My Grandfather learned how to hand scrape during World War II in England. He loved the process and level of difficulty to overcome imperfections. Women in machine shops all over England learned this trade in order to keep machines operating where downtime was kept to a minimum. There was a war going on and precision was not easy to maintain as factories were constantly under threat of bombing. Lubricants were often in short supply accelerating wear and tear on the machines. Groups of 5 to 7 women would tackle a single machine and attempt to complete a job in a single 10 hour shift. They never stopped. 6 ½ days a week they would be ferried to machine shops across England, Wales and Scotland.
Great Video Adam - glad that you were able to get a lot more of the details. I was running around so much I did not get very much. I had a great time - you are welcome here any time!
Since the majority of people would not have power scrapers I think it was wise on your part to learn the hand scraping method best. Great job on the scraping and explaining what your doing.
Looks like you guys learned a great deal in this class. Richard is a great teacher and totally committed to teaching us young guys how to scrap to keep this craft going.
your video is well done. Richard helped me get a JET lathe headstock aligned. My hero and me a complete novice. You are fortunate to be involved. Congrats. No computer here.
Be there and be square. That sure looks like a good time with a lot of real information flying around. I can feel it in the air from here. Kudos to Keith for the use of his workshop, what a gathering.
what a great class! you seem to have such a great little community of guys that are really into each others success. Keith is a generous fellow for hosting this in his new shop. I'm looking forward to seeing all the videos on this .thanks for filming this and sharing it.
God bless you Adam for taking this class, and bless Richard King too for permitting you to film bits and pieces of your own progress as you practiced and continued to get more competant at it.
All I can say is wow... all the RUclips creators who attended have done a tremendous job of communicating your experience to those of us who were not fortunate enough to attend. Hope to meet some of you this year if there is a BarZ bash in the summer...
Hey Adam... a lot of cool guys learning together... seen John's videos too... very nice and all that in Keith's new shop.... that is just awesome to watch! Thanks to you and John... now I believe I finally understand what all the fuzz about scraping means... thank you both for that!
Looked like you guys had a great time. Keith's shop is a real Georgia gem. Thanks so much for sharing this video. It gave insight into something I had never seen before.
Well once again I learned something new that I never heard of before. Thanks Adam for the birds eye view of your course you took and I hope you get to use it a lot!
I saw Jon's video and said that it looked like all of you had fun. Richard sounds like one of those "old timers" that would be interesting to listen to let alone get hands on training from. Major switch for you in going from ABom Torque to the fine motor control that is necessary for scraping.
Thanks for the video as always Adam. The whole time the class was running I was concerned that Keith's new shop would blow away in the storms. Glad you all made it fine.
I have a small angle plate that I did quite some years back, there was no machining at all apart from tool and cutter grinding on 2 faces. This project was a rough casting that I had to hand chisel all surfaces then scrape 2 sides flat then surface grind 2 faces and use a cup wheel on the the 2 inner faces on a tool and cutter grinder. I can remember saying why can we use the milling machine, this would save the hands from the hammer and chisel. We broke a few over head fluro lights from the cast iron chips. LOL
Super video Adam, thanks for taking the time out to make it while you were training, that scraping by hand takes some practice for sure, but you block looked good .
Good job Adam, keep at it, it gets easier. Your hand flaking looks great BTW, that aint easy. A little tip for your angle plate, scrape the large surface flat first and scrape / align the smaller surface second, less work in aligning the smaller surface ;)
Hey Adam, thanks for putting your video up and sharing with us. Keith's shop looks fantastic. I wish I had enough time to watch more of the great content you guys put up. A couple of opinions for what they're worth. When scraping I'd suggest not to handle the work with your bare hands quite as much. You'd be surprised how much even a small block like that will move. You can test that yourself and I think you'll be surprised. Your scraper around 7:00 appears to be blunt. When grinding the radii it can sometimes be easier to leave them in the handle and use a parallel etc to block it up, and then you can easily pivot on the radius. It's just a bit quicker and probably more accurate. No biggie, but FWIW. Once the radius is set it shouldn't need to be changed so I lap my scrapers on a cast iron power lap and touch them up reasonably often. Not so much when power scraping, but a truly sharp scraper when hand scraping can make a huge difference. I've never seen Canode lifted off like that, very cool! I suspect one of many of Richard King "trade secrets" he gives away in his classes. Mate that flaking looks absolutely awesome and wouldn't look out of place on even the finest machinery made. You should be very proud of what you achieved. Well done, and again thanks for sharing this with the world.
