN run it on the buffing wheel. That would eliminate MOST of the possibility of 'catching' the sheet metal on the buffing wheel by having it solidly secured to the cylinder casting. You can even remove a few screws to buff those areas, re-install them, and then keep working your way around.
Fantastic work on your ongoing steam engine project. Nice save on the semi mangling - doh! Clickspring uses a clear lacquer sprayed onto brass to prevent it from tarnishing. Not sure which of his multitude of videos he shows what his mix ratio of lacquer and something else for his clear brass lacquer. Sorry, I couldn't find it again.
Tip for paper template and holes, cut a big window around your hole, tape the big paper onto the machine, then you can place a smaller piece with a closer hole later
I love the way you talk to your mill. Mine's a bit more intimidating, so I mutter under my breath, mostly. That slip roll is incredible! I never even considered such a thing, but will make one for this project. I love that "but I've been meaning to do that for years", right on time. I'm a Karl Fisher fan myself, he does some very nice work! Congratulations, that came out very nice in spite of the slight mangling accident.
Looks like you are getting much better performance with that tangential tool than I ever got. I tried a homemade version last year and just couldn't get it to work with all that extra stick out from the tool holder.
I have been using such a tool for about thirty years, getting the angle right is the key. They are very effective for all the softer metals, and work well on steel if not too tough a grade. I bought a holder and used it, and made a couple more to match. You need both x and y axis angles to get a good chip to peel off nicely.
That's Frigonometry. Calcuwhat! Why didn't you just say that? 🥰🥶🧐🥺❤ No wonder I could never get those panels to lay flat. Ah, it is in the past. You are so awesome Quinn.
Such a pity about the brass work. Having made a few of these, I have changed to using wood planks to hold the lagging in place with brass straps to hold them. The wood lagging was to found in more real engines than metal plating as it adds another level of insulating. Steve
I sympathize with you, I have had a buffer grab many an item out of my hand . I have found that smaller jewelers buffing wheels don't grab quite as much. I just took a motor and mounted a tapered jewelers arbor to it, it also makes wheel changing easy.
Another great video. So glad that the buffing wheel incident didn't go the way it could have. Another good option to make the buffing safer could be to do it wile it's installed on the cylinder. Taking bolts out and putting them back as you are satisfied with the finish. I've had a piece or two catch in a wire wheel or buffer and holy moly if they don't instantly transform into leak finders. 😬 Thanks as always.
A tip for drilling sheet metal when you can't use a step drill. I have a set of Black and Decker Pilot point drill bits, (they now fall under the Dewalt name). They have a center "drilling" point that starts a small guiding hole and cutting spurs on the periphery of the drill diameter like a Forstnerr bit used for drilling clean holes in wood. On sheet metal they will cut a clean hole with the removed metal looking like a washer. When I first found out about them I was wanting a mount a rear air deflector over the rear window of our Suburban. It required 1/2 inch holes to install Well Nuts (A flanged rubber bushing with a molded in threaded metal insert, providing a weather seal and a blind nut in one.) in the roof to mount the air deflector. There was no way I wanted to try drilling four 1/2 inch holes in the roof with a standard twist drill, knowing the bit could catch and twist the sheet metal as it broke through the roof and possibly go through to the headliner. I bought a 1/2 inch Pilot Point drill at the big box store and drilled clean holes at each location, calming my jitters at putting holes in the roof of that Suburban. They aren't real expensive, it appears the patent has expired and there are several sets by several companies, on Amazon under $40; search "Pilot Point drill bits". They also work great for drilling plastics and other brittle or thin materials.
