# Home Built Die Filer



## LEEQ

Very cool tool you made there.


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## jcp

Very nice workmanship.


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## f350ca

Very nice work Monk. I bought the castings and built his a number of years ago. You may want to slow it down though or it will eat files. Run as large a pulley on the machine as clears and as small on the slowest motor you can find. 

Greg


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## ttabbal

Nice! I keep thinking about getting the castings for one of them. It looks like a fun build and useful tool.


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## Aaron_W

I like die filers, another one of those machines like shapers and power hacksaws that are fun to watch. 

I just got one of the kits earlier in the month, but have had no time to do more than look at the castings.


Looks like you did a nice job with yours.


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## Monk

Thanks, everybody. I've got a few of the production photos I'll display. I initially planned to make this all from scrap I had laying around including the motor (didn't work out that way). I started by chucking a piece of 4" square aluminum in the lathe and bored it thru for a 1.25 bushing. All I had was some rectangular bronze stock so I chucked it up and turned it to the MLA specs and left the rectangular end on it which I later drilled and countersunk to hold it on the back of the body. 







Then I turned the main shaft out of .8750 stainless round with a collar and 5/8's x 24 threads. Next I turned a flywheel out of cold roll and bored and threaded it and drilled and pinned it to the shaft, and chucked and trued the flywheel to the shaft. Last I drilled and threaded the flywheel for the drive pin that I sized and threaded for 5/16ths that I salvaged from an old hardened Ducati clutch activator rod. Sorry I'm light on the pictures of that part.




Then I milled the Scotch Yoke. I tried to follow the MLA plans as closely as I could.




I'll gather up the rest of the pics for the rest of the project in the next post.


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## Monk

f350ca said:


> Very nice work Monk. I bought the castings and built his a number of years ago. You may want to slow it down though or it will eat files. Run as large a pulley on the machine as clears and as small on the slowest motor you can find.
> 
> Greg


Thanks, Greg. I went with the 4" to 2" because that's what the MLA prints called for, but I see your point. It's a 1750 rpm motor so it should be turning about 800 rpms. I may be able to get a 5" to fit if that's too much. Thanks for the help!


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## Monk

The fact that I was working from Andy's plans, but without his castings and with the dimensions of what I had on hand created some problems. I bored the center of the body out to what I thought was the final diameter, then bored top to bottom to accept the bushings and vertical shaft (I scavenged the vertical stainless shaft from a junk sump pump impeller shaft, but bought the bushings from MSC for less than $5 each and could pick up the same day). I turned a brass cap to hold the bushing in place, lined everything up and drilled and counterbored it and tapped the holes in the top of the main body and attached.






Unfortunately, I hadn't accounted for the travel of the yoke inside of the chamber as the as the vertical shaft moved through its stroke. So back to the lathe. I made a stainless boring bar out of 1" round stock I had laying around and a cutter from .5" tool steel (thanks for the advice mikey and Pontiac 428!), and opened the circumference up another .375 to accomodate the yoke travel. Then I turned a front cap for the body out of scrap cold roll round, chucked it up on the rotary table and drilled and counterbored the cap, and drilled and tapped the body for 8-32 screws. The vertical shaft was end drilled to .250 and then half of the circumference was milled off except for 3/16 for the file to slide into. I turned a "top hat" to slide over the file and vertical shaft, and tapped it for a set screw to hold the file in place on the shaft (per Andy's prints). Then I sized, drilled and counterbored the base, and drilled and tapped the body for 3/8-16.






Next I put a slice if 7" round in the rotary table and began milling away the clearance areas and bosses for the table legs. Then I cut the legs, and mocked up the body and table to the legs so I could rotate the shaft and check clearances. I found that I needed to drill about a 3/4" clearance hole in the base, and mill additional clearance in the bottom of the table to accommodate the stroke. 






I also drilled and counterbored the legs (added a third leg in the back of the table), and drilled the body and the bosses in the table and tapped to 3/8-16. I found that I had to use a half round endmill to cut access grooves in the bottom and sides of the table to access the leg bolts. Then I chucked the table into the lathe and faced the table top and circumference before bolting it together. 






I wasn't able to use either of the two old motors I had laying around (the windings were shot). I ordered one from Amazon and had it in three days, along with a 2" pulley. I got some 3/8-16 brass inserts from ACE for the wood base, and drilled and counterbored the filer base before lining up and fastening everything down.


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## silverchips

Monk said:


> Thanks, Greg. I went with the 4" to 2" because that's what the MLA prints called for, but I see your point. It's a 1750 rpm motor so it should be turning about 800 rpms. I may be able to get a 5" to fit if that's too much. Thanks for the help!



Monk,

Beautiful job, well done and thanks for sharing.

I too have to echo Greg in rpm speeds, It does seem a bit too fast. I don't want to take anything away from what you've done as it's a very beautiful little machine that you made.
You certainly have options on what you can do, I see a couple of things I can suggest. I'm mostly thinking out loud and just ideas. Your motor is very close to the driven pulley which effects torque and how small of a pulley you can go on the drive side. Luckily these filers do not need much power. I would suggest swapping out your current 4L (or 3L) belt for an AX belt; you'll get increased torque performance with your tight distance and small radius, especially if you go with a 5" pulley that will incur less contact area on the 2" pulley. I believe they make 1.8" pulley but not sure what torque rating they have, it's exponentially less as you go smaller/bigger ratio, the AX belt will certainly help with that.

