In the same vein as your tip #5 - when you're not yet super-steady at making flat surfaces out of random or rounded ones, a quick swipe with a red sharpie pen can give you a layout surface where you can see where your file is cutting and where it's not. My only tip is keep your files in a wooden block, NOT dumped in a drawer banging against each other! Your good quality files are a PRECISION TOOL! I wince every time I see a hardware store where they've dumped all the files into a box so they can chip and dull each other! Folks; I'm good with a file - Clickspring is EXTRAORDINARY! These are all GREAT tips! Listen to them and RESPECT THE METAL FILE AS A PRECISION TOOL!
Paul, You're 100% correct I'll give you an extra 10% For calling It out Correctly! They are precision tools They shouldn't be stacked together But no one's also talked about keeping the file clean I use a stainless steel brush What's fenders, Of the brush don't flare out. I also give all my files a light coding oil And then brush it out well with a toothbrush Always rated to go never put them away dirty. Like your teeth if something stuck in the file Dig it out with a straight Pin Only takes a second You won't leave lio Lines ns in your work When you go to use it
This video was done as a one-off viewer request but I like the format so I'm going to keep it going as a request driven series - Let me know what you want to see covered in the comments below - Cheers :)
Not sure if anyone has already mentioned; filing, like any other hand fitting activity, is a whole body exercise. Foot placement and balance is central to producing consistent work. Like any other physical activity it can be fatiguing and when you start to fade, walk away and take a break.
Brian Monger, I was going to post this very thing. As a young man learning carpentry, I was told by an old carpenter that, "Your body knows straight, plumb, and square. Just let it do it, and you'll always be right!" I learned that this was true, but you have to position yourself into it. I have since learned in 35 years that this carries into blacksmithing, metal work, cabinet work, and even shooting. Allow your body to align itself, and you will be straight, square, or plumb. Unfortunately, this is not something that is taught anymore. Everything is machine guided.
For checking small work, a first-surface mirror is useful. Lay the work on the mirror; any deviation from true is doubled where the object and the reflection meet. Any line that should be normal to the base, but isn't, will kink where it meets the reflection. An old hard drive platter works well as a mirror, as does a piece of plate glass with the bottom painted black.
My advice for hand filing abs plastics: #1 get to know the material, by trying to file some 90° cuts #2 get to work on your piece #3 start over because the plastic changed it's shape #4 start yet again because the plastic cracked #5 get a 3d printer #6 get frustrated with setting the first layer #7 get frustrated with filament inconsistency #8 think of how much money you've spent on materials and tools #9 give up, and watch as your life runs away every day #10 quit your job so you have more time for your hobbies, and your friends #11 start working on your project again #12 start thinking about your future, and start making plans for future projects #13 finish the part you started the work on, making sure you don't put much pressure on the plastic, and removing as little plastic as you need #14 use silicone oil to keep the plastic from developing white marks while finishing #15 dry using a paper towel #16 leave the piece for few hours so that you can see if it doesn't warp, then test fit it #17 you're done, if you want to grease the part use grease that doesn't contain carbon as that will grind your plastic. Now, I'm not claiming this is the best method, it takes about 2 years, but by the end you'll have your part and your life will better.
When everything is done by CNC there will be no real craftsmen left, lets hope humans dont forget all the skills weve learned over the years. I know id rarther make things by hand than watch a computer do it anyway.
Well I know a guy who ran a tool & die shop and after the cnc's got done an old Chinese guy they enticed out of retirement came in and hand filed and polished those dies to perfection. He also got paid much more than any of the machinist's because of that skill. Cnc can't do everything and there will always be a demand for highly developed hand skills. Cnc also can't do high precision scraping to the required level that an experienced hand scraper can do that the very best cnc machines require simply to be classed and operate as a high precision machine. Moore Tools build some of the worlds most accurate machine tools and there all HAND scraped. If anyone could build a cnc machine to do that scraping they could.
My secret to cleaning files: I have a bit of copper pipe I smashed down into a chisel edge. Basically just kink and bend off a sturdy bit of copper pipe. I hold the file in the vise and rub parallel to the cutting teeth. The teeth cut their profile into the edge of the copper and it makes for a perfectly fitted scraper that indexes in the teeth. It cleans out the gullets wonderfully. I've only ever used the cheapest files, but your work is convincing me I could do better.
These are the kind of tips that used to be passed on to the apprentice during the first weeks of training. So much second nature to the seasoned craftsman that they're not even thought of when demonstrating to the layman but absolutely invaluable to anyone hoping to learn how the 'magic' happens in the shop. Thanks Again.
ATTN CLICKSPEING: I cannot put into words how I feel when watching your videos. The skills you display when crafting your projects are nothing less than astounding. What I wouldn't give to know 10% of what you know. Of course now I'm legally blind, and that knowledge would be wasted on me. But no matter. I am compelled to tell you how much I admire you and the things you've built. This latest project, the Antikythera mechanism, seems like a monumental task due to your decision to make all parts entirely by hand. I'm eager to see it when completed. Finally, I want to thank you for allowing us to look over the shoulder of a master craftsman. 👍
Good onya Chris. One thing that is important also, is to remember that a file is a cutting tool, and can be bluntened, by letting them "bash around" together in a box. A file roll, piece of heavy cloth or such, laid out, files laid parallel with a gap between each, and then rolled up. Keeps them safely, separated and stored. That last few thou' is a joy to remove, when fitting. A very satisfactory feeling when done correctly.
As I worked on a simple blower mount this week I thought back to these videos as I hand filed the part to its final dimensions. While the things I make don't require clockwork precision, watching your technique over the years has vastly improved my own work and the satisfaction I gain from it. I felt the need to stop by your channel and offer my gratitude for the practice and patience you taught me. Thank you.
Somehow I missed this video until today. As a blackmith, this is a subject that I am very passionate about. People think about blacksmithing as though it is only blades and rough hammered pieces, but in reality, they would file many piece to amazing precision and beauty. As I understand it, filing was often the very first practice given to blacksmith apprentices. I've put a lot of work into learning to file effectively, and I have found that it has payed off immensely.
My tip for beginners is when possible change the orientation you work form a few times so that errors in your posture don't translate to the part. Basicly: if you tend to file away the bottom left corner of your workpiece, spin it so that the previously highest corner is now in the bottom left. This tip is only realy applicable if you want to get within a couple of hundreth of a milimeter. for everithing more precice than that, there is only good old fashioned training.
I used to file actions and parts for some of the finest guns , we used soft lead covers for our vice jaws which re regularly re cast as they got chewed up, you can squash small steel parts in the lead without damaging them while you file them up.
Vice jaw covers, may they be lead aluminum or even leather must be kept religiously clean or else steel filings may embed themselves into the soft material and cause scratching.
Chris, great advice & video, Well done!! As an old Jeweller my advice is buy those various standard needle file profiles in #2 cut for roughing to shape, #4 cut for tidy up & finishing, then #6 cut for fine tuning to a precision fit. For extra delicate work buy the Escapement files in #8 cut. HTH, Colin
As someone who spend the better part of a month when I was about ten years old making 1 inch cubes using only files, micrometer, and square (+/- 0.0005" at any location and no light under the square at any location), filing videos are always welcome to me. Looking forward to the next in this series.
Superb. When I started as an engineer in the Merchant Navy (1980!) our workshops had big frames with amazing hand filed pieces of work from years gone by. The vast majority of what we did was done with lathes, mills and shaping machines, but I always marvelled at the stuff in the display cases.
I keep an eye out at the end of the summer season, for discount BBQ grill brushes, as they are typically brass wire and very fine, "NOT ALL" but most are for cleaning the files out of the load-up. The brass wired brushes will last a a few years each. The actual file cards seem to have too thick of wire bristles do not reach deep into the valley of the groves of the file. I have files that are 20 years old and still cut, of course, not like they did when they were new. The BBQ brushes I hunt for are the replacement inserts to a handle, and they are approx 2 inches wide by 3 inches long and have a plastic molded body and sometimes, they have a wing nut stud, that would poke through the handle to hold it fast, I have others models that snap in to the handle. Please note, I do not own any of the "would-be" handles, I simply just buy the replacement inserts and cleaning the files this way feels secure when the leading edge is held on the corner of something like the edge of the workbench or tool box drawer so you have full range of cleaning. I suppose it isn't much of a file tip, but the file cards that one would buy from a tool supplier, mine all went to the trash bin as they do not work on the double cut and finer type files. The fine brass wire grill brushes even clean out the diamond type micro grain files... I just measured the brass wire diameter, 0.0060 inches (0.15mm) and the typically wooden bodied file cards have a much larger wire diameter approx 0.0120 (0.30mm), at least the ones I have ordered over the past 25 years here in the U.S.A. here is what they look like : grillpartssearch.com/product/WB8RH.html?adpos=1o2&scid=scplpWB8RH&sc_intid=WB8RH&gclid=Cj0KCQjwhoLWBRD9ARIsADIRaxRdMoTZ9RywYrp0lERi-ebH_5E6CVYtxA39y6n3S5mK-0gDCddH5WoaAlu_EALw_wcB
That's a good one! Also those little brass wires don't seem like the would WEAR the file. I use that, and keep some kind of needle or scribe kind of thing handy to push out "pins". That's the way.