Just a thought: If it wouldn't divert the overall aesthetic of the steam engine project, why not take a polished jeweler's planishing hammer and put a pattern of gentle random hammer facets all over the lagging shield. Would look great and give it even more of a "old time" look.
buffing sheet metal like that has always been a nightmare for me. I generally do one of two things to make it a bit easier/safer, 1 I'll just use a dremel with small buffing wheel and take my time or 2 I'll try to create some sort of form out of wood or plastic to attach the sheet too during buffing so there's less chance of an edge being grabbed and it torn out of my heands. Either way is a significant time investment, but I've found that time spent protecting a part is usually time saved fixing or remaking it :)
Hey gang- lots of folks asking why I didn’t use the casting to hold the sheet metal for buffing. The reason is that I have about 30 hours of work in that expensive casting and I was not willing to risk it by using it that way. If the mop knocked it out of my hands, I’d be out a whole lot more than a few character marks. You’re free to do it however you like though.
The one oopsidaisey the undoes a thousand attaboys..........Nice save. Apologize for nothing, keep on 'chuffin.
Plus the screws sticking out are a huge danger for catching the mop. I might have use a small rotary tool with small mops to lessen the danger, but hindsight is too easy for the peanut gallery. Can't wait for your next installment.
Good save.
would a 3d printed cylinder replica have helped? I supposed you'd still need to fasten it, thus the tiny bolts which would still be no good on the buffing wheel.
Not only would the bolt heads catch the buffing wheel, it would keep you from buffing up to the edge of the bolt heads.
If you get a chance, check out Cold War Motors on TH-cam. They are in Western Canada somewhere. Scott restored a 1960 Plymouth 2 door. It had TONS of stainless steel molding. He had straightened all of it. You probably won't do a lot of this kind of work, but his videos might teach you some about sheet metal work.
Quinn - you did a fantastic job on that tricky brass sheetmetal part. I had my heart in my throat as you were polishing it - since the intro informed me that something was going to 'go south'. Nevertheless, it came out very well in the end. Congratulations!
Ron! You are awesome. Yes, I should visit more. I will.
The sheet metal wizard is here.
Like Ron said, I was concerned about the buffing after seeing the intro. I’ve been down that road more than once. And since it is the last step on a piece, you look at the hours spent and cry a little tear when that happens.
You are the first person I thought of as soon as I saw the card stock pattern Quinn used. Scrolled down and there you are!
I love your dramatic-irony format where we know the disaster from the start -- it makes me really pay attention to each step as I try to guess what will go wrong.
Like the Columb format where you know who dunnit... 😄
Those screwdrivers bring back memories. My set came from Radio Shack more than 35 years ago.
That’s exactly where they are from! Only just retired my Micronta multimeter that I bought around the same time. 😁 I miss that old iteration of RadioShack
@@Blondihacks I still have my Micronta in the shop. I'll probably never part with it.
@@Clough42 I was mighty sad when mine finally died beyond repair. I guess I got a nice new Fluke instead, but the Micronta had character and was good to me for 30 years! RadioShack used to make some good stuff.
Nice job recovering from the polishing wheel boo-boo. 😀 One of the many things I like in your videos is that you show us the whole, honest story of the build, both the good stuff and the not-so-good stuff that happens.
At least you weren't hurt, great comeback,
I'm going to show this to my Dad. About 20 years ago he made me a candle lantern out of sheet copper. Imagine a short cardboard milk carton with windows cut in it, so it really is a flat bottom and steep roof top with just angle-irons for the corners. He was doing the final buffing when, what do you guess happened? He straightened it out mostly, but you can tell it.
I told him that when you get that good of a result from the first prototype, you've done really good. He felt a little better about it, then. I'll show him this video to show him he's not the only one.
Better way to drill sheet metal: Trepan it so the forces are downward with a tool with a vertical outer edge.
A friend at work was asked if he could polish a Silver tea set on the buffing wheel. It went well till the wheel grabbed the tea pot spout and ripped the pot out of his hands. There was no tapping out the dents. Buffing wheels need a lot of respect.
You really need to become a professional TH-camr. Never ever show a mistake, you should be perfect first time, every time. Get with it Quinn.
That rolling machine reminded me of "cigarette" rolling machines of my misspent youth.
Brass components over painted components makes the whole thing more olde tyme-y. Peeeerfect!
Beautiful job on the lagging! The polished brass really matches the paint as well. What a gorgeous job!
