Has anyone made their own machinist jacks?

[HMF]

Hey Guys,

Have any one you MADE your own machinist jacks for use in your shop?

 

[rleete]

For small parts like that I use the heat and dunk in dirty oil method. Works great.

So much so that you'll have people swear you sent them out somewhere. I made a couple of pins for a coworker's Airsoft gun, and the finish came out better than the originals.

 

[rleete]

Easy as pie. One word of caution: do it outside! It smokes a little, and I'm sure breathing the stuff isn't good for you.

Anyway, I use a propane torch. You don't have to get the part cherry red, just hot enough that it changes color. Straw, I guess, but I just heat it until I see the color changing. Hold it with something that can take the heat or you don't care about. I use old pliers.

After it changes color, take the heat off and dunk it in dirty motor oil. Swish it around a bit until it cools off. I've found that the dirtier the oil, the better the results. I'm assuming because it has the carbon build up in it. I take it out, and repeat the process. Not sure why, but that's the way I started doing it, and it gives good results.

This will give a good, hard black finish. Bonus because it's already oiled, jut wipe it off. It will show any tooling/sanding/filing marks, so if you want a smooth finish, the part has to be smooth before you start. Polished parts come out looking very nice indeed.

Here's a picture (kinda blurry) of a pin I made. That's a cut off and turned S.H.C.S. in mild steel.

 

[Old Iron]

giri I just posted to your thread on SFT>

Paul

 

[tyleryoungblood]

Here's a pic of my Screw Jacks. However, I never blackened/hardened them. But I have blackened other parts. It's as simple as heating the part red hot using a propane torch and then quenching in automotive oil (new oil works just as well as used oil).



You can see plans for another type of screw jack here:

http://www.projectsinmetal.com

The site also has dozens of other metalworking projects.

 

[PurpLev]

Here's a pic of my Screw Jacks. However, I never blackened/hardened them. But I have blackened other parts. It's as simple as heating the part red hot using a propane torch and then quenching in automotive oil (new oil works just as well as used oil).

You can see plans for another type of screw jack here:

http://www.projectsinmetal.com

The site also has dozens of other metalworking projects.

That is one of the nicest jacks I've ever seen! nice work.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

Here's a pic of my Screw Jacks. However, I never blackened/hardened them. But I have blackened other parts. It's as simple as heating the part red hot using a propane torch and then quenching in automotive oil (new oil works just as well as used oil).



You can see plans for another type of screw jack here:

http://www.projectsinmetal.com

The site also has dozens of other metalworking projects.

those are some sweet jacks, excellent work!
mike)

 

[OldMachinist]

Made mine from stainless steel.

 

[architard]

Probably a bit more expensive than heat and dirty motor oil, but I just took delivery of some Brownell's Oxpho Blue cold gun bluing. I'm going to try using it on some of my lathes bare steel components that were stripped of their black oxide finish in the restoration process. It's more or less as easy as wiping this stuff on the metal. They say the little 4 oz bottle will do 2 complete long guns so I can't imagine running out on the little parts I'll be doing. Ran me around $23 including shipping.

 

[valleyboy101]

I usually use cold blue intended for guns. It works great on brass too ie. if you have raised lettering and want to blacken the background for contrast.

Michael