The Die Filer Build
Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2020 9:40 am
A project I have started in order to teach myself machining skills, and hopefully have a useful tool at the end of the process. These are not often seen anymore, but they are still pretty useful and are good for filing internal holes and features, making round holes into square holes, etc. There are several versions of these out there, but I am starting with a set of castings and drawings produced by Martin Models in Oregon. Here is a really great video showing another guy's build of the same kit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP5CXuURGV8
Not everything he does is per the drawings, and much of what he does on a mill, I will be attempting to do on a lathe, because that is what I have. Eventually there are some operations that I will need to do on a mill; at that point I will either need to get a mill, or get my friend who has one to help me out. It may be some time before I finish it. The kit comes with just the unmachined castings and a set of drawings, all the rest of the material is builder supplied, and I don't have most of it yet. Mild steel is specified for all of the steel parts, even the shafts and other moving parts, but I will probably upgrade most of them to more durable alloys.
Anyhow, here is a picture of the casting set, as received:
I spent an hour or so Saturday morning going over these with files, cleaning up the parting lines and general ugliness. There were some gates from the casting process that I left in place because for the most part they are on surfaces which are going to be machined anyway, and there was too much to try to clean up with a file. Not sure when I am going to try tackling any of the machining on the castings; if I screw up any of the rest of the parts I can just make them again from stock and I would rather not mess up a casting early on due to lack of skill.
Here is the first part that I made; this is the shaft collar which secures the file to the vertical shaft. I made it out of a piece of 4140 that I had on hand that wasn't big enough for any of the other parts. This was a good opportunity to experiment with the power feed on the lathe for the first time. My Ebay copy of Machinery's Handbook is still in the mail somewhere so I started the feed slow and worked up until I was getting a cut I was happy with. I am pretty happy with how this part turned out, especially for having drilled and tapped the holes on a drill press. I mentioned this to my machinist friend and he pointed out that the best way would have been to use the 4 jaw chuck for that... Chalk that up to things which are not yet obvious to me. Either way I don't think I will have any reason to want to remake this even after I have established a higher level of cluefulness.
Need to order more materials for the rest of the parts... I have some mystery metal/old axle shafts which might be usable for some of them but I am probably better off starting with something that is a known quantity.
[Edit to add; yeah I ended up tackling a couple of the castings sooner rather than later. If I screw up the scotch yoke casting, I can make another part from bar stock, and as for the pulley, I may end up using something else anyway, and it is good practice.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP5CXuURGV8
Not everything he does is per the drawings, and much of what he does on a mill, I will be attempting to do on a lathe, because that is what I have. Eventually there are some operations that I will need to do on a mill; at that point I will either need to get a mill, or get my friend who has one to help me out. It may be some time before I finish it. The kit comes with just the unmachined castings and a set of drawings, all the rest of the material is builder supplied, and I don't have most of it yet. Mild steel is specified for all of the steel parts, even the shafts and other moving parts, but I will probably upgrade most of them to more durable alloys.
Anyhow, here is a picture of the casting set, as received:
I spent an hour or so Saturday morning going over these with files, cleaning up the parting lines and general ugliness. There were some gates from the casting process that I left in place because for the most part they are on surfaces which are going to be machined anyway, and there was too much to try to clean up with a file. Not sure when I am going to try tackling any of the machining on the castings; if I screw up any of the rest of the parts I can just make them again from stock and I would rather not mess up a casting early on due to lack of skill.
Here is the first part that I made; this is the shaft collar which secures the file to the vertical shaft. I made it out of a piece of 4140 that I had on hand that wasn't big enough for any of the other parts. This was a good opportunity to experiment with the power feed on the lathe for the first time. My Ebay copy of Machinery's Handbook is still in the mail somewhere so I started the feed slow and worked up until I was getting a cut I was happy with. I am pretty happy with how this part turned out, especially for having drilled and tapped the holes on a drill press. I mentioned this to my machinist friend and he pointed out that the best way would have been to use the 4 jaw chuck for that... Chalk that up to things which are not yet obvious to me. Either way I don't think I will have any reason to want to remake this even after I have established a higher level of cluefulness.
Need to order more materials for the rest of the parts... I have some mystery metal/old axle shafts which might be usable for some of them but I am probably better off starting with something that is a known quantity.
[Edit to add; yeah I ended up tackling a couple of the castings sooner rather than later. If I screw up the scotch yoke casting, I can make another part from bar stock, and as for the pulley, I may end up using something else anyway, and it is good practice.)