Can't Miss Center Punch

[Crusty]

Kia intake valve transformed into a center punch - took me about 5 minutes to make.

[old_toolmaker]

Crusty,
If you can’t hit this with a hammer you better give up��

[Crusty]

I don't have that problem - the title was just a small joke, but if I did I'd probably have a different hobby because 8 fingers and 2 thumbs only go so far.

When I was dismantling a Kia engine for the aluminum, I was surprised by how nice of a steel from which the valves were made. It was really tough but not that brittle and that's when the idea hit me that one would make a good center punch.

A friend suggested that I see if the engine would fire up and indeed it did when I tried.





This mostly didn't work BTW. Only the lowest section got hot enough to take the aluminum to hot shortness so that it would bust apart easily. I cut the rest into smaller chunks with an aluminum cutting blade in my circular saw and though it was a dubious operation it worked. All that I couldn't recover were the actual cylinders with liners that were impossible to remove and impervious to the aluminum cutting blade, but still overall I got 3 5 gal buckets of casting aluminum chunks to melt.

[DIYer]

Thanks Crusty! We've added your Center Punch to our Measuring and Marking category,
as well as to your builder page: Crusty's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Center Punch by Crusty

tags: punch

[JoeVanGeaux]

Crusty,
If you can’t hit this with a hammer you better give up��

Its my turn to say: "You need a bigger hammer."

[BEEMAN]

Thanks I am a wood worker, obviously not a very good one, but I try & have fun. I have a couple of engines out back & several pair of heads, so making a couple of these will be of great help. I need to of these or more than tool stealing gremlin always works with me. Thank you. ��

[Crusty]

I bought a 12# sledge hammer for this project and I have to say that it's too big for this old codger to swing many times.

So, size doesn't matter as much as the effort put into it (where have I heard that before?).

Beeman, if you want to do something unpredictable and fun, cut the ends off the installed valves off with a torch and see what happens. Most of mine fizzled but a couple launched nicely.

If your hand/eye coordination isn't anything to write home about you can use exhaust valves since they're a lot bigger in diameter.

[JoeVanGeaux]

Beeman, if you want to do something unpredictable and fun, cut the ends off the installed valves off with a torch and see what happens. Most of mine fizzled but a couple launched nicely.

Have I been missing out on some fun? Is there a video of this somewhere??

[Crusty]

The springs don't really go as far as you would expect but the unpredictability makes torching each one fun. It was also fun to break down an engine with a torch, a sledge hammer, a metal saw and cold chisels knowing I wouldn't have to put it back together.

I just finished the shakedown run at the Shade Tree Foundry where I tried my homemade burner, furnace, crucible and casting tools for the very first time. I made this first ingot from that Kia engine (little thin on one end because I spilled some aluminum rushing since my hand was getting hot). It all worked as expected except that my initial preheat of the crucible was too hot for too long and big chunks popped off the outside and now I have to buy another one. The ingot is about 4 lbs of aluminum made in an angle iron form.

And the spirit sayeth unto me "Cast thine ingots upon the form" so I did.

[Crusty]

Just finished making that Kia engine into ingots for casting. I got 57# of nice casting ready aluminum for $40 - not a bad deal.

I'm not selling anything, just relating my experience getting good casting stock inexpensively.