Try and get your hands on a piece of UMWPE . a piece that is comfortable fit in your hand . Push it down, & through file grain . It will cut the matching cut in file in itself and push most all the grime and filings out of teeth . I have two lengths left from a parts run , held onto them for " just because " and tried this stuff while thinking about how well the peaned over edge of my copper and brass knocker pieces work . { even better than them } .
Excellent tips. One tip I'd like to add I've seen often overlooked is to keep your work peice and file clean. Clean off metal shavings often. Many a good surfaces have been marred by a single metal shaving.
I recently read that a light coating of wax on the files helps to keep material from galling in to the serrations and sticking. I'm not advocating that idea, but I think it dovetails with your excellent comment. Reading further down, I may have misspoke. It may be chalk I am thinking of and some clever person already beat me to the punch.
I would love to see a tutorial on measuring & marking. Whilst it sounds easy, measuring & marking can be one of the hardest (and most crucial) part of many builds.
Great tips, I like the “file cross gain to see where your removing material” best. Seems a lot faster and cheaper then constantly picking up blue dyem.
This is so advanced! I have spent a large part of my life yelling at students: "Don't file backward!"! Simple things like that, getting the work close to the vise jaws, picking the right file, not abusing the file, stop when you hear that loud screeching noise.... I might lose sight of the fact that you can do a GOOD JOB! It's very inspiring to see. Watching this gives me HOPE.
Filing backwards being detrimental was proven to be 100% myth. Pretty mind blowing stuff. Fact of the matter is nobody who's repeated that lesson to others had ever tested it, and for good reason: it doesn't seem like it'd be wrong! but it is. Fireball Tool recently tested it pretty exhaustively, the results speak for themselves.
@@bettytherussiantortoise2808 You can demagnetise them. If you can't buy a demagnetiser, you can use a coil of wire such as the mains winding from a large scrapped transformer, and a variac. Put the files in the coil, turn up the AC current in the coil until the files are buzzing strongly and steel sticks well to them, then very gradually turn down the variac to zero, and your files will be demagnetised. Don't turn up the variac too high nor for too long in case something overheats. Only use this method if you have sufficient knowledge to work safely with mains electricity, otherwise buy a demagnetiser.
I'm a repairman and often have to work far away from a proper workbench. Here are some filing tips I use: 1. I use Vise-Grips locking pliers as removable file handles. The ones without bolt cutters have a hollow space the tang fits in, and the shape helps me keep the file in a constant orientation. (They also can be used for other things--the less stuff in my toolbox, the easier it is to carry.) 2. To file a thin piece of sheet metal evenly, first file a bevel at a 45-degree angle along the entire edge. It's easy to see if the 2 edges of the bevel are parallel so you can make corrections. When the deeper part of the cut is right, then you can commit to filing down to that edge. You can use this for enlarging holes as well. 3. I usually keep my files dry, but filing aluminum and pot metal (aluminum-zinc "white metal") won't clog my file if I spray WD-40 on it and I clean the file with a terry-cloth rag often. I'm going to try your copper-pipe file-cleaner idea, too. 4. For close fitting of parts or when impressioning keys, use a very fine file to make a smooth parallel stroke all the way across the surface, thus making lots of parallel lines. When you try fitting the part or testing the key blank and then holding the piece in the light, it will be easy where your fine lines were disturbed so you know where to remove more material. Thank you for your informative videos.
To clean my files, I use a small piece of soft wood to clean the teeth. It strips any wax or gunk without dulling the cutting edge. That’s some of the most precise hand filing I have ever seen! Really impressive technique! I really like the grinding off of one side to make a safe edge; that’s a great idea for getting a sharper cutting edge. Thanks for the tip!
I've always thought your incredible filing abilities were one of the most impressive parts of your videos, so it's great to get these tips from you. I'm going to keep this video on hand so I can watch it multiple times.
Pro tip: always have crap files for down and dirty fixes. Sometimes cut quality will be bad but cut speed is good for tings like dressing the end of a cold chisel
Good stuff,i am a boilermaker and when i started my trade many years ago they taught us how to file properly.Use a cold chisel to take a 5mm strip of the edge off 12mm by 100mm flat bar and then file to the line and draw file a true surface and blue check.Not something they teach now but it taught us how to file with precision and i can even now make complicated and accurate shapes,even though i am a boilermaker and we don't usually do things like that.
great video. one of the most valuable filing tips I learned during my fitting apprenticeship from an old Croatian guy back in the 70s was when filing a cylindrical surface we naturally tend to run a flat file following the curve of the surface which can tend to leave a series of flat spots instead of a uniform curvature. But if you gently rock the file back and forward in the opposite direction of the curve as you are filing this prevents any undesirable flat spots developing.
Bravo, sir! Old school tool & die maker here, and I really enjoy your video. It's the best I've seen on usage of hand files. You are a master craftsman!
Great video Chris. I'd certainly agree about using hardened filing buttons and the damage that can be done to the files teeth. The one exception to that I think is when filing in the lathe with the work stationary. A lathe milling attachment works well for setting the hardened rolling buttons mounted on a bar of steel to the correct height for your parts finished dimensions, and since the files only running on the hardened rollers and not skating across them it does little to no harm to the cutting teeth. Cheap woodworking router bearings make great hardened and rotating filing buttons for that work. A simple washer a bit larger in diameter on both bearings makes a good stop for the file in the Z axis. Other than speed if your headstock dividing is accurate you can file a square, octagon etc. shape onto any bar held in the lathe chuck that's just as accurate as anything done on a mill with a dividing head. One other tip, once you've used a file on steel it will no longer cut brass anywhere as well as it would when new. For best results keep your files separate for the two materials if possible.
2 weeks into machining school, these tips already helped me immensely. I previously had no idea about draw filing. But now all my pieces are finished with utter perfection. Thanks for these awesome tips
Two rules I would add to this well done video. 1.) Never use a file without a handle. Seen to many people stab themselves. 2.) Files will only cut in one direction. So lift the file when returning to a new cut. Basic rules, many people over look them when working.
My tip: *don't get too attached to your files* They will wear down and eventually become useless. There's no way of sharpening them again. As difficult as it is, some day you'll have to throw them away and get new ones; the more you delay the decision, the more frustrating your work will become.
Assuming you're on a tight budget, about where on your list of priorities should that be? How quality should 'good quality' be? I got files that literally my grandfather used and I guess they work, but I've also never had brand new files.
I find Bahco files are a good go between. Their price is notable but not crippling and you get a good cut from them and they're pretty durable. They wont last forever but they will last about 3 or 4 times longer than the cheap £10 sets. Im not too sure how small they make them however.
Jose: One thing that you can do to sharpen a file and that is to drop it in a weak acid overnight, it works very well by undercutting the blunt teeth, many people dismiss this as an idea as they assume that the acid blunts the file, but they offer their comments without having tried it.
