"I hate filing" or "my Christmas holiday project"

[Dr.Al]

Today I made this:



Yes, that's right: it's a small notch in a random bit of 3 mm steel I had lying around. Impressed? I was.

It might not look like much, but in order to make said notch, I made this over the last week-ish:



More pictures:







In case you haven't worked it out, it's Harold Hall's filing machine. I hate filing with a passion, so this should be quite handy. So far I've only prepared a square file, a "tri-square" (why can't they just call it "triangular"?) file and a flat file, but more will come over the next few days.

The "variable stroke mechanism" (adjustable eccentric bearing) is a beautiful design. Here are a couple of videos of it running with somewhere near maximum stroke length (first slowly, then a bit quicker):

[youtubessl]DLwiAzXv4hM[/youtubessl]

[youtubessl]02qi2sY5SRw[/youtubessl]

I'm feeling rather chuffed with that.

 

[Trevanion]

Ooo, very clever! I like the use of the lathe as your motive power, who doesn't want a 4HP die filer? :lol:

 

[DaveL]

Very nice, doesn't This Old Tony use something similar?

 

[Mike G]

My goodness. You make some fabulous stuff, Dr Al. The thing is, I don't reckon I've spent as much time filing in my entire life as you took to build that gorgeous machine!

 

[Dr.Al]

Ooo, very clever! I like the use of the lathe as your motive power, who doesn't want a 4HP die filer? :lol:

Only 1.8 hp - hardly anything!

Very nice, doesn't This Old Tony use something similar?

Yes, I think so. Chris from clickspring also has one, built from an American castings kit. I looked at that one but the shipping cost was a lot more than the cost of the castings themselves!

My goodness. You make some fabulous stuff, Dr Al. The thing is, I don't reckon I've spent as much time filing in my entire life as you took to build that gorgeous machine!

Thank Mike. It took me just under a week to make, but not doing many hours a day. I had to do a lot of filing for keyways in the gears I made for the slow speed grinder I made recently and that restarted my desire to make this machine. Even if the filing I do doesn't justify it, I enjoyed making the machine & if it saves one minute of filing it'll be worth it!

 

[Lons]

I love it! :eusa-clap:

I suspect it has little to do with making filing easier and much to do with the satisfaction gained from making a lovely machine.

 

[Trevanion]

Only 1.8 hp - hardly anything!

That's quite surprising, looks like a pretty heavy-duty bit of kit for an underwhelming motor.

 

[AndyT]

Wow!

You just need to add a set of templates for different tooth pitches and you'd have a way of filing your own saw teeth... I've heard of something called a Foley filer - would that be at all similar?

 

[Steve Maskery]

Just fantastic!
S

 

[Dr.Al]

I love it! :eusa-clap:

I suspect it has little to do with making filing easier and much to do with the satisfaction gained from making a lovely machine.

Yes, absolutely.

Only 1.8 hp - hardly anything!

That's quite surprising, looks like a pretty heavy-duty bit of kit for an underwhelming motor.

Yes, it does run out of oomph quite often. I think it was designed with students in mind and having the relatively weedy motor meant they were less likely to do much damage. I'd love to upgrade to an M300 (which has almost twice the power) instead of the M250, but I'm not sure I'd love to have to move the M250 back out of the garage - getting in there was quite an ordeal!

Wow!

You just need to add a set of templates for different tooth pitches and you'd have a way of filing your own saw teeth... I've heard of something called a Foley filer - would that be at all similar?

I'd never heard of a Foley filer, but that does sound like an interesting addition to the machine. Definitely something to ponder...

 

[phill05]

Great idea looks very impressive.

Phill