Smooth off one side of a coin?

Now I want one!

I already have 2 bigger lathes that work just fine, but this one is soooooooooo sweet!


B.

RDP said:

Here is one to look for Sam,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1bvyFG3hWM

but I think you may need a bit more than a few dozen coins to buy it,

Richard.

Click to expand...

Man that's SWEET! What a beautiful machine.

RDP said:

Here is one to look for Sam,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1bvyFG3hWM

Click to expand...

Wow! That certainly is a nice tool. I imagine it would take a lot of hours just to learn the various parts and attachments.

Brian Marshall said:

Now I want one!

I already have 2 bigger lathes that work just fine, but this one is soooooooooo sweet!


B.

Click to expand...

Brian
I have 3 metal lathes and a wood lathe, but this is the one I wish I had ,

Sam this one will suit you, this is simply perfection at its best, this is the second sweetest thing I have ever seen, ( the other is watching over my shoulder :biggrin
next life maybe

Doc, I wouldn't mind that, I would set it up in the spare bedroom, ( where I will be sleeping)

Richard.

While drinking my morning green tea and straightening the benches to start work, I found an old penny and decided to try the double stick tape idea posted above.

I happen to have disc punches for leatherwork and gaskets. So I picked one the size of the penny and punched out a disc of the tape.

Fits perfect and you can see what you are doing when grinding.

Much easier than than my old way of dopping. Since I use a lapidary faceting machine with a water drip it never even got warm.

Tape came off easily in the hot ultrasonic...

Got about 5 brands/types of double stick around here, can't tell you which one it was - no label on the roll.


Brian

You too, will eventually get to the green tea stage of life... after drinking 3 to 5 pots of coffee a day in some of your earlier incarnations, back when you were still just a pup...

A topic I can reply to, I fear it will be some time before I post any of my engraving.

If you only need one or two coins then the strip sander, power hone, or even abrasive paper glued to glass plates will do. I would use rubber finger cots to help grip the coin.

If you need to face a large number of coins then a lathe will make the task much easier with the added bonus of being able to collect the shavings.

Some standard methods of work holding,


Stepped type chucks are generally harder to find and you will need more than one. Bezel chucks (quarter) come with different jaw configurations and are optimized for different diameters. This one would work well for quarters but would do poorly on smaller coins. Wheel chucks (dime) come in sets and are generally better for holding smaller items. With both you want to be sure that the coin is not set too deeply into the chuck or it is likely that you will slip and catch the chuck with the cutter.

A flat disk (penny) either in wood or metal is much cheaper and more versatile but is slower as you have to wait for your shellac to cool or glue to cure before turning.

While I would never discourage anyone from buying a nice watchmakers lathe with all the accessories, I think the best bet for a production run on a particular coin would be a lathe with a standard 3 or 4 jaw chuck which would then hold a custom chuck like the one shown in post #12.

Troy

Sam, I assume that you are referring to removing the face of the coin leaving the border intact? If this is the case a lathe is your tool of choice. Machine the end of an old dead center flat at the same diameter as the coin, and when its in the tailstock slide it to the chuck using the flat to align the coin in the chuck. After that its a simple matter to turn the face down.

Sam, if you are using your fingers to hold the coin down on a lap you can use one of the techniques knife makers use to keep the ricasso flat and parallel. Place the coin on the lap before you turn it on and don't lift it up until you have turned the lap off and it has come to a complete stop. It is a hard learned lesson. What happens is, no matter how careful you are at placing the coin down or lifting it up one edge or the other is going to touch first or last which makes the surface uneven there. It might sound like a small thing but it does make a difference.
Dan

The coin fixture that I sent to you will hold the dime to the exact centerline. it can then be flat filed or belt sanded down to the surface of the fixture. Do two and silver solider together and you have two headed coins. the fixtures original purpose. or you can make the coin you desire. I always used the milling machine or the scraper to surface using the fixture. Fred

put some double stick tape on it and use your power hone, hold it down with your finger. If you have a coarse wheel to start with.

Would a grinding bit like this chucked in a drill press work? A bit of t-lock and a wooden block to hold the coin should do the trick I would imagine. A lathe and collet would certainly work also but not everybody has that setup!