A friend of mine, John York, is a big fan of you. He's a retired machinist and has said there are so many hack big name "machinists" on TH-cam, but you are not one of them. You REALLY know what you're doing and do an outstanding job of explaining everything you're doing as well as owning your mistakes. If you're a fan of steam engines you may recognize his name... He designed, made the patterns for, and built the "York" Marine compound, now available from Elliot Bay.
Well done for saving the part. The scars are just stories at the end of the day.
You could machine that cover out of a solid piece of metal and then just fill the inside with bismuth and finish the outside, then melt the bismuth away and then you have a sheet in one solid piece. When I had a shop years ago that was the method I used for such parts such as this one. Once the inside of the part is machined you have to refill it to make it a solid before you can machine the outside. Nice work Quinn.
We have all done this, put in 20+ hrs on a part only to make a small mistake with the final stage! Very nice save. You are correct, buffing wheels are hungry beasts that can eat a part, and your hand, in a nanosecond. Great job and you mandrel for drilling the holes was very clever.
So I've noticed that literally every Friday night I have a moment before going to bed where I think, "oh awesome, new Blondihacks video tomorrow!" You're easily one of my two favorite channels, alongside Stuff Made Here, but you also post every week! I'm going to be extremely prepared whenever I have space and funds to finally get a mill and lathe. My students love your videos too! I teach math, but used to teach shop, and your videos do a great job of showing one of many ways in which some math skills can be useful to their interests.
Edit: the tip about cutting holes in thin sheet stock with an end mill is great! I might get a set of cheap end mills for our drill press at work. We do often use thin sheet stock with the kids, and that lifting is a real problem.
karl fisher is an execellent fabricator👌👌
A tip from a jeweler to a machinist, when you scratch metal you aren't making chips, you're moving metalto the side. If take a smooth polished piece of steel and burnish over the scratch it will smooth out the scratch.
5:30 am Melbourne time morning coffee watching Blondihacks 67 yr old very experienced tradesman never to old something new 😊
My spidey sense started tingling as soon as I saw the buffing wheel, glad you're ok and the part wasn't ruined. I fully understand why you didn't want to use the casting to hold the sheet metal, I probably wouldn't want to either. What came to mind though was you could have traced around the casting onto timber and cut a couple of rough and ready patterns that the sheet metal could be screwed to while you buff it. You live and learn though and it still looks good.
Back high schoor metal shop, as a final project, I machined a small engine piston out of a piece of brass to show my skills with the lathe, milll and other shop tools. I too wanted a mirror finish. As you may guess, the same "oops" happened to me. I got an A on the piston as it diid show my skills, and got an A in the class and came back the next semester as a student helper for the metal shop teachers. I actually think the shop teachers felt worse for the "oops" than I did. The pistion, along with its damage, sat on my desk for many years. Don't know what happened to it. Several moves and then getting married and it has not disappeared.
Nice recovery.
3D print a model of the cylinder with a handle on it and attach the brass to it before buffing. Easier to hold, and it’s only plastic if something does go wrong.
Nice work as always!
It's always a pucker when you go to polish something you've spent hours on on the grab and fling wheel nice recovery 👍👍👍
I actually like the imperfections in the final product. It adds to the handmade feel.
Yeah it adds a little more "punk" to the "steampunk" look. 🙂
Been there on a few projects. Good on you for not restarting . Sometimes you need to keep mistakes as reminders of when and where one can lose focus on a project.
Expert use of tension. We know what's coming, but there's nothing we can do about it but watch.
Initially I thought you are wierd but that's not the case. I have mastered you and I love what you do
If you can't hide it, make it a feature. Some dings will make your steam engine look older than it actually is. Just a bit of patina! Keep up the good work, you are one of my favorite TH-camrs. 😊👍
In the engine room where I served my apprentiship. we polished the brass and copper on the engines and boilers every week. Our favourite polish was the "BON-AMI" glass polish that used to be available in solid cakes. Each shift was responsible for part of the plant so it was not hard to tell who the lazy SOBs were.
Nice Karl Fisher reference.Very nice work Blondie you're an inspiration!
