I was inspired by the many hex nut ring projects I have seen online and wanted to put my own spin on it. I don’t have a lathe or mill at home, but I do have a Dremel rotary tool, a corded drill, a file, and a metal hacksaw! I am also a huge fan of Green Lantern, so I decided to make a Green Lantern ring! I have made a few of these rings now, so I have a few different projects following a similar workflow.

Supplies

Materials:

Hex nut that is just a bit small to fit around your finger
Sandpaper to about 300 grit (or however smooth you want your ring). You can use a steel polishing compound and cloth if you want.

Tools:

Dremel with grinding bit and round endmill cutter, and optionally a buffing bit
Drill that can hold a bit the size of your finger. The associated bit the size of your finger or the biggest bit you have (this is to try and lessen how much filing you need to do, so the closer you get to your ring size the better for you)
Cylindrical file that can fit in the hex nut
Metal hacksaw

Step 1: Matching the Ring Diameter to My Finger

There are two steps to this: Drilling and filing.

If you have drill bits that can bore through the steel of the hex nut at all, I recommend using them. Make sure you don’t use the largest drill bit right away. It will be easier to start with a smaller size and work up to the largest bit you intend to use.

Use a clamp or vice to hold the ring in place, then slowly advance the drill through. The metal will get very hot here, so you should use some tap magic/coolant/or even some water to keep the temperature under control.

However far the drilling got you, you should use the file to deburr the edges. You do not want to cut your finger on this ring.

If the ring is too small for your finger still, use the file to uniformly make the finger hole of the ring bigger.

Step 2: Roughing Out the Shape

Using a hacksaw to rough out the shape

Draw out the ring profile you want to cut with the hack saw with a sharpie. Then clamp the ring in place and follow the cut line with the hacksaw.

Step 3: Carve Out the Green Lantern Shape

Using a Dremel and a file to carve out the green lantern shape

Now this is the part where it helps a lot if you have a steady hand. (I don’t, which is why it didn’t come out that clean). I colored the areas I wanted to cut out with the Dremel endmill. I slowly drew over those areas with the Dremel, as if I was coloring them in, engraving the design into the ring.

Engraved Logo