# Has anyone made their own machinist jacks?



## HMF (Apr 19, 2011)

Hey Guys,

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


----------



## rleete (Apr 19, 2011)

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 (Apr 19, 2011)

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 (Apr 19, 2011)

giri I just posted to your thread on SFT&gt;

Paul


----------



## tyleryoungblood (Apr 27, 2011)

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 (Feb 25, 2013)

tyleryoungblood said:


> 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:
> 
> ...



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


----------



## Ulma Doctor (Feb 25, 2013)

tyleryoungblood said:


> 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).
> 
> 
> 
> ...



those are some sweet jacks, excellent work!
mike)


----------



## OldMachinist (Feb 25, 2013)

Made mine from stainless steel.


----------



## architard (Feb 26, 2013)

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 (Feb 26, 2013)

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


----------



## OrangeAlpine (Feb 27, 2013)

Made mine 55 years ago in High School vocational machine shop.  Was not blackened and has not rusted.  It went unused 30 to 40 years.   

I used the Oxpho stuff on some parts and found it to be purely cosmetic.  In fact, I think it accelerated the rust as the parts sat unused (but oiled) and rusted.  My experience with rust mystifies me.  With guns, I seem to have "rusty fingers".  I touch a gun and it will rust.  But rust does not seem to be a problem with unprotected tools. 

Bill


----------



## Ray C (Feb 27, 2013)

Havent' made my own jacks but if I do, I will use this to do the black oxide.
http://www.caswellplating.com/metal-finishing-solutions/black-oxide-kits.html

BTW: I use a lot of this caswell black oxide.  It's A-OK stuff and I do believe meets mil-spec.  The chemicals are not outwardly nasty and it's a cold process.

I also have their aluminum oxide process but, have put all the chemicals in storage.  Leaving vats of sulphuric around causes surface rust on anything metal.  When doing the process, temps are raised and the vapors are wafting through the air, depositing a nice layer H2SO4 on everything.

Ray





Nelson said:


> Hey Guys,
> 
> Have any one you MADE your own machinist jacks for use in your shop?


----------



## darkzero (Feb 28, 2013)

Those are nice. I never thought to make my own & have been meaning to buy a couple. But now I think I will just try to make some now. Thanks for sharing!


----------



## cathead (Mar 7, 2017)

View media item 94683
I made one out of metal from an old electric motor shaft and other scraps.  I have used it twice so not often used
but handy if you need  one for an adjustable support.


----------



## RandyM (Mar 7, 2017)

Without getting fancy and in a pinch, I have used bolts, nuts, and coupling nuts as jacks. It is a really thrifty alternative.


----------



## JimDawson (Mar 7, 2017)

RandyM said:


> Without getting fancy and in a pinch, I have used bolts, nuts, and coupling nuts as jacks. It is a really thrifty alternative.




Me too!


----------



## Silverbullet (Mar 7, 2017)

YUPP use what you have. I made some with the split centers from some old pulleys a one inch nut welded and a one inch bolt . Made them forty years ago for use on the boring mill and an open sided planer. Also in vocational I made the starrett Jack set complete . Even case hardened it. Three years in the school shop we made lots of tools. Still have them all.


----------



## 682bear (Mar 7, 2017)

I made these years ago... not as nice as some of the others in this thread, but they work...


----------



## ddickey (Mar 8, 2017)

The ball on top is tool steel I hardened. Made some mistakes on this project but it still works proper.


----------



## ewkearns (Mar 8, 2017)

Absolutely! They don't need to be anything as elaborate as what is pictured, here. Face at least one end of a piece of stock and tap the end opposite the (a) machined surface. Finish by installing a square head bolt (cleaning up the head in the lathe may be required). You are done......


----------



## hman (Mar 8, 2017)

ddickey said:


> The ball on top is tool steel I hardened. Made some mistakes on this project but it still works proper.


Nice differential thread!


----------



## pstemari (Mar 12, 2017)

Ray C said:


> Havent' made my own jacks but if I do, I will use this to do the black oxide.
> http://www.caswellplating.com/metal-finishing-solutions/black-oxide-kits.html
> ... It's A-OK stuff and I do believe meets mil-spec.  The chemicals are not outwardly nasty and it's a cold process. ...



Nope. It's a selenium-based blackening process, not black oxide at all. I have a small jar of the oxpho stuff, which uses the same chemistry, but haven't used it yet. I'm a bit leery of the selenium: it's pretty toxic in measurable quantities, and I haven't been able to get a straight answer on whether the coating (copper selenide) poses a long risk when handled with bare hands. Calling the process "environmentally friendly" because it uses less electricity is a bad joke.

True black oxide is magnetite, and totally innocuous. Unfortunately, the process requires super hot solutions of concentrated lye, which can spatter violently if you need to add water to make up for evaporation.


----------



## dennys502 (Mar 13, 2017)

These are over 40 year's old so they aren't very pretty.
 I used them mostly for die jacks when building tooling.


----------



## chips&more (Mar 13, 2017)

I can count on one hand the times I used machine jacks in the last couple of decades. And there are sooooooo many work arounds to do the same thing. And on top of that I have collected an embarrassing amount of machine jacks over the years. Don’t need to make any.


----------



## kwoodhands (Mar 21, 2017)

RandyM said:


> Without getting fancy and in a pinch, I have used bolts, nuts, and coupling nuts as jacks. It is a really thrifty alternative.



I have a couple of the small machinist jacks but one day I needed shorter ones.  I installed a couple of 3/8" TEE nuts in two pieces of wood for the base. Then machined the heads flat on two 3/8" bolts. Works fine, no need for a tommy bar or even a wrench. Cheap too.
mike


----------