Another way to locate holes on a template like that is to make the main template with generously oversized holes, and have another small piece of cardstock with the correct hole size. Put the main template in its proper position, then match each small piece to its fitting, and tape in place to the main template.
Good save on the grab and glad no injury….super discussion/demonstration build
Love that you follow Ron and Karl too. Guess I'm not that random after all.
Love the Chanel !! pro tip from texas for you. Buffing red metals is fun, the mirror is beautiful !! but to help protect the newly buffed metal, use a final polish of turtle wax buffing compound, then alcohol clean, last thing use any good carnauba car wax, yes the same stuff for car paint, and apply liberty. fist coat use a new wool wheel, then hand rub a second coat. sounds like a lot of work, but A, the results are stunning, B, it lasts a lot longer than you might expect. keep a nice clean micro-fiber cloth close to buff off finger prints now and then, and you will have a mirror for years !
I have been using a stitched buffing wheel for about 40 years (on finish items for airplane interiors). I have lost count of the times I relaxed my guard and allowed the part to catch with predictable disaster. Sometime I can ‘save’ the part - sometimes not. But I can really sympathize with your disaster. Nice recovery, though.
Me too! My first car had a Notek spotlight which was a thing of beauty. I wa working in a plating shop so no trouble to replate. I stripped the nickel and was buffing it prior to re plating when it caught the mop, being about the same diameter it momentarily jammed on before changing its mind and ricochet round the shop and landing roughly hexagonal. Fourth five years later I spotted on on the front of a narrow boat, sadly it too needs replating, but I’m not offering……
Super high tech roller used on that card stock. 😁
So glad you discovered the Diamond tool holder. I’ve been using one for years now. For a small hobby lathe they can’t be beat IMHO. So versatile and so easy to keep sharp. Wish I could post you a picture here but I mount mine in a post style tool post vs the quick change holder setup. This positions the cutter over the cross slide without overhang. Gives the most solid and precise cut on a 9” south bend.
A couple of my friends and I also use the eccentric diamond tool holders and we love the versatility of them.
Quinn, sorry to see your accident when you were literally in the home stretch of your part. Just kinda shows that no matter how careful one is, sh*t still happens.
In regards to the black polishing residue in tiny scratches. Unfortunately I have many years experience in polishing aluminum parts, Lol. Alcohol obviously works, but what we used was ammonia. Household ammonia is strong and harder to find these days, but the easy solution was glass cleaner. Aluminium with lots of little stone dings would be covered in residue, and glass cleaner would disolve it all quickly.
Alcohol works great before clear coating, but this may may useful info the next time you polish something !
Great job on your project and I was impressed on your discovery that annealing the metal would make it roll better. Just shows how ‘Smert’ us Canucks can be some days !
Nicely done, I share your pain. Having done much the same on a Stuart engine kit many years ago. It is interesting that you call machine screws ‘bolts’, I remember from my days being told that bolts need nuts but screws don’t. Some folks call them metal threads. Interesting when you think about it and what the difference is between a bolt and a screw, a bolt having a blank shank of nominal size for a portion of its length to be a close fit in a clearance hole, to clamp two pieces together nut & bolt, the threaded portion is usually a lesser diameter. A screw goes into a tapped hole and is a neat fit it’s full length. Keep up the great work in your new and bigger/better workshop.👍😁🛠
I feel your pain from the little mishap with the buffer. When I was 15 and making a base for lava lamp from mirror stainless, [this was an exam piece at school] I too had minor lapse of concentration, a split second later it was caught on the leading edge and around the circumference of the wheel. Not just destroying the piece, but also leaving me with a nasty gash in my forehead requiring 12 stitches. Needless to say concentration is paramount. I'm now 58 and learnt the hard way. Keep safe everyone.😢😢😢
Its a hand-crafted part, its beauty is in its imperfections.
The buffing wheel has flung many of my projects to floor. I feel your pain.
i find when it comes to buffing, polishing and scotchbrite-ing lol take the guards off of the wheel, that way your not trying to work within the confines of the guard and less likely to get caught up plus it will keep you well below centreline. well done!