Pete F I learned a lot about us grind and how important the cutting edge is. I got a little better as I progressed and did notice the difference with a sharp edge. Thanks Pete.
Huh, your teacher lives about 20 minutes from me, bet he enjoyed getting away from Winter up here. ;) And this was a great series of videos you released today, Adam, thanks!
cant wait to se ya make a cylinder square for the new flat surface plate always wondered can you scrape a combo square head square your doin awesome, wish I was there.
I would pay good money for a full how to video on this skill! Or at least a book on it. Does sucha thing exist? ..with that said, Adam, you might consider making an online machining school with good quality videos. Have a monthly subscription or purchase the videos singularly. This business model is getting very popular and is lucrative. But more importantly you could keep these skills alive and fill a need for hobbyists like myself.
Keith really set the high water mark for building a workspace for a classroom. Tell him to dig a pit in the middle for a fire so the whole floor gets warm and keeps his equipment (and people) a nice steady temperature haha Sooo cool though. Don't get frustrated. If you're taking longer, you're learning more. It's just that simple. Looked good to me and your half moons started looking very very regularly shaped. Are they going to provide a master plate and some grit at the end so you can really dial it in?
He would have put Pex tubes in the slab if he was concerned, but his climate doesn't warrant it. Let's see if he puts a couple of tons of A/C in it in the summer.
Well Bruce, being in hot and humid southern Georgia, with the large volume (high ceilings), you could start with 5 tons in the machine shop side alone and see what happens. Of course a proper load calc would be needed, but through experience, I am guessing around 10 tons per shop side. I've been in the commercial AC biz for a long time and dealing with the obvious Georgia heat is a big job but even more challenging is the dehumidification capacity loss in the equipment before you realize cooling. Customers are always surprised at the amount of tonnage that is required for open space construction. A space like that is a nightmare to condition. That being said, those issues are down the road. It is a beautiful shop and I am sure Keith will enjoy the heck out of it!!
Cold here this weekend! Down into 30's in early morning. Not sure if it's that cold down near Pensacola city where Adam lives. Always seems slightly warmer there.
+Abom79 I know, hes well respected tutor. I did a five year apprenticeship on scraping and fitting and it was a low paid and under respected job(and dying out with death of machine building in uk) good so see it getting respect finally
+Khalid Al-Kooheji a lot of cnc have linear bearings and haas for example shim component parts where bolted together..big problem for me in england is we dont make anything and our machines are in india or pakistan ..non left to rebuild!
I have found in the cabinet trade that power tools allow me to make twice as many mistakes in half the amount of time. Just pick up and brad gun, go at it and then find that the piece is crooked or upside down or shifted a bit. The old timers that hammered square nails had time to think about it in between each nail being driven...not any more!
I'm really curious about something: In the step where you're using the orange mallet to strike the scraper, why not attach an angled striking surface to the scraper body? It should also help you see the angle you'd like to keep. It just seems like a slight misuse to be intentionally striking the tool with the edge of the mallet and not the face.
Adam thanks for this video very interesting indeed - good to see this knowledge being passed on to those interested in learning What is the background music in this one
Hi from Russia Adam! In your vid about new Cushman chuckyou used graphite powder as a lubricant. Please tell about it more, and if i can use it for 3-jaw chuck with a "spiral" type big nut if i said understandable)) Please tell what i can use for things like chucks and so on as a lubricant if i cannot find this dry powder. Thank you very much, we learn a lot from your videos in here. Sorry for my english.
Great class of men. In the photo shot with you and the guys at the eat out was that Keith's wife sitting next to him as I have not seen a photo of her?
how do you power scrape the straight edge at 26:10 to be uniformly flat from end to end if your doing it by hand ? as in it would sit flush against as granite flat block
Rickyboy707 The problem with removing too much material is getting the rest of the part down to match the low spots which is very time consuming. Scraping doesn't take off much metal each pass, but it's easy to dig a hole if your not carefull.
