Engine Turned Aluminum Trim - Proof of Concept: Craftsman King-Seeley 103.23141 Drill Press Restoration, Pt. 15

The drill press originally had a nice piece of engine-turned trim going around the top of the head. Unfortunately, it's long gone. A look at similar King-Seeley models on the interwebs shows that quite a few - maybe half? - of them are missing their trim too.

It's too bad, because it looks really good and adds a touch of class. Some folks might shrug and say "oh well" and move on with their restoration, leaving the press as found, trimless.

But I am a glutton for punishment; I want to at least take a stab at making the thing right. In that vein, I made a 'proof of concept' version of the trim, learning a lot in the process. I should mention that I did procure a roll of vinyl printed with an "engine-turned" pattern, but, hoo boy, it did not look good. Really fake looking. Hence my attempt at trying to create my own.

I needed to do a test before I put the press back together, mainly because the head would be easier to handle with all of the parts off. This making-of-the-trim has sort of held the project up for a couple weeks while I fiddled with it.

Let me backtrack a bit. By 'engine-turned,' I mean the process of using an abrasive stick or rod to produce a geometrical pattern on a piece of metal. As an example, see the dash on the famous Bugatti Type 35 grand prix car. If you're about my age, you may also recall the dash on late 1970s Pontiac Trans-Ams.

I read up on the process and decided to try it for myself. I didn't expect my first effort to be perfect, but I wanted to gauge the feasibility of making a new trim piece.

Procured a couple of Cratex abrasive rods - a fine and a medium grit, 3/8 inch diameter. You cut the rods to a short length, chuck them in a drill press (or a hand drill) and grind the pattern on your metal. The rod is made of a rubberized material and will snap off if you use a piece that's too long - an inch or so works well.

I tried the fine grit and it didn't seem to make a shiny enough cut, so I went with the medium grit on the trial you see here.

This is my second attempt. I polished up a small hunk of sheet aluminum procured from the Despot. On my first attempt, I didn't polish the metal and it looked dull, so on this one I polished it with steel wool, and then Mother's Mag polish.

Doesn't look too bad. This is just a test, so the circles aren't aligned. I cooked up a jig to help align the pattern.

It's not a project around here unless there's a minor injury. Stupid, actually. Right before I poked myself with a sharp edge of the aluminum I had said, "Self, you really should be wearing gloves...."

I mentioned I cooked up jig to align the rows as I made them. The jig is just a fence to put the workpiece against. The fence is adjustable to accurately move it back and forth for each row.

Here is one of the side pieces - the hole centers a 5/32 of an inch. I tried to shoot for about 40% coverage/overlap of each circle.

This will make more sense momentarily.

There are two side pieces - these will be clamped to the sides of the drill press table. The fence will span the table, and a pin on either end of the table will engage with the holes I made here.

Then the fence can be moved back and forth as needed to line up each 'row' of circles that are ground/spun with the Cratex.

Measured the fence where it lines up with each row and used a small nail as a locator pin.

Here's the jig set up on the small drill press.

The sides are clamped onto the table, the fence spans them, with the nails/pins in the proper hole to line up the aluminum where I want to make a row across.

By moving the sheet across the fence, each grind (spin? cut?) can be made in turn. I marked the sheet and the fence with alignment marks - also 5/32 apart.

Note the Cratex in the chuck. A post I read said to glue the rod to a dowel, so I did. Hey, guess what? It broke apart just after this picture! So I wound up just chucking the rod straight in to the chuck.

Here's the piece I made the pattern on. It's a piece of aluminum about 24 inches long by about 1.5 inches - roughly the size of the trim to fit the drill press head.

A couple of things: 3/8 of an inch may be too large for this space. And the overlap is too much - it should maybe be about 1/3 of each circle. And the rows of circles aren't staggered enough.

But it's not bad for a first semi-serious attempt, and it's pretty shiny.

I had previously cut a pattern from the drill press head. I did this with masking paper, which may be a bit too thin - it tore in places.

The issue is that the trim area is not square - it tapers on the sides, the ends are curved, and the front part curves under the nameplate. So my pattern wasn't perfect, as you'll see.

Sigh.

Glued the pattern to the aluminum with spray contact cement.

This is the back of the piece - the swirls are from another test.

Cut the contours with small tin snips. And filed here and there as needed.

Here it is clamped onto the drill press.

From 6 feet away it's like, "hey, not bad."

But as you get close you see it's not good. The pattern was not real accurate, so you can see where it didn't line up exactly with the casting lines.

You can really see on the front that the aluminum has to line up exactly with the lines that are cast on the press. And I also realized the aluminum is too thick - it sticks up too far in places. (My sheet was .019 in. - the only thickness at the Despot).

But I feel like it can be done. I needed to try this while the head was still unassembled, so it would be easier to handle.

The plan going forward is to try thinner material, to test smaller (1/4 in.) circles, and to cut a more accurate template.

However, I can now proceed with reassembling the whole press - I can work with the head while it's mounted on the column now that I have a good idea of how to make a new trim piece.

The complete restoration saga

Part 1 - Beginning

Part 2 - Electrolysis to Remove Rust

Part 3 - Grinding to Remove Rust

Part 4 - Leveling Base Table

Part 5 - Recreating Model Number Label

Part 6 - Refinishing Base

Part 7 - Removing Motor

Part 8 - Motor Disassembly

Part 9 - Motor Bearing Replacement

Part 10 - Start Capacitor and Motor Reassembly

Part 11 - Removing Threaded Jacobs Chuck

Part 12 - Spindle Removal

Part 13 - Quill Disassembly

Part 14 - New Quill and Spindle Bearings

Part 15 - Engine Turned Aluminum Trim Proof of Concept

Part 16 - Engine Turned Aluminum Trim

Part 17 - Cleaning and Polishing Hardware

Part 18 - Jacobs 633C Drill Chuck Restoration

Part 19 - Cleaning and Polishing Column

Part 20 - Reassembly Begins

Part 21 - Restoration Completed