I made a 2-Sided Quarter

twooldvolvos

twooldvolvos

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I've had my lathe a little less than a year. It seems that I have been spending more time getting set up than learning to use it. So this weekend I decided to make a two headed quarter. I give credit to mitxela who I found on uTube for giving me the idea.

This exercise was good practice in using a 4 jaw chuck and a dial indicator for centering work in it. I would like to say that I measured everything but the truth is that there was a lot of eye balling.

Materials were cheap. About $.25 each for the main parts.

The first thing I had to do was to make a collet to hold the coin while I hollowed the insides out. I made mine from an old brass plumbing cap.

2SideCoin1.JPG 2SideCoin2.JPG

Then I used the collet in a 4 jaw chuck to hollow out the tails side of 2 quarters. One of the quarters was left with the outside of the coin in tact.


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The other one was super glued to a rod so the outside could be machined off.


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Before I machined the outside off, I needed to center the work. On my first try, I centered the rod, not the quarter. Ha. Ha.

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I ended up with this.

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I removed the no-edge quarter from the rod with some acetone. Then I had the pieces ready to glue together with a little epoxy.

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And Bob's your uncle.

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There is no better way for me to learn than to do. This project came out pretty good. Next time I will machine closer to the edge. Now I hope I don't accidentally spend it.
 
Some of us don't have two nickels to rub together and you're out here slicing up quarters like a Ginsu chef. I better see if I can get some OT from work to try this. It'll probably cost me at least a few dollars to get right though.

Thanks for sharing! A guy at work did this, (or so I'm told) by gluing the pieces to wooden dowels before machining.
 
You know that there is a federal law against defacing government money right??? I always wondered how they got away with those penny machines that flatten those pennys into something else. Guess alot of people must be guilty of this.

Just looked this up and found it is a up to $100.00 fine and or 6 months in Jail
 
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Ha, that was one of my first lathe projects too... Though, I only faced-off the two halves to half thickness and glued them together. Clamping tightly during gluing and burnishing the edge a bit, gives a glue line that is almost invisible.

Of course actually implementing the subterfuge would be a rather complex discipline. Even so, I'd never enter coin toss with a machinist!
 
chip maker said:
You know that there is a federal law against defacing government money right??? I always wondered how they got away with those penny machines that flatten those pennys into something else.
Click to expand...
I always figured the manufacturers of those machines would claim they tested them on copper blanks, so they never defaced any money ;)
 
Nice little project.
That piece of brass you sacrificed was worth about $5.
 
I made some with the grand kids. My edge lines aren’t as good as yours. Each one cost me 50 Cents…:) I never thought of insetting it like you did. Pretty awesome. Mine is good for people with my eyesight.
7A2717C3-E854-4BFD-9E4B-F7C153BFFF10.jpeg
 
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chip maker said:
You know that there is a federal law against defacing government money right??? I always wondered how they got away with those penny machines that flatten those pennys into something else. Guess alot of people must be guilty of this.

Just looked this up and found it is a up to $100.00 fine and or 6 months in Jail
Click to expand...
The face on the coin is perfect and intact. It has been “detailed“.
 
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