Lol i have an old "Bedford" file that i have not been able to identify the cut of to source a replacement of similar quality. Consequently the file is kept indoors in a leather pouch with dessicant after a good clean!! i use it sparingly cause i know what happens if it's damaged or worn :(
Thanks Chris, that's an absolute masterclass. A few people may not know it is possible with care to file hard materials (hardened tool steels, up to maybe 50 Rockwell C absolute tops): But take heed of these tips: don't use a new file; use lots of pressure; do not use a rapid stroke (and this is crucial): lift the file off the workpiece for the return stroke (or you will ruin the file). Clean the shavings out regularly, perhaps as often as each stroke. The general rule about pressure is to use less for soft materials. For speed: fastest for brass, slowest for cast iron. For filing aluminium alloy, use a specialised aluminium file (eg Nicholson Type A, or a "shear tooth" file). It must be sharp. Clean the file as soon as you detect pinning, or preferably before (or you will produce deep ugly grooves in the workpiece). Pinning is retained aluminium in the gaps (gullets) between the teeth. Chalk the file (soapstone also works, possibly better) if pinning is a problem, particularly with "gummy" grades of aluminium . Alternatively: Kerosene may help. Again, but for a different reason: Don't drag on the return stroke. For filing brass, you can get specialised brass files (eg the Nicholson "brass file" with "short upcut angle and a fine long angle overcut, which produces small scallops to break up filings and enable the file to clear." Using round or half round files: work clockwise around a contour for best results. The best way to clean a pinned file, particularly a high quality, expensive file, is to take a piece of brass or bronze (not too hard if the latter) in flat bar form, perhaps 20mm x 3mm rectangular cross section, and align the long axis of the bar with one of the groove or gullet axes of the file (the deepest groove, if there is one). Raise the end you're holding to say 25 to 30 degrees, then force the corner touching the file along the groove direction, to create grooves in that corner so that your tool takes the converse shape (female recesses in the tool corresponding to the male teeth of the file). Repeat the same action to clean out the gullets of the file. That corner of the cleaning tool should only be used with identical files to the one which created it, but each tool has four corners available, permitting up to four types of file on each tool. Store files carefully. They should never come into contact with another file's teeth.
Excellent video Chris, thank you!! I have hand filed much of my fabrication work for most of my life and without any instruction, all trial and error. This video is a tremendous help for those without a lot of knowledge on the subject. This is literally the first of any instruction on the subject with this much depth. I started hand filing with Knifemaking decades ago, and a lot of mistakes and disasters in the learning process. One thing I would add here, CLEAN YOUR FILES as much as possible. It is very difficult with the small files you are using in this video, but any cleaning will help during a filing project. For the small files you are using here, I suggest searching for a fine bristle brush and clean the file often as you can during the process. A file filled with shavings tends to dull the cut on your file over time. Again, thank you for a fantastic video!
Dear Chris, I have watched this video several times over. I have built a quite a few models over the years mainly of brass and of railway subjects. I was always frustrated with the difficulty of filing a truly square corner die to the geometry of the teeth. Your tip about producing a safe edge is great and I must steel myself to do this. Your workmanship is a joy to behold and the video is beautifully lit and shot. Thank you for your considerable efforts in making this video and showing what is possible with files.
Safe edge files are the way to go. I do the same thing, make my own safe edge files and buy Grobet Vallorbe or F. Dick. I like to also buy parallel surface files or cut the ends off to make them parallel. I also use mild steel rounds on each side of what I need to file round and then coat the mild steel rounds with felt pen, black or purple. When I touch the felt pen ink on the steel rounds I am finished, and my file work in the middle is round. You do beautiful European-style work; ask somebody in India to do the same thing and it just isn't going to come out like your work.
1. Keep your files clean. Chips suck. 2. Files cut in one direction. By trying to cut on a reverse stroke, you mash the teeth flat and effectively blunt the file. More of a trap for new players than anything. 3. For heavy cuts with a coarse file where a lot of material is being removed quickly, don't trust you arms to move in straight lines. Firm up your shoulders and move from the hips. More of a farm tip than anything. 4. If you're sitting, draw filing is by far the most effective way to do it. Has to do with leverage. 5. Get up to the work like it insulted your mother. Then take half a step back so you can sock the boyo in the mouth. Up close for leverage and control, a touch back so you can actually move. Pretty basic stuff, but it hurts to watch people miss some of it.
This video and the comments are one of the best hand machining resources I've ever come across. Would you consider doing a video about hand sawing techniques? Like how to square a handsaw cut across a long piece of strap?
Here's a few more: Files are seldom "flat." It makes sense to map in your mind the convexities and concavities of a new file and take advantage for them depending on the features you need to file. If you have large flat surfaces to file use the convex surfaces to concentrate stock removal where needed. If you have much to remove, look at the "belly" of three and four square files (American usage) where their more exaggeratedconvexity focuses effort on a smaller area improving stock removal as well. Cheat. Use filing guides, filing machines, pair up identical parts, etc to broaden narrow edges to mitigate "roll-off" and other geometry errors. There's no merit to making parts over and over until you get one right on principal following purist notions of emulating "old school" skill. Practice, start simple, make shape guages, etc to improve your hand skills and train your eye and muscle memory before you attempt production parts. I think Chris is absolutely correct: Grobet, the authentic Swiss article, is about the sole remaining maker of precision files left in the world. They are expensive but in soft materials like brass and annealed steels they will last for many years of daily use. Thus they are cheap in the long run but getting outfitted will be a shock. Study their catalogs and assess your work. Then select the grades and shapes accordingly. Eight or ten assorted files of the right shapes can cover an amazing array of work situations. It's only money. You can eat next week. File cleaning: NEVER USE THE WIRE SIDE OF A FILE CARD!!! The wires are hard and blunt therefore incredibly wearing on the delicate cutting edges of a file. My favorite file cleaning trick is to make a wood "chisel" of some low silica hardwood like maple or beech. Use the cutting edge of the wooden chisel to clear swarf accumulations in overlapping strokes following the file teeth. Use the fiber brush side of the card to tidy up. Pinning: Ideally, the swarf - the tiny chips - drop from the tooth spaces as they clear the work. Some soft malleable materials self weld to a degree like aluminum or iron to form "pins" - little hard-packed deposits of swarf - between the teeth. Most of these may be picked out with a pointed soft steel "scribe". Harder pins may require a hard scribe but care must be taken to avoid damaging the adjacent file teeth. Clean the file frequently. There is no remedy for pinning more effective than file cleaning, care, and vigilence.
Great tips Chris! Thanks. I was taught to always ‘Cross your scratch’ while filing, linnishing or polishing. That advise has saved many a small part from ruin. 😊
Most important thing I ever learned about filing was to take my time. When you get in a hurry you are more likely to make mistakes and they tend to be much larger.
Nomad boatbuilding by the name and mention of scraper you have fitted a bronze prop or two ! Was a marine mechanic for over 20 years and have fitted a few.lol
I'm primarily a wood butcher but as you know, the boat trade calls on you to wear many hats. I try to leave the mechanics to those who know it best but I can rarely find any when I need them so, yes, I've fitted a prop or two.
why is it there is something very relaxing to watching you file on bits and pieces and start fitting them together...... :) really looking forward to the next installment of the Antikythera Mechanism build!
Chris, great video! On the idea of using buttons and guides I always cringed at the idea of hardened steel. Good files these days are NOT cheap ! ! ! ! So I agree with the idea of mild steel buttons. As a helper though a felt marker could be used to ink up the edges of a guide or button to aid with spotting the limits. And unlike Dykem or similar the felt marker can be touched up easily during mid operation without tearing down the setup. The times I've used this trick with guides it's proven helpful.
I'm so grateful for the insight you shared on filing I just didn't get how one can file straight and square efficiently to minimise wasting time in the workshop
I tried grinding off one edge. I thought it was crazy but I gave it a shot and it really worked great. Way better control in a corner. Thanks for the great tip.
@MrShobar - That's true, I didn't think of that, but at the time the video was published it was still the 1st :) Even as I write this comment the latest possible time in Australia is only 4:08am and people were commenting at least 3 hours before that :p
I would add three things to the list: 1) Mind your body - as with any hand tool, how you hold your body has a huge affect on the quality. 2) Never drag the file backwards unless it cant be avoided. Dragging the file backwards damages the cutting edges. It cant always be avoided, but avoid as much as possible. 3) Don't mix files for yellow metals with those for steels. A file used on steel will never file brass the same again. Bonus tip: files really can not be sharpened. Soaking them in acid just makes an abused file better, it does not make it good.
Those are great points; in relation to your point one, when I'm doing really accurate work, I try to pretend I'm a robot, programmed for straight line motion using rotary joints. That seems to help make the motion more consistent, as well as straighter. It's not possible to produce flat surfaces if every stroke is different from the last one.
I forgot to add: point 2) is really only important when filing work which is hard, either locally or all over. (eg, when welding has been done on steel of unknown analysis, or when a nickel bearing alloy has been cold worked, or with cast iron which has major changes of section causing chilled regions (which can be hard enough to kill any file)... Anything below maybe 35Rc, it really doesn't hurt the file, and can make it easier to maintain good alignments. Some reckon it also helps keep the gullets from trapping chips ("pinning") which then gouge the surface. I think this depends, but I yet to arrive at a set of preconditions which allow me to reliably predict when it will and when it won't help.
