Press "Enter" to skip to content

Turning a SIMPLE Hex Nut into an EPIC Ring


in today’s video we’re here with Patrick
Adair in his studio and we’re gonna be
making a cool ring out of a brass hex
nut
guys we’re here with Patrick Adair in
his studio Patrick what do you do I make
rings and make rings out of everything
very cool we’ve done a collaboration
with Patrick before where we used brass
from some bullet casings in some
meteorite that you provided we melted
those down added them together and you
then made a video where you showed
turning that into this ring so this ring
brass on the outside with meteorite in
it it’s got carbon fiber on the inside
fits me wonderfully very cool ring today
we’re gonna try something a little bit
simpler yes I think it would be a lot of
fun to make something out of a brass hex
nut and it’s kind of a fun project I
think a lot of people would be able to
do from home so that’s gonna be kind of
the goal you don’t have to have
meteorite you don’t have to have a gray
fiber you don’t even need a lathe if
you’ve got time all right very cool
that’s why you need some basic hand
tools time and preferably a lathe if you
got one but if you have one you have one
I don’t don’t one I think we’re gonna
show both versions like I’m all hand
tools version and then a bit more
advanced power tool version so we’ve got
three different sizes of our brass hex
nut here and you were showing me a few
different designs and what I think I was
hoping for was something that looks kind
of like a signet ring which means it has
like one flat facet on the top and then
the rest just kind of gets moved out
yeah exactly so to do that we’ll just
throw it in a vise I’ll use a file to
round off all of the edges except for
these top two they have that flat face
and then we need to use this round file
to get rid of those threads and make it
so it doesn’t cut your finger when you
put it on gotcha so smooth out the
inside smooth on the outside and then
we’ve got a few different finishing
steps we’ll get to as well here’s the
basic idea
we’re gonna take a brass hex nut and
some files lathes saws and Sanders to
turn it into a ring that fits perfectly
so we got to choose which size this one
I think is just entirely too small this
ring fits me pretty well so I’m kind of
using it as a guideline and we’d never
get usable ring out of that for me
middle one might be able to get that to
work we’ll end up with fairly thin walls
on it but if we can pull that off
I think we
it’ll work it is a lot to sand down yeah
we’re kind of pushing or like a little
but we’ll see we can always try to ice
brass is a fairly soft metal if I were
trying to do this with steel that would
take a long time you can see I’m already
getting corners to come down great yeah
that’s good for and already it’s not
okay I’ve now taken a file – I’d say
just about the whole outside of this
I’ve got it rounded off except where I’m
gonna have the little signet plate on
the top so we’ve got the general shape
I’m going for and now it’s time to try
and make it fit my finger as you can see
I can’t really wear this very well so I
have to carve out quite a bit of that
inside brass you got a round file I’m
gonna just put in the vise and just
start carving it out and tell hopefully
alright now I’ve got the inside of my
ring all hollowed out using the lathe
I’m going to put it on this ring mandrel
here and then put it in the jaws of my
lathe and I’ll use this tungsten carbide
lathe cutter to round out the edges
all right so I’ve got my ring shape made
and I even sanded it to just get rid of
any rough edges and now I need to add
bevels to the ring I think that’ll give
it a nice just kind of sharp
professional look so I’ll put it back on
the lathe and then I’ve got these two
different angled lathe cutters so you
can see that and I’ll use each one to
put a bevel on the edges and it should
all right so I’ve got the ring ready to
switch over to the mill I’m gonna do a
cool kind of pattern around with that
but I’m gonna use the polisher to make
it look good on camera first that’s very
important looks pretty good as it is all
right so I’ve got my basic ring shape
made now I want to mill some notches in
it using my mill here and so I’ve got a
circular ended it’s called a ball mill
drill bit right here so when I turn it
on you can see it spins and that’ll put
a just a mark in it and now I need to
clamp onto the ring and then this is a
rotary table and I can spin this dial to
spin the ring and I can see down to just
like tenths of a degree how far it’s
spinning so it’s really accurate and it
allows me to just evenly notch all the
way around the ring I’ll show you how I
do it
all right so I’ve got the first side
done you can see it’s got just this nice
and notches all the way around the
radius of the Ring now I need to flip it