These methods are how you restore the all important guide ways of a machine tool, the guides that the carriage and tailstock of a lathe moves on, or the knee of a milling machine moves up and down on and the milling table moves back and forth across on. If the those guide ways of a machine are not perfectly flat and straight, the machine will not produce square and true workpieces. Scraping is how you get a machine tool's guide ways restored to being straight, true, and 'square'.
Love your videos Adam but I'm a total noob i assumed that scraping was a flattening a surface but seems there's a lot more to it could you maybe cover the what and why of it like the half moon process
As I understand the process you do the scraping to get things flat BUT not perfectly smooth. Then you flake to give you areas that oil can flow around those high spots as the two parts slide.
My Grandfather learned how to hand scrape during World War II in England. He loved the process and level of difficulty to overcome imperfections.
Women in machine shops all over England learned this trade in order to keep machines operating where downtime was kept to a minimum.
There was a war going on and precision was not easy to maintain as factories were constantly under threat of bombing. Lubricants were often in short supply accelerating wear and tear on the machines. Groups of 5 to 7 women would tackle a single machine and attempt to complete a job in a single 10 hour shift. They never stopped. 6 ½ days a week they would be ferried to machine shops across England, Wales and Scotland.
ecke1010 There might be, in the Imperial War Museum Archives in London.
Great Video Adam - glad that you were able to get a lot more of the details. I was running around so much I did not get very much. I had a great time - you are welcome here any time!
Keith Rucker - VintageMachinery.org Thanks Keith! I don't remember seeing you film much but you stayed busy the whole time!
Keith-looks like everybody loved your shop and the effort you put in to get this class put together!!
Between you, John and Keith. I think over 100k youtubers got a chance to watch and learn from the scraping class! Thanks for sharing!
Since the majority of people would not have power scrapers I think it was wise on your part to learn the hand scraping method best. Great job on the scraping and explaining what your doing.
Looks like you guys learned a great deal in this class. Richard is a great teacher and totally committed to teaching us young guys how to scrap to keep this craft going.
your video is well done. Richard helped me get a JET lathe headstock aligned. My hero and me a complete novice. You are fortunate to be involved. Congrats. No computer here.
Be there and be square. That sure looks like a good time with a lot of real information flying around. I can feel it in the air from here. Kudos to Keith for the use of his workshop, what a gathering.
Lee Barnes it was great and lots of good information was taught
this has got to be the best video showing the learning process ...makes my learning process much less frustrating.
Awesome! What a great class. Thanks for the video, Adam!
what a great class! you seem to have such a great little community of guys that are really into each others success. Keith is a generous fellow for hosting this in his new shop. I'm looking forward to seeing all the videos on this .thanks for filming this and sharing it.
cardude59 Thanks, yes we have a great machining community out there. We all like to help each other and share what we know and learn.
God bless you Adam for taking this class, and bless Richard King too for permitting you to film bits and pieces of your own progress as you practiced and continued to get more competant at it.
That looked like a great class and experience. Nothing beats hands on.
All I can say is wow... all the RUclips creators who attended have done a tremendous job of communicating your experience to those of us who were not fortunate enough to attend. Hope to meet some of you this year if there is a BarZ bash in the summer...
Hugh Frater we'll be there!
Hey Adam... a lot of cool guys learning together... seen John's videos too... very nice and all that in Keith's new shop.... that is just awesome to watch! Thanks to you and John... now I believe I finally understand what all the fuzz about scraping means... thank you both for that!
Don't know that I'd ever have the need, but the process is intriguing! Thanks!
Hey Abom, I knew you would have the best hand skills of any of the youtube machining crowd I watch!!!!
Fascinating Gentleman.. It's a dying art that is being reborn by all you guys.
Looked like you guys had a great time. Keith's shop is a real Georgia gem. Thanks so much for sharing this video. It gave insight into something I had never seen before.
hi adam..your heart is big helping your friends ... total respect sir,
Well once again I learned something new that I never heard of before. Thanks Adam for the birds eye view of your course you took and I hope you get to use it a lot!