This is pure craftsmanship and a pleasure and a privilege to watch and to learn from (although I’ll never attain anything like this standard) thank you
great video Chris. I cant afford a lot of expensive files, but i have a few. most important thing about getting a filing job done is getting comfortable, getting good light, and getting the resolution to start it. your filing will get lots better with just those things. :D
Why do you use separate ones for brass and aluminium? Because of the hard aluminium oxide or is there another reason? I use green handles for non-ferrous and grey for steel.
I see, but then they shouldn't need marking. ;-) Where do you get your aluminium files? I bought a couple Nicholson Magicut files for a project with a lot of aluminium filing. After replacing the handles with something decent they worked great, but that's a very limited selection shape wise.
Filing tip- If you don't have a handle for your file drill a hole in a golf ball and use some epoxy. The golf ball gives you a more natural means of pushing your file then the standard handle.
You know what I found that is a million times better than those golf ball handles are the handles from old screw drivers. Who doesn't have a hand full of old worn out screw drivers where the blades are so worn out that they tend to cam out of screws damaging them instead of torquing them in or out. Also this is good use for all those free mediocre Harbor Freight screwdrivers that no one ever needs... Just clamp the blade in a vise and knock the handle off with a hammer or mallet, they are just pressed on. Then just press on to your file of choice. Much more ergonomic than trying to hold onto something round attached to a lever where the load is at the opposite end of this lever. Your hand and golf ball are basically a ball joint, totally not what you want when you need control! A screw driver handle gives you a full hand grip and your hand doesn't need to clench with so much effort like it would have to gripping a golf ball in order to to maintain control of the file. I don't know why the golf ball trick got to be a thing because honestly it is terrible, IMO. I never seen anybody use screw driver handles, but made sense to me and simply works great. That's my tip.
The reason that file handles are the shape they are, longer rather than ball shaped, is that it wraps the user's hand around the handle rather than putting it behind the handle and in line with the tang. I've seen wooden handles split when not properly maintained, plastic ones split regardless of how they're treated, and I think this is very likely to happen with the suggested screwdriver handles too because this is not what they are designed for. They're designed for a twisting action, not a pushing motion. I've seen a handle come off when the user was filing vigorously. His hand came forward still holding the handle that was no longer attached to the file. These all resulted in the tang cutting into the user's wrist, sometimes opening up the artery and causing a lot of pain, blood loss and distress. That's why workshop practice instructors are all supposed to be first-aid trained, certainly in the UK anyway. Another consideration is that blood is very corrosive to light alloys, for example, those used in airframe structural repair, and it is hard to remove from crevices. While this may not be your first concern when you're hosing the local area with your bodily fluids, remember you'll probably be the one trying to remove it later.
Would love to see the clock works completed, if this is indeed what you were working on. Regardless, I would love to see your craftsmanship in whatever project you are making. Please. It’s wonderful to see true hand craftsmanship alive and well. Thanks for sharing.
I did about 12 months of weld-prep working on a power-station build when a lad. I did a lot of angle grinding. After about 6 months I worked out I could prep a 12” 1/4” (?) oil line faster with a half-round rough bastard file than with the combination of the file and the grinder. No picking up and putting down to change tools. Quieter safer faster. I looked after my files too. Love your work!!
Great Video Chris! It is good to see another one of your videos. However, I thought being an Aussie and all, you would prefer to use sandpaper ? :P (Us Kiwis really aren't going to let you live that one down, not until you improve your throwing style at least ....). In all seriousness, it is a great video, and I am looking forward to seeing the rest of the videos on those parts you were filing in this video. I especially like that tip on filing across the previous grain. So much better than clogging a file with layout dye trying to get a flat surface.
It's a very reassuring thing when you watch a utube vid about working by hand and see somebody else teaching all the techniques that experience has taught me. Wonderfull work. It isnt often in recent years that I've had chance to apply my skills, but your videos remind me of all the wonder and possibilities that I discovered in my childhood shouting myself away in the garage with allsorts of hand tools at my disposal and an insatiable imagination. So relaxing to watch as well. So thankyou.
OMFG, just to watch the craftsmen ship takes me back to being a kid at friends jeweler these old grizzled guys with their loops and magnifying goggles, great tips and beautiful reminders of a time honored tradition. Thanks for sharing!!!!
have you ever used chalk? the theory is that you run the file over chalk then go to work, the chalk in the recesses prevent the file from clogging up with metal.
superdupergrover i personally dont like using it. If i do so, only with the less rougher files that i use to work out the big scratches from the previous filing. But its not really necessary i think
I keep a few sticks of blackboard chalk with my files and generally use it for fine-work on steel parts. Nothing more irritating than a pin scoring the surface and spoiling it on the last few strokes. Keep a few strips of 16 gauge mild steel and run the end edges back and forth along the cutting-teeth of the file, at 45 degrees. The file will cut grooves and points that when run across the file will clear all chalk and filings from the file before you re-chalk.
LOVED this! Ive been a jewellery for over 18 years, and hand filing is still something that slips away from me at times... these are great tips! and like always, i'm impressed with your work :D
Always backup your files..
TheSoundOfTwang what does backing up mean?
Darren Cannell computer joke
@0:52 "keep an eye out for the bunny on the tang."
You win.
daaaammm....
when I was growing up my father always said "You're eating like a new file" when I was eating too fast and it always made me smile and still does
great vid and glad to hear of the new series! went too quick, though: time files when you're having fun.
Where is your april's fool?
He recorded one, but then lost the files.
Time Files, and the dad jokes keep rolling haha
Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like bananas.
Har har 😁. Typical.
In the same vein as your tip #5 - when you're not yet super-steady at making flat surfaces out of random or rounded ones, a quick swipe with a red sharpie pen can give you a layout surface where you can see where your file is cutting and where it's not.
My only tip is keep your files in a wooden block, NOT dumped in a drawer banging against each other! Your good quality files are a PRECISION TOOL! I wince every time I see a hardware store where they've dumped all the files into a box so they can chip and dull each other!
Folks; I'm good with a file - Clickspring is EXTRAORDINARY! These are all GREAT tips! Listen to them and RESPECT THE METAL FILE AS A PRECISION TOOL!
Paul, You're 100% correct I'll give you an extra 10% For calling It out Correctly! They are precision tools They shouldn't be stacked together But no one's also talked about keeping the file clean I use a stainless steel brush What's fenders, Of the brush don't flare out. I also give all my files a light coding oil And then brush it out well with a toothbrush Always rated to go never put them away dirty. Like your teeth if something stuck in the file Dig it out with a straight Pin Only takes a second You won't leave lio Lines ns in your work When you go to use it
@@makenchipsfor cleaning out files there is something called a file card.
Emgineers' blue has been the marker of choice for centuries.
This video was done as a one-off viewer request but I like the format so I'm going to keep it going as a request driven series - Let me know what you want to see covered in the comments below - Cheers :)
Clickspring what tips do you have for workholding and fixturing small or thin parts like the ones you make?
Clickspring was it requested by Alec Steele? 😋
So.. not an April fool's joke then?
ikr
Lathe tips and tricks!
Truly phenomenal tutorial! Thank you so much for creating this!!!
Thank you mate :)
I'm 13 years old and I gotta say that both of you inspired me to make my first knife... Thanks for introducing to this amazing craft
Not sure if anyone has already mentioned; filing, like any other hand fitting activity, is a whole body exercise. Foot placement and balance is central to producing consistent work. Like any other physical activity it can be fatiguing and when you start to fade, walk away and take a break.
Brian Monger, I was going to post this very thing. As a young man learning carpentry, I was told by an old carpenter that, "Your body knows straight, plumb, and square. Just let it do it, and you'll always be right!" I learned that this was true, but you have to position yourself into it. I have since learned in 35 years that this carries into blacksmithing, metal work, cabinet work, and even shooting. Allow your body to align itself, and you will be straight, square, or plumb. Unfortunately, this is not something that is taught anymore. Everything is machine guided.
@@teddahrable Yeah, but what if your spines like mine it's so Crooked run for Congress.
Indeed. Same goes for any hand tool work, including handheld power tools.
@@teddahrable wisdom is a fading art.
For checking small work, a first-surface mirror is useful. Lay the work on the mirror; any deviation from true is doubled where the object and the reflection meet. Any line that should be normal to the base, but isn't, will kink where it meets the reflection. An old hard drive platter works well as a mirror, as does a piece of plate glass with the bottom painted black.
Old CDs work well too, if the part is bigger than the hole.
I have never seen just spectacular precision achieved with hand tools in my life.
Thank you for showing me
My advice for hand filing abs plastics:
#1 get to know the material, by trying to file some 90° cuts
#2 get to work on your piece
#3 start over because the plastic changed it's shape
#4 start yet again because the plastic cracked
#5 get a 3d printer
#6 get frustrated with setting the first layer
#7 get frustrated with filament inconsistency
#8 think of how much money you've spent on materials and tools
#9 give up, and watch as your life runs away every day
#10 quit your job so you have more time for your hobbies, and your friends
#11 start working on your project again
#12 start thinking about your future, and start making plans for future projects
#13 finish the part you started the work on, making sure you don't put much pressure on the plastic, and removing as little plastic as you need
#14 use silicone oil to keep the plastic from developing white marks while finishing
#15 dry using a paper towel
#16 leave the piece for few hours so that you can see if it doesn't warp, then test fit it
#17 you're done, if you want to grease the part use grease that doesn't contain carbon as that will grind your plastic.
Now, I'm not claiming this is the best method, it takes about 2 years, but by the end you'll have your part and your life will better.
zumbazumba1 you still have to deburr parts with files generally
zumbazumba1 put a little respek on it
I hope the day comes when you find yourself in a situation where filing is the cheapest, fastest, and easiest way to get a job done.
When everything is done by CNC there will be no real craftsmen left, lets hope humans dont forget all the skills weve learned over the years.
I know id rarther make things by hand than watch a computer do it anyway.
Well I know a guy who ran a tool & die shop and after the cnc's got done an old Chinese guy they enticed out of retirement came in and hand filed and polished those dies to perfection. He also got paid much more than any of the machinist's because of that skill. Cnc can't do everything and there will always be a demand for highly developed hand skills. Cnc also can't do high precision scraping to the required level that an experienced hand scraper can do that the very best cnc machines require simply to be classed and operate as a high precision machine. Moore Tools build some of the worlds most accurate machine tools and there all HAND scraped. If anyone could build a cnc machine to do that scraping they could.
My secret to cleaning files: I have a bit of copper pipe I smashed down into a chisel edge. Basically just kink and bend off a sturdy bit of copper pipe. I hold the file in the vise and rub parallel to the cutting teeth. The teeth cut their profile into the edge of the copper and it makes for a perfectly fitted scraper that indexes in the teeth. It cleans out the gullets wonderfully. I've only ever used the cheapest files, but your work is convincing me I could do better.
Life is too short for cheap tools.
These are the kind of tips that used to be passed on to the apprentice during the first weeks of training. So much second nature to the seasoned craftsman that they're not even thought of when demonstrating to the layman but absolutely invaluable to anyone hoping to learn how the 'magic' happens in the shop. Thanks Again.
ATTN CLICKSPEING: I cannot put into words how I feel when watching your videos. The skills you display when crafting your projects are nothing less than astounding. What I wouldn't give to know 10% of what you know. Of course now I'm legally blind, and that knowledge would be wasted on me. But no matter. I am compelled to tell you how much I admire you and the things you've built. This latest project, the Antikythera mechanism, seems like a monumental task due to your decision to make all parts entirely by hand. I'm eager to see it when completed. Finally, I want to thank you for allowing us to look over the shoulder of a master craftsman. 👍
Very much appreciate your kind words and support mate, thank you :)
Clickspring: You're most welcome.
Good onya Chris. One thing that is important also, is to remember that a file is a cutting tool, and can be bluntened, by letting them "bash around" together in a box.
A file roll, piece of heavy cloth or such, laid out, files laid parallel with a gap between each, and then rolled up. Keeps them safely, separated and stored.
That last few thou' is a joy to remove, when fitting. A very satisfactory feeling when done correctly.
As I worked on a simple blower mount this week I thought back to these videos as I hand filed the part to its final dimensions. While the things I make don't require clockwork precision, watching your technique over the years has vastly improved my own work and the satisfaction I gain from it. I felt the need to stop by your channel and offer my gratitude for the practice and patience you taught me. Thank you.
Thanks very much Bill, great to hear things are going well :)
I am so happy to live in a time where I can learn tricks from people who make things this beautiful and well crafted.
Somehow I missed this video until today. As a blackmith, this is a subject that I am very passionate about. People think about blacksmithing as though it is only blades and rough hammered pieces, but in reality, they would file many piece to amazing precision and beauty. As I understand it, filing was often the very first practice given to blacksmith apprentices. I've put a lot of work into learning to file effectively, and I have found that it has payed off immensely.
My tip for beginners is when possible change the orientation you work form a few times so that errors in your posture don't translate to the part.
Basicly: if you tend to file away the bottom left corner of your workpiece, spin it so that the previously highest corner is now in the bottom left.
This tip is only realy applicable if you want to get within a couple of hundreth of a milimeter. for everithing more precice than that, there is only good old fashioned training.
I used to file actions and parts for some of the finest guns , we used soft lead covers for our vice jaws which re regularly re cast as they got chewed up, you can squash small steel parts in the lead without damaging them while you file them up.
Vice jaw covers, may they be lead aluminum or even leather must be kept religiously clean or else steel filings may embed themselves into the soft material and cause scratching.
Chris, great advice & video, Well done!!
As an old Jeweller my advice is buy those various standard needle file profiles in #2 cut for roughing to shape, #4 cut for tidy up & finishing, then #6 cut for fine tuning to a precision fit. For extra delicate work buy the Escapement files in #8 cut.
HTH, Colin
Completely agree, cheers Colin :)
This was the most educational April 1st upload I've ever watched! Great video dude, love my small thumb files.
Cheers mate :)
Love seeing comments on channels that I love left by channels that I love. RUclips (for all its faults) can be beautiful.
Thank you for posting. There is something satisfying watching a master at work. God bless you.
As someone who spend the better part of a month when I was about ten years old making 1 inch cubes using only files, micrometer, and square (+/- 0.0005" at any location and no light under the square at any location), filing videos are always welcome to me. Looking forward to the next in this series.
All of that at 10 years old? You have some serious skills.
Superb. When I started as an engineer in the Merchant Navy (1980!) our workshops had big frames with amazing hand filed pieces of work from years gone by. The vast majority of what we did was done with lathes, mills and shaping machines, but I always marvelled at the stuff in the display cases.
I keep an eye out at the end of the summer season, for discount BBQ grill brushes, as they are typically brass wire and very fine, "NOT ALL" but most are for cleaning the files out of the load-up. The brass wired brushes will last a a few years each. The actual file cards seem to have too thick of wire bristles do not reach deep into the valley of the groves of the file. I have files that are 20 years old and still cut, of course, not like they did when they were new. The BBQ brushes I hunt for are the replacement inserts to a handle, and they are approx 2 inches wide by 3 inches long and have a plastic molded body and sometimes, they have a wing nut stud, that would poke through the handle to hold it fast, I have others models that snap in to the handle. Please note, I do not own any of the "would-be" handles, I simply just buy the replacement inserts and cleaning the files this way feels secure when the leading edge is held on the corner of something like the edge of the workbench or tool box drawer so you have full range of cleaning. I suppose it isn't much of a file tip, but the file cards that one would buy from a tool supplier, mine all went to the trash bin as they do not work on the double cut and finer type files. The fine brass wire grill brushes even clean out the diamond type micro grain files... I just measured the brass wire diameter, 0.0060 inches (0.15mm) and the typically wooden bodied file cards have a much larger wire diameter approx 0.0120 (0.30mm), at least the ones I have ordered over the past 25 years here in the U.S.A. here is what they look like : grillpartssearch.com/product/WB8RH.html?adpos=1o2&scid=scplpWB8RH&sc_intid=WB8RH&gclid=Cj0KCQjwhoLWBRD9ARIsADIRaxRdMoTZ9RywYrp0lERi-ebH_5E6CVYtxA39y6n3S5mK-0gDCddH5WoaAlu_EALw_wcB
This comment right here is why the internet is beautiful. Such an eclectic, yet incredibly useful piece of knowledge would go unnoticed without it.
That's a good one! Also those little brass wires don't seem like the would WEAR the file. I use that, and keep some kind of needle or scribe kind of thing handy to push out "pins". That's the way.
Try and get your hands on a piece of UMWPE . a piece that is comfortable fit in your hand . Push it down, & through file grain . It will cut the matching cut in file in itself and push most all the grime and filings out of teeth . I have two lengths left from a parts run , held onto them for " just because " and tried this stuff while thinking about how well the peaned over edge of my copper and brass knocker pieces work . { even better than them } .
Excellent tips. One tip I'd like to add I've seen often overlooked is to keep your work peice and file clean. Clean off metal shavings often. Many a good surfaces have been marred by a single metal shaving.