Glad you power through the bad part of your day. great series!
I like the style of fitting the screws,LOOKS GOOD for here in Central Missouri
The secret to success, graceful recovery!
In the words of that wise farming sage, Brian Brown, "Many working man's words were said."
I love Make It Kustom! Nice shout out!
He’s the best! 😁
Well Quinn. You may be annoyed with yourself about the buffing wheel incident........ BUT, personally, I think the shroud looks significantly better like this.
I've been the temporary custodian of a fair few vintage hobby engineering tools over the years. Usually I'd find something like an unloved classic hobby lathe or vintage vice going for scrap money, and see it's potential. Some just needed bearings, ways scraping true, plus a lick of paint, and some needed totally rebuilding, but one thing they all had was indications of their age, and I always tried to preserve that. Every ding displayed that the tool had a lengthy past. Every home made belt guard showed that a machine had been someone's pride and joy. They all had storys that started before I was born (Some's tail even predated my late father's birth !), and it would have felt wrong to "Sanitize" their history. Unfortunately, the head sometimes has to overrule the heart, and over the years, when space got tight, most my treasures had to be found new keepers, but this usually just lead to me finding something else in need of some sympathetic work to fill the now vacant space. :D
Your engine may "Only" be a recreation of what sort of thing would have been reasonably commonplace 100+ year ago. But even so, It would feel wrong if it looked brand new. Giving it the look of a period machine that's been restored, loved, and cared for is great, but no machine exists for 100+ years without earning a few dings and bumps. Something like this really should at least give the impression that it's seen a few years pass (even if it never actually earnt it's crows feet, scars, and wrinkles). Making it appear factory fresh would kind of cheapen it for me. It would be like machining a large replacement part for a vintage machine, and leaving that one piece looking shiny and new, when the rest of the machine tells the story of projects completed, jobs gone awry, and maintenance being attended to, while that one component is standing out like a solar array and wind generator on the roof of a picturesque thatched cottage !
I hope I'm getting my point of view across without sounding "preachy" here. :)
You just taught me two more 1-2-3 block tricks. Thank you! I'm sure glad the brass sheet apparently didn't slice up your hands when it got out of control. That could have been very bad. The lagging looks quite good to me. Good save! I giggled that you just had to move to a different country to cut down your vise bolts. The intro segment looked very very white to me; I think something with a different color hanging on the wall behind you would soften the scene, whether it's just a poster or something functional. Thanks for sharing yet another delightful and educational video with us! I send some virtual pats on your mill's back to console it after stoically powering through the indignity of getting cellulose on its lovely machined surfaces.
Greetings from Greece.
Hit like, before I see the video.
Very good job!
Nice save!
Cladding material thickness is one aspect of modelling that doesn't survive accurate scaling from full size practice - we'd be faffing with tinfoil and it's just not worth it!
That is a thing of beauty. Prögressing around, so many times, to get it just right. Artisans excellence.
Keep polishing stuff please. And looking forward to the paint.
Looking forward to the painting and seeing your best Keith Appleton impression. Hope you have one of his un-painting brushes to hand.
Thanks for sharing the failures, I didn't know about the edge catching while polishing. I'll be very careful next time.
27:53 i think the paint also helps keeping the fingerprints away from the bare metal which otherwise would show up while the tarnishing of the metal .
Nice work!
CAD = Cardboard Aided Design
You have really grown as a machinist! Been watching for a few years and you only get better and better and would run laps around me at this point. Nice work.
I repaired props for 27 years, I always said the one tool I had that always wanted to kill or maim me was my 20" cotton wheel on the buffer. When they grab, you can't hold on to your prop, in your case brass cover. Still looks alright though.
Quinn: "these 2-56 mounting screws are tiny"
Me: *Laughs in watchmaker*
I love this channel and all the great content, Quinn. Thank you for making my Saturday again :)
At least it was brass that got mangled; about 30 years ago I was doing the final polishing on a complex item made of lexan. Like you, it was literally the last pass. The wheel grabbed the piece, and it bounced off the floor, the wall behind the buffer, and then flew across the room. Amazingly, it was still in one piece (acrylic would have exploded!), and usable, but it didn't look very nice.
