As is the long standing tradition on the GRM forum I'm going to start the build thread prematurely.
I have wanted a die filer for over a decade. At least three times a week I find myself needing one. In a box under a workbenches I have a pneumatic file crudely welded to a "table" that worked well enough to convince me I wanted a proper one, but not well enough to actually use. I have also cut up a couple of vintage scroll saws hoping to use the reciprocating mechanism to build a better one but I always throw them out when I become frustrated with the inadequate stroke length or lack of proper support.
A few days ago Adam Savage did a video about making a plywood base for his MLA kit built filer. I was struck by how good it looked and how it looked like an 80 year old tool that had been restored, not something modern.
So i said screw it and ordered the MLA-18 kit. This kit is nothing more than 4 pieces of rough cast iron weighing 30lbs and 4 sheets of 18"X24" paper containing the plans and pertinent info.
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Not sure why the vintage look is so important to me for this tool. but it was the deciding factor when it came to whether I did a machined diy or this.
Anyway. PayPal was sent this morning Sunday June 14th and as soon as I receive the kit from Andrew I will report back.
Also, my lathe is right on the edge of being too small for this job. I expect this to be a challenging yet rewarding project.
Cool! I saw Adam's video, and the machining of the parts sounded challenging. I'm eager to watch one go together.
It's definitely a kit for someone who already has tools :) Looking forward to this.
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A while back I harvested this awesome cast iron base from a glass grinding machine. I think it will be totally appropriate to make the filer free standing
So what exactly is this for and do i need one
RossD
MegaDork
6/16/20 7:17 a.m.
In reply to Patrick (Forum Supporter) :
Look for Adam Savage's Tested youtube channel, and his episode where he is making a tiny machining vice. It was within 1 or 2 weeks ago. He uses the filer.
Clickspring is probably responsible for most die filer sales these days.
It is simply a very rigid, accurate reciprocating file.
This old Tony's filer is a bit bigger.
In reply to Trent (Generally supportive dude) :
Guess what I didn't know I needed?
Seriously though interested to see what your impressions are of that kit.
OOH! As a collector of ancient and outdated machine tools, I'll be following along with great interest. I first saw a die filer at an estate sale 18 years ago. I didn't know what it was and wanted to buy it, but at that time I couldn't afford it. I'm still not sure if it was a slotting machine or a die filer, because I didn't know much about old machine tools then. Major regrets to this day. I didn't leave that estate sale empty handed though: I picked up a drill press from the 20s and the band saw from the 50s along with some small measuring tools.
Really looking forward to seeing the process to machine this.
There was a heavy box on my doorstep when I got home from walking the dogs last night
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Several pages of prints. I will read the documentation and plan my course if action
Just to state the obvious, this is exciting!
I love that level of instructions. It weeds out those that do not have the skill. Sometimes, I think all that good instructions do is just make incompetents feel more confident. Like the way 4wd lets you get stuck further into the bush than 2wd does :)
A friend is building a tube amp. It came with a circuit diagram. The one I built a while back came with 100+ pages of instructions.
Trent (Generally supportive dude) said:
Clickspring is probably responsible for most die filer sales these days.
Adam Savage is kind of having a Clickspring obsession recently, he's talking about him all the time in his videos. Speaking of which, it's been a while since Clickspring put up a new full episode, he's mainly just been posting clips from previous videos.
Trent
Have you started teh build on teh Die Filer ?
In reply to shauna59 :
Yet another project I started when covid project mania took hold. Then my mill needed work, then the lathe, then the shop got full of work and I took on more of the business responsibilities. Then I built a new motor for the mini and built an efi setup for it, then I did more work on the Fiat 850 parts... the list can go on for pages.
The die filer parts got paint in preparation for machining and are still sitting waiting. I still do a lot of shaping by hand and glance over at this potential time saver.
I need to pull out the blueprints and make a schedule. If I do a little bit every Friday I should be able to get it done eventually