I recently read that a light coating of wax on the files helps to keep material from galling in to the serrations and sticking. I'm not advocating that idea, but I think it dovetails with your excellent comment. Reading further down, I may have misspoke. It may be chalk I am thinking of and some clever person already beat me to the punch.
chalk works for that.
I would love to see a tutorial on measuring & marking. Whilst it sounds easy, measuring & marking can be one of the hardest (and most crucial) part of many builds.
Great tips, I like the “file cross gain to see where your removing material” best. Seems a lot faster and cheaper then constantly picking up blue dyem.
This is so advanced! I have spent a large part of my life yelling at students: "Don't file backward!"! Simple things like that, getting the work close to the vise jaws, picking the right file, not abusing the file, stop when you hear that loud screeching noise.... I might lose sight of the fact that you can do a GOOD JOB! It's very inspiring to see. Watching this gives me HOPE.
Shouldnt putting the work near the jaw a good thing you prevent the the metal from flexing a bit and avoud file chattering same goes with milling
Filing backwards being detrimental was proven to be 100% myth. Pretty mind blowing stuff. Fact of the matter is nobody who's repeated that lesson to others had ever tested it, and for good reason: it doesn't seem like it'd be wrong! but it is. Fireball Tool recently tested it pretty exhaustively, the results speak for themselves.
Have done a bit of filing for copper, steel and titanium, and these are some great tips and techniques I can use
The tip of "use good files" is probably he best one. I never thought of having a "safe side", though. that sounds like a great idea.
TheTomBevis I use my great grand fathers files, cut well but are magnetic I might get some new files.
@@bettytherussiantortoise2808 You can demagnetise them. If you can't buy a demagnetiser, you can use a coil of wire such as the mains winding from a large scrapped transformer, and a variac. Put the files in the coil, turn up the AC current in the coil until the files are buzzing strongly and steel sticks well to them, then very gradually turn down the variac to zero, and your files will be demagnetised. Don't turn up the variac too high nor for too long in case something overheats. Only use this method if you have sufficient knowledge to work safely with mains electricity, otherwise buy a demagnetiser.
I'm a repairman and often have to work far away from a proper workbench. Here are some filing tips I use:
1. I use Vise-Grips locking pliers as removable file handles. The ones without bolt cutters have a hollow space the tang fits in, and the shape helps me keep the file in a constant orientation. (They also can be used for other things--the less stuff in my toolbox, the easier it is to carry.)
2. To file a thin piece of sheet metal evenly, first file a bevel at a 45-degree angle along the entire edge. It's easy to see if the 2 edges of the bevel are parallel so you can make corrections. When the deeper part of the cut is right, then you can commit to filing down to that edge. You can use this for enlarging holes as well.
3. I usually keep my files dry, but filing aluminum and pot metal (aluminum-zinc "white metal") won't clog my file if I spray WD-40 on it and I clean the file with a terry-cloth rag often. I'm going to try your copper-pipe file-cleaner idea, too.
4. For close fitting of parts or when impressioning keys, use a very fine file to make a smooth parallel stroke all the way across the surface, thus making lots of parallel lines. When you try fitting the part or testing the key blank and then holding the piece in the light, it will be easy where your fine lines were disturbed so you know where to remove more material.
Thank you for your informative videos.
To clean my files, I use a small piece of soft wood to clean the teeth. It strips any wax or gunk without dulling the cutting edge.
That’s some of the most precise hand filing I have ever seen! Really impressive technique!
I really like the grinding off of one side to make a safe edge; that’s a great idea for getting a sharper cutting edge. Thanks for the tip!
I've always thought your incredible filing abilities were one of the most impressive parts of your videos, so it's great to get these tips from you. I'm going to keep this video on hand so I can watch it multiple times.
Pro tip: always have crap files for down and dirty fixes. Sometimes cut quality will be bad but cut speed is good for tings like dressing the end of a cold chisel
Being a machinist and being around CNC machines all the time, it is so inspiring to see someone apply craftsmanship to make a part look CNC precise.
Thank you mate, terrific to have you watching :)
Good stuff,i am a boilermaker and when i started my trade many years ago they taught us how to file properly.Use a cold chisel to take a 5mm strip of the edge off 12mm by 100mm flat bar and then file to the line and draw file a true surface and blue check.Not something they teach now but it taught us how to file with precision and i can even now make complicated and accurate shapes,even though i am a boilermaker and we don't usually do things like that.
Every time I see one of your vids, I'm amazed at the patience displayed that I completely lack. Amazing work.
great video.
one of the most valuable filing tips I learned during my fitting apprenticeship from an old Croatian guy back in the 70s was when filing a cylindrical surface we naturally tend to run a flat file following the curve of the surface which can tend to leave a series of flat spots instead of a uniform curvature. But if you gently rock the file back and forward in the opposite direction of the curve as you are filing this prevents any undesirable flat spots developing.
That's how I learned it too.
Bravo, sir! Old school tool & die maker here, and I really enjoy your video. It's the best I've seen on usage of hand files. You are a master craftsman!
Great video Chris. I'd certainly agree about using hardened filing buttons and the damage that can be done to the files teeth. The one exception to that I think is when filing in the lathe with the work stationary. A lathe milling attachment works well for setting the hardened rolling buttons mounted on a bar of steel to the correct height for your parts finished dimensions, and since the files only running on the hardened rollers and not skating across them it does little to no harm to the cutting teeth. Cheap woodworking router bearings make great hardened and rotating filing buttons for that work. A simple washer a bit larger in diameter on both bearings makes a good stop for the file in the Z axis. Other than speed if your headstock dividing is accurate you can file a square, octagon etc. shape onto any bar held in the lathe chuck that's just as accurate as anything done on a mill with a dividing head.
One other tip, once you've used a file on steel it will no longer cut brass anywhere as well as it would when new. For best results keep your files separate for the two materials if possible.
2 weeks into machining school, these tips already helped me immensely. I previously had no idea about draw filing. But now all my pieces are finished with utter perfection. Thanks for these awesome tips
Two rules I would add to this well done video.
1.) Never use a file without a handle. Seen to many people stab themselves.
2.) Files will only cut in one direction. So lift the file when returning to a new cut.
Basic rules, many people over look them when working.
I think its ok to slide it on the returning stroke just dont press it
You have far more patience than I have, I would have gone mad making some of those parts just by filing! I found watching you work very therapeutic!
Video suggestion: geometric construction with straight edge and dividers for layout work. What do you think?
You bet - now on the list :)
How long is the list?
toolmaker buttons is another great trick for some things
a) you're an Aussie! b) never ever heard the concept of a safe edge and am totally blown away! c) you have one new subscriber!
My tip: *don't get too attached to your files*
They will wear down and eventually become useless. There's no way of sharpening them again.
As difficult as it is, some day you'll have to throw them away and get new ones; the more you delay the decision, the more frustrating your work will become.
Completely agree
Assuming you're on a tight budget, about where on your list of priorities should that be? How quality should 'good quality' be?
I got files that literally my grandfather used and I guess they work, but I've also never had brand new files.
I find Bahco files are a good go between. Their price is notable but not crippling and you get a good cut from them and they're pretty durable. They wont last forever but they will last about 3 or 4 times longer than the cheap £10 sets. Im not too sure how small they make them however.
Jose: One thing that you can do to sharpen a file and that is to drop it in a weak acid overnight, it works very well by undercutting the blunt teeth, many people dismiss this as an idea as they assume that the acid blunts the file, but they offer their comments without having tried it.
Lol i have an old "Bedford" file that i have not been able to identify the cut of to source a replacement of similar quality. Consequently the file is kept indoors in a leather pouch with dessicant after a good clean!! i use it sparingly cause i know what happens if it's damaged or worn :(
I could watch you hand filing for hours, so relaxing
Wow thanks for the tips and to watch some amazing parts come to life. Marking out would make and excellent old school tips video
Righto, will add to the list - Cheers :)
Just watched this one video and it immediately doubled what I know about filing. You've got a new fan. Thanks.
Thanks Chris, that's an absolute masterclass.
A few people may not know it is possible with care to file hard materials (hardened tool steels, up to maybe 50 Rockwell C absolute tops):
But take heed of these tips: don't use a new file; use lots of pressure; do not use a rapid stroke (and this is crucial): lift the file off the workpiece for the return stroke (or you will ruin the file). Clean the shavings out regularly, perhaps as often as each stroke.
The general rule about pressure is to use less for soft materials.
For speed: fastest for brass, slowest for cast iron.
For filing aluminium alloy, use a specialised aluminium file (eg Nicholson Type A, or a "shear tooth" file). It must be sharp.
Clean the file as soon as you detect pinning, or preferably before (or you will produce deep ugly grooves in the workpiece).
Pinning is retained aluminium in the gaps (gullets) between the teeth.
Chalk the file (soapstone also works, possibly better) if pinning is a problem, particularly with "gummy" grades of aluminium .
Alternatively: Kerosene may help.
Again, but for a different reason: Don't drag on the return stroke.
For filing brass, you can get specialised brass files (eg the Nicholson "brass file" with "short upcut angle and a fine long angle overcut, which produces small scallops to break up filings and enable the file to clear."
Using round or half round files: work clockwise around a contour for best results.
The best way to clean a pinned file, particularly a high quality, expensive file, is to take a piece of brass or bronze (not too hard if the latter) in flat bar form, perhaps 20mm x 3mm rectangular cross section, and align the long axis of the bar with one of the groove or gullet axes of the file (the deepest groove, if there is one). Raise the end you're holding to say 25 to 30 degrees, then force the corner touching the file along the groove direction, to create grooves in that corner so that your tool takes the converse shape (female recesses in the tool corresponding to the male teeth of the file). Repeat the same action to clean out the gullets of the file. That corner of the cleaning tool should only be used with identical files to the one which created it, but each tool has four corners available, permitting up to four types of file on each tool.
Store files carefully. They should never come into contact with another file's teeth.
I love seeing someone use a file properly! You’ve honed your skill to a level I can only dream of. Thanks for the the tips
Excellent video Chris, thank you!! I have hand filed much of my fabrication work for most of my life and without any instruction, all trial and error. This video is a tremendous help for those without a lot of knowledge on the subject. This is literally the first of any instruction on the subject with this much depth. I started hand filing with Knifemaking decades ago, and a lot of mistakes and disasters in the learning process. One thing I would add here, CLEAN YOUR FILES as much as possible. It is very difficult with the small files you are using in this video, but any cleaning will help during a filing project. For the small files you are using here, I suggest searching for a fine bristle brush and clean the file often as you can during the process. A file filled with shavings tends to dull the cut on your file over time. Again, thank you for a fantastic video!
Beautiful work!
Keep a small level handy to your vise and clamp your part level for filing and tapping. We naturally tend toward level while we work.
Dear Chris,
I have watched this video several times over. I have built a quite a few models over the years mainly of brass and of railway subjects. I was always frustrated with the difficulty of filing a truly square corner die to the geometry of the teeth. Your tip about producing a safe edge is great and I must steel myself to do this. Your workmanship is a joy to behold and the video is beautifully lit and shot.
Thank you for your considerable efforts in making this video and showing what is possible with files.
Many thanks for watching Jack :)
Safe edge files are the way to go. I do the same thing, make my own safe edge files and buy Grobet Vallorbe or F. Dick. I like to also buy parallel surface files or cut the ends off to make them parallel. I also use mild steel rounds on each side of what I need to file round and then coat the mild steel rounds with felt pen, black or purple. When I touch the felt pen ink on the steel rounds I am finished, and my file work in the middle is round. You do beautiful European-style work; ask somebody in India to do the same thing and it just isn't going to come out like your work.
Wow, came here after searching for filing tips, blown away by the parts that you made!
1. Keep your files clean. Chips suck.
2. Files cut in one direction. By trying to cut on a reverse stroke, you mash the teeth flat and effectively blunt the file. More of a trap for new players than anything.
3. For heavy cuts with a coarse file where a lot of material is being removed quickly, don't trust you arms to move in straight lines. Firm up your shoulders and move from the hips. More of a farm tip than anything.
4. If you're sitting, draw filing is by far the most effective way to do it. Has to do with leverage.
5. Get up to the work like it insulted your mother. Then take half a step back so you can sock the boyo in the mouth. Up close for leverage and control, a touch back so you can actually move.
Pretty basic stuff, but it hurts to watch people miss some of it.
Fireball Tool pretty exhaustively tested point 2 of yours, it's false. Surprisingly. Recommend checking it out for some mind blowing stuff.
This video and the comments are one of the best hand machining resources I've ever come across. Would you consider doing a video about hand sawing techniques? Like how to square a handsaw cut across a long piece of strap?
Here's a few more:
Files are seldom "flat." It makes sense to map in your mind the convexities and concavities of a new file and take advantage for them depending on the features you need to file.
If you have large flat surfaces to file use the convex surfaces to concentrate stock removal where needed. If you have much to remove, look at the "belly" of three and four square files (American usage) where their more exaggeratedconvexity focuses effort on a smaller area improving stock removal as well.
Cheat. Use filing guides, filing machines, pair up identical parts, etc to broaden narrow edges to mitigate "roll-off" and other geometry errors. There's no merit to making parts over and over until you get one right on principal following purist notions of emulating "old school" skill.
Practice, start simple, make shape guages, etc to improve your hand skills and train your eye and muscle memory before you attempt production parts.
I think Chris is absolutely correct: Grobet, the authentic Swiss article, is about the sole remaining maker of precision files left in the world. They are expensive but in soft materials like brass and annealed steels they will last for many years of daily use. Thus they are cheap in the long run but getting outfitted will be a shock. Study their catalogs and assess your work. Then select the grades and shapes accordingly. Eight or ten assorted files of the right shapes can cover an amazing array of work situations. It's only money. You can eat next week.
File cleaning: NEVER USE THE WIRE SIDE OF A FILE CARD!!! The wires are hard and blunt therefore incredibly wearing on the delicate cutting edges of a file. My favorite file cleaning trick is to make a wood "chisel" of some low silica hardwood like maple or beech. Use the cutting edge of the wooden chisel to clear swarf accumulations in overlapping strokes following the file teeth. Use the fiber brush side of the card to tidy up.
Pinning: Ideally, the swarf - the tiny chips - drop from the tooth spaces as they clear the work. Some soft malleable materials self weld to a degree like aluminum or iron to form "pins" - little hard-packed deposits of swarf - between the teeth. Most of these may be picked out with a pointed soft steel "scribe". Harder pins may require a hard scribe but care must be taken to avoid damaging the adjacent file teeth. Clean the file frequently. There is no remedy for pinning more effective than file cleaning, care, and vigilence.
Great advice
Great tips Chris! Thanks. I was taught to always ‘Cross your scratch’ while filing, linnishing or polishing. That advise has saved many a small part from ruin. 😊
Most important thing I ever learned about filing was to take my time. When you get in a hurry you are more likely to make mistakes and they tend to be much larger.
dude, the skill that you show to us, is amazing.. id probably would have to practice for over 20 years to get even close to your skill level...
I'll just throw in that a scraper of any description can be considered a single toothed file and can be used with particularly discriminate precision.
So true - Cheers :)
Clickspring loving your stuff and looking forward to more instalments of this new series.
Nomad boatbuilding by the name and mention of scraper you have fitted a bronze prop or two ! Was a marine mechanic for over 20 years and have fitted a few.lol
I'm primarily a wood butcher but as you know, the boat trade calls on you to wear many hats. I try to leave the mechanics to those who know it best but I can rarely find any when I need them so, yes, I've fitted a prop or two.
why is it there is something very relaxing to watching you file on bits and pieces and start fitting them together...... :) really looking forward to the next installment of the Antikythera Mechanism build!
Chris, great video! On the idea of using buttons and guides I always cringed at the idea of hardened steel. Good files these days are NOT cheap ! ! ! ! So I agree with the idea of mild steel buttons. As a helper though a felt marker could be used to ink up the edges of a guide or button to aid with spotting the limits. And unlike Dykem or similar the felt marker can be touched up easily during mid operation without tearing down the setup. The times I've used this trick with guides it's proven helpful.
I'm so grateful for the insight you shared on filing I just didn't get how one can file straight and square efficiently to minimise wasting time in the workshop
Hey click. You should make a leather holder for all your files. Shape it like a manilla folder.....call it the File Folder lol.
haha nice one though not really productive.
Perhaps put some internal pockets within it to prevent files rubbing each other.
I tried grinding off one edge. I thought it was crazy but I gave it a shot and it really worked great. Way better control in a corner. Thanks for the great tip.
my trick is to file a piece of soap stone before filing to help stop the file from loading up , and cleans easy .
You have the patience of a saint! There’s no way I’d be able to use a file like you I’m too heavy handed!
I was waiting for the April Fools part...
are you like 6 years old?
TheDutchGuy110
Are you a 78 year old bitter fart with no humour?
That's exactly what I was expecting as well, lol! I guess the jokes on us because it never came.