I enjoy watching your videos because you're a good teacher; see the 1-2-3 block trick.
To bad TH-cam doesn't have double thumbs up. 👍🏻👍🏻
Buffing - it's amazing what can happen in a split second! Nice work though, it fitted well. I made a stainless steel wrap for mine and bound/stuck coffee stirrers on to give a wood effect.
Yep I don’t doubt some big girl cussing came out with that mishap. Good recovery love your channel
Felt so sorry when you caught the part on the polishing wheel!! Great recovery tho. Impressive.
Enjoying the build immensely. And kudos to the "disaster recovery" as well. After all humans do err. It's how well we recover that defines our skills. Being a fan of Karl's as well I wonder if a slap hammer might have smoothed it out a touch more? It's fine as it sits but I still wonder based on how it worked for him and other sheet metal YT gurus.
Another option for the cladding would be the $15 packs of muffler repacking material found at pretty well any motorcycle shop. One pack will do one muffler or a few home shop jobs just fine.
Like others here, I was wincing a bit watching you holding that sheet with bare hands. I still have a numb spot on my finger tip from a slip while polishing without gloves. You are a lucky woman! Well talented also but the combination of Sheet metal and polishers are some kind of scary. I am a closet steam enthusiast so really enjoy watching your progress.
Turned out really well,Quinn.
I'm glad to see you have discovered the diamond tool holders, I also bought one recently and love it.
I have to say I cringed when you were buffing the brass jacket cover. I've been there before and had the sore fingers to remind me of my error.
A support former made from MDF or simply cast from Plaster of Paris makes that task a lot less hazardous.
Today I learned that you can get that contact adhesive off super easily with heat. I use that adhesive to stick sandpaper onto glass sheets, I can't tell you many countless hours of wd40 soaking and awkward chiselling I've put into changing sandpaper.
I have had my share of the buffing wheel catching my work. In my case the work is a wood turning. The buffing is between coats of wipe-on-poly. I mount the buffing wheel on the wood lathe. When the wheel catches the work, it can thrust it into the lathe beds and make a nice ding. After the adult language, it is time for some re-work. Never fun.
Glad you rescued this part. Looks very good.
Dave.
Everything about this is AMAZEBALLS :)
Well done.
Your precision and accuracy continue to wow me, even if it doesn't really have to be particularly precise and/or accurate.
Thanks, and Meow to Sprocket.
Think it's time for a gear cutting video, Quinn. That nifty little cigarette--ER-- SLIP roller begs for brass module .75's. If you're gonna do steampunk...
Always a great Saturday checkin in with the shop!
That small scratch has given it character. It looks great as a finished cover. Love the steam engine build.
I know I'm just a rather 'ham-fisted' metal worker...but one suggestion I would offer (should you ever want to make another fully polished case) would be to actually install the 'wrap' on the cylinder, and THEN run it on the buffing wheel. That would eliminate MOST of the possibility of 'catching' the sheet metal on the buffing wheel by having it solidly secured to the cylinder casting. You can even remove a few screws to buff those areas, re-install them, and then keep working your way around.
Nice recovery you made from a little mishap but looks good in the end.
Fantastic work on your ongoing steam engine project. Nice save on the semi mangling - doh! Clickspring uses a clear lacquer sprayed onto brass to prevent it from tarnishing. Not sure which of his multitude of videos he shows what his mix ratio of lacquer and something else for his clear brass lacquer. Sorry, I couldn't find it again.
when you start to recognize off cuts and scrap is its when you learn its always a call back to a precious video.... an Easter egg hunt if you will...
Tip for paper template and holes, cut a big window around your hole, tape the big paper onto the machine, then you can place a smaller piece with a closer hole later
Can’t beat CAD: cardboard aided design 😀
I love the way you talk to your mill. Mine's a bit more intimidating, so I mutter under my breath, mostly. That slip roll is incredible! I never even considered such a thing, but will make one for this project. I love that "but I've been meaning to do that for years", right on time. I'm a Karl Fisher fan myself, he does some very nice work! Congratulations, that came out very nice in spite of the slight mangling accident.