over line it up and then repeat the
at this point I’ve shaved down so much
of this brass that it’s pretty thin and
I put it in the vise to try and really
hold it in place as I file down the
taper I’m worried that I would just
crush it because a lot softer than it
was so patrick explained what we’re
gonna do to hold the still so hopefully
and this might not work it might not be
able to withstand the force that we need
to use to file it but this is just
superglue we can just pour a ton of it
in here I’m gonna super glue it to the
vise here this is accelerator it hardens
it almost instantly so that’ll cure and
hopefully that’ll hold it in place and
allow him to file it and then when we’re
done we can use heat from the flame to
just kind of ruin the superglue and
it’ll just pop right off so the glue is
now cured let’s see if this will hold up
to some somewhat aggressive filing
[Music]
all right now I’ve got the design milled
into the outside of the Ring and I need
to finish up the inside and make it
comfortable to wear so I’m gonna put it
in my lathe jaws once again and I’m
going to use this bit here to bevel the
inside edge and give it a nice kind of
more of a rounded gradual fit so that it
doesn’t hurt your finger when you put it
on alright so we’ve got a kind of a
medium grit sandpaper on this dremel
here and then we’ll do some polishing
steps after that now I am using a rotary
tool right now but technically this is
something you can do just with files or
sandpaper if you’re very patient alright
I’ve got my ring taken down to a pretty
smooth level all the way around and now
I’m gonna start hitting it with some
polish so I’ve got this little rotary
wheel got some polish here I’m gonna
polish the inside and then I’ll take it
over the bigger wheel of policy outside
to see how shiny we can get this I’m
thinking you just bring it out to a
mirror finish all the way around all
right
this Signet style ring it fits my finger
nicely it’s shiny inside and out however
this honestly is a little too gaudy for
my table over the top it just looks like
it’s supposed to be gold and way too
fancy so I wanted to take this down and
make it look like sort of a worn
weather-beaten up kind of thing I’ve got
just what you need awesome
so my ring I’m gonna leave this one
shiny but I prepared a second one that I
can do the same thing – I left the hex
nut shape to it just because I think it
kind of looks cool so what we’re going
to do we’ll each take a turn and we’re
just going to use the Dremel and we’re
just gonna go to town and we’re just
gonna scratch them up make it look like
it’s been through a battle or something
like that and then we’ll do some heat
treatment to make it look really old I
like it oh yeah let’s get started
okay now it’s my turn I’m gonna see if I
can compete with what’s Nate’s done and
I think you did a really good job so I’m
a little nervous I’m scared you guys
aren’t gonna like mine but I’m gonna do
my best I hope you like it all right so
we’ve got a blowtorch here that’s to
heat up the rings and then this is a cup
of motor oil it doesn’t really matter
what kind of use just motor oil so yeah
let’s do it
[Music]
and I’m just going for sort of a nice
red hot all over
yep just wait til it gets red hot and
then you’ll be ready
same process we were doing before
however we found we got a better grungy
er darker result by using huge motor oil
rather than a new clean synthetic oil
that looked cool look at that that looks
pretty good let’s wipe it off and see
what we’ve got
[Music]
okay I like this I like how those turned
out it was several repetitions of
heating it up and then putting in the
oil one point actually sanded a lot of
the patina off to try and sort of remove
what had built up wasn’t dark enough but
I did finally do it well I really think
looks good and then I took my fairly
fine grit file and I just hit some of
the edges really lightly to sort of add
highlights so you can see the difference
very happy with how does it’s turned out
you got some really good darkness in
there yeah I was able to get it pretty
black and then I just used a little bit
of steel wool and just went over the
whole thing and just kind of brought out
the edges just like how Nate did it
ourselves some pretty intense looking
rings for some cut dudes you don’t wanna
mess with us guys Patrick has his own
channel he makes really cool rings you
should definitely go check him out yeah
my channel I just make rings out of just
random exotic materials they use like
meteorite carbon fiber man tooth you
name it so we just have a lot of fun
over there thanks so much for having me
on the channel so it’s a good time guys
punting doesn’t end here go ahead and
click right there to see our last video
and we’ll see you the next one talk to
you then [Music]
Please follow and like us: