Filing a metal block to true squareness

C-Bag said:
I think it's funny the one apprentice I ever met lives down the street from me and is in his 80's. He apprenticed when he was 16 to a company that made precision equipment used in navigation like sextant and clocks in Breman Germany after the war. He had a leg up because everybody knew his father did all kinds of repair and my neighbor had worked in his fathers shop since he was 5 so when I asked him about "the cube" he just laughed. He never finished his and was worried about it and the journeymen he worked under just growled go put it on the lathe! His gruff old boss never did ask him for his cube. He figured they used it to run off those they felt didn't have any aptitude. He still makes incredible stuff like model ships from scratch and RC aircraft. Almost all with simple hand tools.
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So is it possible to make a near perfect square with a file .I will get squareohobia if it's not possible.:)
 
silence dogood said:
After over 50 years, I will still use a file for three reasons. On certain jobs, it is far quicker to clamp the work in a vise, file it than mill it. It keeps me in practice. And I actually enjoy it. Now here is something that should help you. Keep that file clean as you use it. So keep a file card near by and use it often. A little burr embedded in your file can scratch your work big time. It can take quite a few strokes to get it out and may end up throwing your dimension and the flatness off.
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I've been there before realising my file was dirty when my work wasn't pretty. :)
 
I didn't post that to say you can't make a near perfect square with a file. I just posted because the one person I'd ever met didn't finish his. Not because he couldn't, but because they had him so busy doing work with the journeymen he didn't have time. He got how hard it was and I have no doubt he could have seeing the stuff he's made.
 
  • Haha
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C-Bag said:
I didn't post that to say you can't make a near perfect square with a file. I just posted because the one person I'd ever met didn't finish his. Not because he couldn't, but because they had him so busy doing work with the journeymen he didn't have time. He got how hard it was and I have no doubt he could have seeing the stuff he's made.
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Is that a steam engine on your profile pic btw.
 
When I began my apprenticeship in 1971 I was a ssigned to "Walt." Walt had been apprentised as a tool maker in Germany, (It had to have been before the war, He had children my age, and I was born before the war.) He spent 6 years in the shop, training, and two years, 6 months in four factories on his "Journey." One factory was a shoe factory. He didn't talk about it, just told me so I knew how easy I had it. He started me on a shaper, making square/rectangular blocks. I never had any file training, just machines. Our shop, 12 journeymen and one apprentice on three shifts) was primarily to repair production machinery.
 
  • Wow
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Koi said:
I've been there before realising my file was dirty when my work wasn't pretty. :)
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Firstly, yes it is possible and not really that hard, just requires long hours of practice and a bit of help with technique, Patience is it's own reward. Filing a cube is not just an exercise in patience. The great reward is when you realise that you can do something that you previously thought impossible, you will now realise that you can also do other things that appear impossible, it opens your eyes to your own ability.

Secondly with the file pilling ie. small bits of metal getting stuck in the grooves and marring the work. Get a file card and use this to clean the file regularly, and then take a piece of chalk, and file the chalk so that the file grooves are filled with chalk then when you start filing the chalk prevents the the small pieces of metal from sticking to the file, your file will cut cleaner and last longer. A word of warning always clean the chalk off the file when you've finished with it. The chalk will attract moisture , especially in a humid climate and will start the file rusting.
 
C-Bag said:
-snip- He never finished his and was worried about it and the journeymen he worked under just growled go put it on the lathe! -snip-
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Not exactly a square but I needed to square up a buggered up piece from the end of some stock yesterday.

square.jpeg
 
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