Guys,

I was fitting a slide and comp assembly on an old Super racegun yesterday and found a new package of Brownell's jewelling brushes in the parts pile.

Have a mill with DRO and vertical/horizontal indexer. Have done snakeskin (high relief jewelling done with an end mill set 5 degrees off notmal and cut to 0.025" ... looks great and is very sticky. Have jewelled large aluminum plate with 1/2? cratex. Was pretty but subtle.

Curious about jewelling. Brownell's suggests 120 grit powder suspended in DoDrill. Many others have written about using 400 grit vavle grinding compound.

What are the tradeoffs between the two grits?

In the post I've used a half overlap pattern in both x and y directions. Doing round surfaces isn't quite that straight forward. One source suggests 30 degree intervals.

What do you suggest in terma of arc and abrasive size.

(Thought I'd try the hood of a 1911 barrel as a test piece.)

Any other thoughts or warnings? Thanks!

PM vapodog

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
PM vapodog

I saw this thread and was looking foreward to learning something from others.....All I use is 3/16" diameter cratex and have no experience with abrasives or wires.

I've not used the cratex abrasives. I use the wire brush and "O" ring set up. I can vary the size of the circle by adding and subtracting "0" rings. The more "O" rings, the smaller the circle. I use a drill press and a B-Square Jewelling fixture. I use 320 and 600 grit valve lapping compound. The following series of photo's are for illustration purposes only and involves the use of 320 grit compound. Unlike the bolt in these pictures, I would recommend giving the bolt body a fairly good base polish first.

Experiment with different degrees of pre-polish, different grades of valve compound, and different sizes of circles. Experiment with amount of pressure applied to the surface and the length of time the brush is engaged with the bolt to see what each will do before settling on any particular style.









It helps to have a photo or something to look at while jewelling a bolt 'cause it's boring as hell! Good luck!

Your calender is just a touch old. I'm assuming this is an old picture.

I must admit to having things to focus on as well.

quote:

Your calender is just a touch old.

was there other photos there?

For what it's worth...I bought the kit from Brownell's and use the metal brushes. I also use the spring loaded brush holder that came in the kit so to maintain the same down pressure, I made my own bolt holding fixture,
I use the "O" rings for round surfaces such as the bolt and shrink wrap for flat surfaces on the brushes and the polish media that came in the kit. I use my mill and over lap half way on the X and Y axis
As westpac said the metal has to have a good base polish, I don't have a calender like Westpac has for reference, I may have to get one it would releive the boredom while polishing.
I should mention that I am also new to this process and still learning.

I can't believe vapo missed the calendar in the top pic. Maybe he was focused on the girl?

quote:

Originally posted by larrys:
I can't believe vapo missed the calendar in the top pic. Maybe he was focused on the girl?

what girl?????

he's still got his eyes on the little walleye. I think maybe it was caught in a gill net

quote:

I think maybe it was caught in a gill net