Looks like you are getting much better performance with that tangential tool than I ever got. I tried a homemade version last year and just couldn't get it to work with all that extra stick out from the tool holder.
I have been using such a tool for about thirty years, getting the angle right is the key. They are very effective for all the softer metals, and work well on steel if not too tough a grade. I bought a holder and used it, and made a couple more to match. You need both x and y axis angles to get a good chip to peel off nicely.
Pobre Quinn!!! Igual quedó excelente! Y le agrega carácter al motor 😉
That's Frigonometry. Calcuwhat! Why didn't you just say that? 🥰🥶🧐🥺❤
No wonder I could never get those panels to lay flat. Ah, it is in the past. You are so awesome Quinn.
Looks great! And now you have a conversation starter.
Liked... because of sanity checks LOL. Cheers, Quinn!
Holy timetravellong cylinder, Batman!
Nice steampunk look.
Such a pity about the brass work.
Having made a few of these, I have changed to using wood planks to hold the lagging in place with brass straps to hold them.
The wood lagging was to found in more real engines than metal plating as it adds another level of insulating.
Steve
I sympathize with you, I have had a buffer grab many an item out of my hand . I have found that smaller jewelers buffing wheels don't grab quite as much. I just took a motor and mounted a tapered jewelers arbor to it, it also makes wheel changing easy.
swarfy the duck needs more love
Another great video.
So glad that the buffing wheel incident didn't go the way it could have. Another good option to make the buffing safer could be to do it wile it's installed on the cylinder. Taking bolts out and putting them back as you are satisfied with the finish. I've had a piece or two catch in a wire wheel or buffer and holy moly if they don't instantly transform into leak finders. 😬
Thanks as always.
Good save at the end there.... those buffing wheels can be the very devil for that.... Nice job... 🙂
I'm so happy you were able to save the piece.
A tip for drilling sheet metal when you can't use a step drill. I have a set of Black and Decker Pilot point drill bits, (they now fall under the Dewalt name). They have a center "drilling" point that starts a small guiding hole and cutting spurs on the periphery of the drill diameter like a Forstnerr bit used for drilling clean holes in wood. On sheet metal they will cut a clean hole with the removed metal looking like a washer. When I first found out about them I was wanting a mount a rear air deflector over the rear window of our Suburban. It required 1/2 inch holes to install Well Nuts (A flanged rubber bushing with a molded in threaded metal insert, providing a weather seal and a blind nut in one.) in the roof to mount the air deflector. There was no way I wanted to try drilling four 1/2 inch holes in the roof with a standard twist drill, knowing the bit could catch and twist the sheet metal as it broke through the roof and possibly go through to the headliner. I bought a 1/2 inch Pilot Point drill at the big box store and drilled clean holes at each location, calming my jitters at putting holes in the roof of that Suburban. They aren't real expensive, it appears the patent has expired and there are several sets by several companies, on Amazon under $40; search "Pilot Point drill bits". They also work great for drilling plastics and other brittle or thin materials.
Fantastic job as all ways, looks awesome well done.
Great recovery @Blondihacks ! I’d still be cursing after that polish mishap.
Just a thought: If it wouldn't divert the overall aesthetic of the steam engine project, why not take a polished jeweler's planishing hammer and put a pattern of gentle random hammer facets all over the lagging shield. Would look great and give it even more of a "old time" look.
buffing sheet metal like that has always been a nightmare for me. I generally do one of two things to make it a bit easier/safer, 1 I'll just use a dremel with small buffing wheel and take my time or 2 I'll try to create some sort of form out of wood or plastic to attach the sheet too during buffing so there's less chance of an edge being grabbed and it torn out of my heands. Either way is a significant time investment, but I've found that time spent protecting a part is usually time saved fixing or remaking it :)
@@theseldomseenkid6251 blood yes, stitches no