I watched Keith's video first, then John's and now yours. Cool to see different angles of the same thing.
Eric Morrison yep it's great to see the different perspectives and filming styles n
I saw Jon's video and said that it looked like all of you had fun. Richard sounds like one of those "old timers" that would be interesting to listen to let alone get hands on training from.
Major switch for you in going from ABom Torque to the fine motor control that is necessary for scraping.
Ray Lautenschlager Richard has a lot of knowledge and experience to learn from
Fascinating. Wish I was way younger and could look into all this.
a lot of hard work in the start but easier as the skill rises great to see thanks for sharing
Very interesting. I had never seen the process before. Thanks!
Thats my dream shop.
Awesome! Scraping is on my list to try some day as well. I saw Saunders' shirt and guessed him right away. #LicensedToMill
Looks like a good group of fellow trainees & a good time learning.
So grateful for your videos.
Very nice work, Adam, especially for a beginner! Well, I guess you do know your way around metal at bit... You are a natural at scraping...
awesome to see, watched vids of most the guys there with you, absolutely awesome to see you all together.
Thank you for the great video Adam.
Great Vid Adam, looks like everyone enjoyed themselves while learning alot. Thanks for taking us along!
Wow! That is really cool! I am glad to see some younger people learning this so hopefully it does not become a lost art.
Thanks for showing! I want to attend one of Richard's classes...
I really thought these videos was going to be boring. Not shy saying how wrong I was. Awesome!
+Fred Ohnemus Well that makes me smile! Thanks!
So what seemed more comfortable for the flaking the stiff or flexy blade holder? Thanks for taking us along on your adventure.
+bcbloc02 Richards Rigid scraper was much better for me, but then again I will need more practice with the flexible scraper to make it better.
Thanks for the video as always Adam. The whole time the class was running I was concerned that Keith's new shop would blow away in the storms. Glad you all made it fine.
caahacky we were watching the radar on our phones. Had some scares that's for sure.
Awesome show Adam, really enjoyed it !...Jon Johnson
Great stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Cool stuff Adam👍 thanks for shearing man😃
I have a small angle plate that I did quite some years back, there was no machining at all apart from tool and cutter grinding on 2 faces. This project was a rough casting that I had to hand chisel all surfaces then scrape 2 sides flat then surface grind 2 faces and use a cup wheel on the the 2 inner faces on a tool and cutter grinder. I can remember saying why can we use the milling machine, this would save the hands from the hammer and chisel.
We broke a few over head fluro lights from the cast iron chips. LOL
wow, the combined talent in that shop!
nice to see another skill being passed on before its lost
keep up the great work Abom
Thanks Adam that was interesting.
Excellent video Adam, looks like good fun.
yeah good fun ,and cheap one...only 1650 bucks for 5 days of making fun
More excellent video work Adam.
Very nice progress was looking good.
thats one beautiful shop!
A lot of excites. Thanks for sharing this, Adam
Super video Adam, thanks for taking the time out to make it while you were training, that scraping by hand takes some practice for sure, but you block looked good .
lookcreations Thank you!
Great stuff Adam, you are awesome!!
Nice video Adam !! Keep up the good work
Good job Adam, keep at it, it gets easier. Your hand flaking looks great BTW, that aint easy.
A little tip for your angle plate, scrape the large surface flat first and scrape / align the smaller surface second, less work in aligning the smaller surface ;)
Such a bunch of great guys :-)
Nice video Adam very interesting .
Hey Adam, thanks for putting your video up and sharing with us. Keith's shop looks fantastic. I wish I had enough time to watch more of the great content you guys put up.
A couple of opinions for what they're worth. When scraping I'd suggest not to handle the work with your bare hands quite as much. You'd be surprised how much even a small block like that will move. You can test that yourself and I think you'll be surprised.
Your scraper around 7:00 appears to be blunt.
When grinding the radii it can sometimes be easier to leave them in the handle and use a parallel etc to block it up, and then you can easily pivot on the radius. It's just a bit quicker and probably more accurate. No biggie, but FWIW. Once the radius is set it shouldn't need to be changed so I lap my scrapers on a cast iron power lap and touch them up reasonably often. Not so much when power scraping, but a truly sharp scraper when hand scraping can make a huge difference.
I've never seen Canode lifted off like that, very cool! I suspect one of many of Richard King "trade secrets" he gives away in his classes.
Mate that flaking looks absolutely awesome and wouldn't look out of place on even the finest machinery made. You should be very proud of what you achieved. Well done, and again thanks for sharing this with the world.
Pete F I learned a lot about us grind and how important the cutting edge is. I got a little better as I progressed and did notice the difference with a sharp edge. Thanks Pete.
Huh, your teacher lives about 20 minutes from me, bet he enjoyed getting away from Winter up here. ;)
And this was a great series of videos you released today, Adam, thanks!
sidewinder666666 Cottage Grove resident?
Yeah, I live in St. Paul, about 15-20 minutes from Cottage Grove.
Nice intro to the process.
Very interesting, love to learn more about this
Very nice trip and pretty didactic course. thumb up from me.
cant wait to se ya make a cylinder square for the new flat surface plate always wondered can you scrape a combo square head square your doin awesome, wish I was there.
Excellent vid....
I think the most I got was 28 points/inch. I told Richard that was good enough for me
I love the internet. I have wondered how the half moons flakes are made. That is totally not how i thought it would be done. Thanks.
and fun was had by all easy on the abom torque lol nice to see the grass again its all white up here
Mike Cartman My grass is still green and growing.
Would have loved to take the class as well. Have always been interested in how it was done. :-)
love it, ty!
TOOO COOOL !! ROCK-ON !
Great.....Thanks!
I would pay good money for a full how to video on this skill! Or at least a book on it. Does sucha thing exist? ..with that said, Adam, you might consider making an online machining school with good quality videos. Have a monthly subscription or purchase the videos singularly. This business model is getting very popular and is lucrative. But more importantly you could keep these skills alive and fill a need for hobbyists like myself.
A shop to die for.But a shop is never big enough ,or a storage shed for old tractors,like me.
Barry Beggs He's really built himself a fine shop that's for sure!
looks like fun
Keith really set the high water mark for building a workspace for a classroom.
Tell him to dig a pit in the middle for a fire so the whole floor gets warm and keeps his equipment (and people) a nice steady temperature haha
Sooo cool though.
Don't get frustrated. If you're taking longer, you're learning more. It's just that simple.
Looked good to me and your half moons started looking very very regularly shaped.
Are they going to provide a master plate and some grit at the end so you can really dial it in?
He would have put Pex tubes in the slab if he was concerned, but his climate doesn't warrant it. Let's see if he puts a couple of tons of A/C in it in the summer.
Well Bruce, being in hot and humid southern Georgia, with the large volume (high ceilings), you could start with 5 tons in the machine shop side alone and see what happens. Of course a proper load calc would be needed, but through experience, I am guessing around 10 tons per shop side. I've been in the commercial AC biz for a long time and dealing with the obvious Georgia heat is a big job but even more challenging is the dehumidification capacity loss in the equipment before you realize cooling. Customers are always surprised at the amount of tonnage that is required for open space construction. A space like that is a nightmare to condition. That being said, those issues are down the road. It is a beautiful shop and I am sure Keith will enjoy the heck out of it!!
damn good stuff right there
No need for the Abom torque. Hey by the way I was down in Fla. last week glad to see warm weather.
Cold here this weekend! Down into 30's in early morning. Not sure if it's that cold down near Pensacola city where Adam lives. Always seems slightly warmer there.
+Douglas Lodge We did get the cold front here this weekend. 50s today and 40's at night. I love it!!
Yea it was coming in when I left.
I'll be back down in two weeks. I did get to see Keith Rucker on the way home and gave him some tools.
scraping is easy, scraping in the right place is the skill and power scrapers help you ruin it quicker if you dont have the skill!
dan wolf knowing where to scrape and how much to take off is something Richard teaches.
+Abom79 I know, hes well respected tutor. I did a five year apprenticeship on scraping and fitting and it was a low paid and under respected job(and dying out with death of machine building in uk) good so see it getting respect finally
dan, how come its dying aren't they scraping newly built CNC machines??
+Khalid Al-Kooheji a lot of cnc have linear bearings and haas for example shim component parts where bolted together..big problem for me in england is we dont make anything and our machines are in india or pakistan ..non left to rebuild!
I have found in the cabinet trade that power tools allow me to make twice as many mistakes in half the amount of time. Just pick up and brad gun, go at it and then find that the piece is crooked or upside down or shifted a bit. The old timers that hammered square nails had time to think about it in between each nail being driven...not any more!
I'm really curious about something: In the step where you're using the orange mallet to strike the scraper, why not attach an angled striking surface to the scraper body? It should also help you see the angle you'd like to keep. It just seems like a slight misuse to be intentionally striking the tool with the edge of the mallet and not the face.
Adam thanks for this video very interesting indeed - good to see this knowledge being passed on to those interested in learning
What is the background music in this one
Hi from Russia Adam! In your vid about new Cushman chuckyou used graphite powder as a lubricant. Please tell about it more, and if i can use it for 3-jaw chuck with a "spiral" type big nut if i said understandable)) Please tell what i can use for things like chucks and so on as a lubricant if i cannot find this dry powder. Thank you very much, we learn a lot from your videos in here. Sorry for my english.
John Saunders probably thinking, F-this, i just cnc it. hehehehehehehe :D
Great class of men. In the photo shot with you and the guys at the eat out was that Keith's wife sitting next to him as I have not seen a photo of her?
+Paul Teirney Yep that is Keiths wife! She's a hoot!
Thank you Adam
But serious question, is grinding the surface not more precise then scraping. I understand the basic craftsmanship is necessary to learn but.
how do you power scrape the straight edge at 26:10 to be uniformly flat from end to end if your doing it by hand ? as in it would sit flush against as granite flat block
Hey Adam that block is flat cuz that's the one I used in the Boston class lol
Peter Owens Great job Peter!
like the tuns
I didn't see Dale Derry, I thought he was coming to?
MLTomson No he didn't sign up for he class.
Is Keith not gonna put up a dedicated room for grinding.
Don't think he has really "finalized" anything yet...
I'd be worried that too much material would be removed, rendering the piece unusable. Is that a concern?
Rickyboy707 The problem with removing too much material is getting the rest of the part down to match the low spots which is very time consuming. Scraping doesn't take off much metal each pass, but it's easy to dig a hole if your not carefull.
You guys are only missing Keith Fenner
Adam are you using the Skylab gimbal (or similar) to film this?
STKTNC It's the EVO gimbal mount from Amazon.
Where can I get a carbide scraping tip? I have worn the tip of my Standvick scraper down to a nub.
+John Farr You can purchase them from Dapra.
I must be missing something. What is the purpose of this?
These methods are how you restore the all important guide ways of a machine tool, the guides that the carriage and tailstock of a lathe moves on, or the knee of a milling machine moves up and down on and the milling table moves back and forth across on. If the those guide ways of a machine are not perfectly flat and straight, the machine will not produce square and true workpieces. Scraping is how you get a machine tool's guide ways restored to being straight, true, and 'square'.
+Patriot1776 oh ok, I figured it was something like that but want sure. Btw, l like your choice of number on your username ;)
What is the purpose of half moon scraping as opposed to just regular scraping?
topomatt17967 It's half moon flaking actually. It's to create places for oil to rest and help lubricate the bearing surfaces.
open 'er up, let's see what that Mopar can do!
Robbie Vigil Check out my Q&A video
Im not a machinist, what does scraping do?
it looks like a galvanised finish, on video anyway
I guess the moral of the story is, if you want to have "magic hands" like Adam Booth, do not move on until you master the skill you are working on.
Love your videos Adam but I'm a total noob i assumed that scraping was a flattening a surface but seems there's a lot more to it could you maybe cover the what and why of it like the half moon process
As I understand the process you do the scraping to get things flat BUT not perfectly smooth. Then you flake to give you areas that oil can flow around those high spots as the two parts slide.