Hello everyone,
I recently attended Richard King's October 2023 scraping course in Cottage Grove, MN. I have acquired several older machines that are in need of some reconditioning. Since I am a novice machinist I was looking for information on machine rebuilding. I came across some You-Tube videos on machine rebuilding that lead to hand and power scraping. I had intended to take his July 2023 but my schedule didn't allow me to get away for the week.
Since returning from the week long class I wanted to share my thoughts and a few pics. Typically students bring along a person item that they want to scrape or get some feedback on. I brought the saddle and table from my TML by Harig surface grinder and a tabletop cast iron scraped surface plate. After I singed up for the class I had some doubts about whether the skill of scrapping was going to be something I could actually apply in my shop. Well not only did I discover the value of scraping but I got a solid overview and understanding of how machines work, how to test for various inaccuracies, the tools and equipment used in making evaluations and finally the skills and practice required to hand and power scrape as well as hand of power flaking.
Being a novice it was difficult for me to even begin to ask questions as I had no real basis of experience in the area of close tolerance work associated with machine rebuilding and scraping. The class started off with a morning of introductions and a bit of inquiry by Richard as to each of our levels of experience, skills and reasons for attending the class. Richard was able to take that information and basically tailor the experience for each student. This was a great way to make us comfortable and he was able to communicate and teach at our individual levels. By the end of day one we were all using Biax power scrapers to reflatten a 3/4 3" x 12" piece of Dura Bar. All of were able to achieve 20 points per inch with 40% coverage by mid morning on day 2. The rest or day 2 was dedicated to hand scraping. The balance of the week was dedicated to working on our personal projects with the oversite of Richard and his son Alex.
I thourghly enjoyed the week and I came away with a wealth of knowledge far beyond scraping. For me it was a great experience. Anyone with experience would be able to tap into more of the advanced scraping and related machine rebuilding knowledge that Richard has.
I recently attended Richard King's October 2023 scraping course in Cottage Grove, MN. I have acquired several older machines that are in need of some reconditioning. Since I am a novice machinist I was looking for information on machine rebuilding. I came across some You-Tube videos on machine rebuilding that lead to hand and power scraping. I had intended to take his July 2023 but my schedule didn't allow me to get away for the week.
Since returning from the week long class I wanted to share my thoughts and a few pics. Typically students bring along a person item that they want to scrape or get some feedback on. I brought the saddle and table from my TML by Harig surface grinder and a tabletop cast iron scraped surface plate. After I singed up for the class I had some doubts about whether the skill of scrapping was going to be something I could actually apply in my shop. Well not only did I discover the value of scraping but I got a solid overview and understanding of how machines work, how to test for various inaccuracies, the tools and equipment used in making evaluations and finally the skills and practice required to hand and power scrape as well as hand of power flaking.
Being a novice it was difficult for me to even begin to ask questions as I had no real basis of experience in the area of close tolerance work associated with machine rebuilding and scraping. The class started off with a morning of introductions and a bit of inquiry by Richard as to each of our levels of experience, skills and reasons for attending the class. Richard was able to take that information and basically tailor the experience for each student. This was a great way to make us comfortable and he was able to communicate and teach at our individual levels. By the end of day one we were all using Biax power scrapers to reflatten a 3/4 3" x 12" piece of Dura Bar. All of were able to achieve 20 points per inch with 40% coverage by mid morning on day 2. The rest or day 2 was dedicated to hand scraping. The balance of the week was dedicated to working on our personal projects with the oversite of Richard and his son Alex.
I thourghly enjoyed the week and I came away with a wealth of knowledge far beyond scraping. For me it was a great experience. Anyone with experience would be able to tap into more of the advanced scraping and related machine rebuilding knowledge that Richard has.