It's April 2nd in Australia.
@MrShobar - That's true, I didn't think of that, but at the time the video was published it was still the 1st :) Even as I write this comment the latest possible time in Australia is only 4:08am and people were commenting at least 3 hours before that :p
Excellent that they return their works, the use of precision tools, successes....👍🎖🎖🎖🎖🎖
I would add three things to the list:
1) Mind your body - as with any hand tool, how you hold your body has a huge affect on the quality.
2) Never drag the file backwards unless it cant be avoided. Dragging the file backwards damages the cutting edges. It cant always be avoided, but avoid as much as possible.
3) Don't mix files for yellow metals with those for steels. A file used on steel will never file brass the same again.
Bonus tip: files really can not be sharpened. Soaking them in acid just makes an abused file better, it does not make it good.
Those are great points; in relation to your point one, when I'm doing really accurate work, I try to pretend I'm a robot, programmed for straight line motion using rotary joints. That seems to help make the motion more consistent, as well as straighter. It's not possible to produce flat surfaces if every stroke is different from the last one.
I forgot to add: point 2) is really only important when filing work which is hard, either locally or all over. (eg, when welding has been done on steel of unknown analysis, or when a nickel bearing alloy has been cold worked, or with cast iron which has major changes of section causing chilled regions (which can be hard enough to kill any file)...
Anything below maybe 35Rc, it really doesn't hurt the file, and can make it easier to maintain good alignments.
Some reckon it also helps keep the gullets from trapping chips ("pinning") which then gouge the surface. I think this depends, but I yet to arrive at a set of preconditions which allow me to reliably predict when it will and when it won't help.
This is pure craftsmanship and a pleasure and a privilege to watch and to learn from (although I’ll never attain anything like this standard) thank you
great video Chris. I cant afford a lot of expensive files, but i have a few. most important thing about getting a filing job done is getting comfortable, getting good light, and getting the resolution to start it. your filing will get lots better with just those things. :D
Completely agree mate - Cheers :)
Reminds me of my apprenticeship.. we did a LOT of filing and how I hated it back then however 40 years latter I am glad I paid attention.
I paint the tang of my brass files yellow, silver for aluminium, after they are worn they are general purpose I remove paint.
Nice :)
Why do you use separate ones for brass and aluminium? Because of the hard aluminium oxide or is there another reason? I use green handles for non-ferrous and grey for steel.
Aluminium files have adifferent cut pattern. So do lathe files.
I see, but then they shouldn't need marking. ;-)
Where do you get your aluminium files? I bought a couple Nicholson Magicut files for a project with a lot of aluminium filing. After replacing the handles with something decent they worked great, but that's a very limited selection shape wise.
I get my files from Travers tools. I mark the aluminium ones because have a mistake in the past when I am in a rush.
Yeah good lesson. I have held the humble file in high regard for 40 years and picked up a few valuable tips. Thanks , Jeff Perth WA.
Filing tip- If you don't have a handle for your file drill a hole in a golf ball and use some epoxy. The golf ball gives you a more natural means of pushing your file then the standard handle.
You know what I found that is a million times better than those golf ball handles are the handles from old screw drivers. Who doesn't have a hand full of old worn out screw drivers where the blades are so worn out that they tend to cam out of screws damaging them instead of torquing them in or out. Also this is good use for all those free mediocre Harbor Freight screwdrivers that no one ever needs... Just clamp the blade in a vise and knock the handle off with a hammer or mallet, they are just pressed on. Then just press on to your file of choice. Much more ergonomic than trying to hold onto something round attached to a lever where the load is at the opposite end of this lever. Your hand and golf ball are basically a ball joint, totally not what you want when you need control! A screw driver handle gives you a full hand grip and your hand doesn't need to clench with so much effort like it would have to gripping a golf ball in order to to maintain control of the file. I don't know why the golf ball trick got to be a thing because honestly it is terrible, IMO. I never seen anybody use screw driver handles, but made sense to me and simply works great. That's my tip.
I use those "soccer" balls from foosball table. They are the perfect size and tougher than a pine knot.
The reason that file handles are the shape they are, longer rather than ball shaped, is that it wraps the user's hand around the handle rather than putting it behind the handle and in line with the tang.
I've seen wooden handles split when not properly maintained, plastic ones split regardless of how they're treated, and I think this is very likely to happen with the suggested screwdriver handles too because this is not what they are designed for. They're designed for a twisting action, not a pushing motion.
I've seen a handle come off when the user was filing vigorously. His hand came forward still holding the handle that was no longer attached to the file. These all resulted in the tang cutting into the user's wrist, sometimes opening up the artery and causing a lot of pain, blood loss and distress. That's why workshop practice instructors are all supposed to be first-aid trained, certainly in the UK anyway.
Another consideration is that blood is very corrosive to light alloys, for example, those used in airframe structural repair, and it is hard to remove from crevices. While this may not be your first concern when you're hosing the local area with your bodily fluids, remember you'll probably be the one trying to remove it later.
Would love to see the clock works completed, if this is indeed what you were working on. Regardless, I would love to see your craftsmanship in whatever project you are making. Please. It’s wonderful to see true hand craftsmanship alive and well. Thanks for sharing.
When I grow up, I want to be like Clickspring :D
I just want to have half his patience.
Be better then him
Nice work. Well done
Chris I was getting worried something had happened it's good to hear your voice mate
I did about 12 months of weld-prep working on a power-station build when a lad. I did a lot of angle grinding. After about 6 months I worked out I could prep a 12” 1/4” (?) oil line faster with a half-round rough bastard file than with the combination of the file and the grinder. No picking up and putting down to change tools. Quieter safer faster. I looked after my files too.
Love your work!!
Great Video Chris! It is good to see another one of your videos. However, I thought being an Aussie and all, you would prefer to use sandpaper ? :P (Us Kiwis really aren't going to let you live that one down, not until you improve your throwing style at least ....). In all seriousness, it is a great video, and I am looking forward to seeing the rest of the videos on those parts you were filing in this video. I especially like that tip on filing across the previous grain. So much better than clogging a file with layout dye trying to get a flat surface.
It's a very reassuring thing when you watch a utube vid about working by hand and see somebody else teaching all the techniques that experience has taught me. Wonderfull work. It isnt often in recent years that I've had chance to apply my skills, but your videos remind me of all the wonder and possibilities that I discovered in my childhood shouting myself away in the garage with allsorts of hand tools at my disposal and an insatiable imagination. So relaxing to watch as well. So thankyou.
Oh my hat; all that beautiful polished brass at the end. 😍
You are one of those guys I'd just like to hang out with for a month. Nice demonstration 👌
Wow man your work is just perfect
Your workmanship is absolutely brilliant. I love this channel.
Great tips from the best filer around. I love the Swiss files also. Thanks for sharing Chris.
Thank you mate :)
OMFG, just to watch the craftsmen ship takes me back to being a kid at friends jeweler these old grizzled guys with their loops and magnifying goggles, great tips and beautiful reminders of a time honored tradition. Thanks for sharing!!!!
Waiting for the April Fool's shoe to drop, but I don't think it's gonna. Thanks for some nice safe content on this treacherous day.
And people this Halloween is the "Scary" holiday. Pffft. April fools terrifies me.
As a Fitter and Turner apprentice, these sorts of tips are great, keep putting out great content.
have you ever used chalk? the theory is that you run the file over chalk then go to work, the chalk in the recesses prevent the file from clogging up with metal.
superdupergrover chalk works well mate espcially on materials like aluminium, that clogging you're talking about is known as pinning
Was just checking no one had suggested chalk.
You beat me to it. 😎
superdupergrover i personally dont like using it. If i do so, only with the less rougher files that i use to work out the big scratches from the previous filing. But its not really necessary i think
I keep a few sticks of blackboard chalk with my files and generally use it for fine-work on steel parts. Nothing more irritating than a pin scoring the surface and spoiling it on the last few strokes. Keep a few strips of 16 gauge mild steel and run the end edges back and forth along the cutting-teeth of the file, at 45 degrees. The file will cut grooves and points that when run across the file will clear all chalk and filings from the file before you re-chalk.
nlo114
I use copper strip or even the end of a piece of copper water pipe.
LOVED this! Ive been a jewellery for over 18 years, and hand filing is still something that slips away from me at times... these are great tips! and like always, i'm impressed with your work :D
Thank you Rowan, terrific to have you watching :)
if you run the file over some chalk before you use it, it helps to prevent the cutting teeth from becoming clogged with cuttings
Always nice to watch a proper engineer at work!