Another option that I think would match very well with the beautiful work you've done (and only an idea) is to use to a small high torque brushless DC synchro motor that are now being utilized on sewing machines. They're variable speed, with even torque at all speeds and have a really small footprint and there priced well since so many are being made for the sewing industry, there getting rave reviews by the ones who are utilizing them in tool shops. The only factor is that they have a remote elec. box for the controller and it has mechanical lever to control speed to use your foot but with your skills, thats an easy & quick mod to change into a small dial speed knob. Having the speed control and constant torque, you can dial in the perfect speed for the material your filing, there also very quiet & super smooth compared to a regular motor.
I believe Pine Grove adopted their large casted flywheel design like what is seen in the sewing world to give the file more torque with the large mass of weight turning in the flywheel to keep it moving smoothly when applying pressure against the file. They really use this with sailmaker sewing machines.

Again, well done and you have a very nice machine there and impressed with it. Cheers


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## Monk

silverchips said:


> Monk,
> 
> Beautiful job, well done and thanks for sharing.
> 
> I too have to echo Greg in rpm speeds, It does seem a bit too fast. I don't want to take anything away from what you've done as it's a very beautiful little machine that you made.
> You certainly have options on what you can do, I see a couple of things I can suggest. I'm mostly thinking out loud and just ideas. Your motor is very close to the driven pulley which effects torque and how small of a pulley you can go on the drive side. Luckily these filers do not need much power. I would suggest swapping out your current 4L (or 3L) belt for an AX belt; you'll get increased torque performance with your tight distance and small radius, especially if you go with a 5" pulley that will incur less contact area on the 2" pulley. I believe they make 1.8" pulley but not sure what torque rating they have, it's exponentially less as you go smaller/bigger ratio, the AX belt will certainly help with that.
> 
> Another option that I think would match very well with the beautiful work you've done (and only an idea) is to use to a small high torque brushless DC synchro motor that are now being utilized on sewing machines. They're variable speed, with even torque at all speeds and have a really small footprint and there priced well since so many are being made for the sewing industry, there getting rave reviews by the ones who are utilizing them in tool shops. The only factor is that they have a remote elec. box for the controller and it has mechanical lever to control speed to use your foot but with your skills, thats an easy & quick mod to change into a small dial speed knob. Having the speed control and constant torque, you can dial in the perfect speed for the material your filing, there also very quiet & super smooth compared to a regular motor.
> I believe Pine Grove adopted their large casted flywheel design like what is seen in the sewing world to give the file more torque with the large mass of weight turning in the flywheel to keep it moving smoothly when applying pressure against the file. They really use this with sailmaker sewing machines.
> 
> Again, well done and you have a very nice machine there and impressed with it. Cheers


Thanks for the reply Silverchips. I really wanted Variable Speed DC motor but I was trying to keep the cost down after being unable to use the motors I had on hand. I intend to keep looking though. Thanks for the suggestion, and I will look into the options you suggested


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## silverchips

Monk said:


> Thanks for the reply Silverchips. I really wanted Variable Speed DC motor but I was trying to keep the cost down after being unable to use the motors I had on hand. I intend to keep looking though. Thanks for the suggestion, and I will look into the options you suggested



No worries and totally understand about cost, it can add up quick.

Here's a link to a cheap one with free shipping/no tax. Trying to cobble up a DC motor set up (ie: treadmill motor) can get expensive once when adding up the DC controller, bracket, accessories and motor. This one includes everything, just discard the mounting bracket as the motor housing has T-slots to adapt your own bracket. You would only need a 300w motor for that filer but not sure they make them that small. The 600w is already much smaller compared a typical 1/4hp motor.

https://www.goldstartool.com/brushless-dc-servo-motor-for-industrial-sewing-machines.htm


PS> Looking forward to seeing it in action and what you're doing with it. Cheers


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## Monk

Thanks for the link. I'll be sure and check out the videos in more detail. Already sourcing AX belts and a 5" pulley in the meantime.


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## Shiseiji

1st, beautiful work and stellar write-up. Thank you, it's a keeper! Hate to offer something you may have already considered and rejected. But that's to make a nice 2" high platform for your motor for an extra inch size pulley. You obviously have the woodworking skills to pull it off.

Ron


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## Monk

Shiseiji said:


> 1st, beautiful work and stellar write-up. Thank you, it's a keeper! Hate to offer something you may have already considered and rejected. But that's to make a nice 2" high platform for your motor for an extra inch size pulley. You obviously have the woodworking skills to pull it off.
> 
> Ron


Thanks for the kind words! Right now, I'm looking into a 5" pulley on the filer (there's room). I'll see what that does to the speed. I've also got to re-do the main shaft, as it turned out a bit too small in diameter and allows a bit of play. redoing the bearing is more involved and expensive than the shaft.


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## graybus

Wow!  Excellent craftsmanship!  I bought one on these same casting kits with plans years ago, didn't get started (still have it raw), then found a nice Milwaukee die filer with variable speed drive.  That feature is nice.  A larger pulley on your die filer would help, but consider a small 3 phase motor with VFD or a DC motor off a treadmill too.  Being able to vary your speed really helps.  One other option of course is an intermediate shaft to get your speed down.  Once again, great workmanship!  Mike


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## wachuko

What a great build!!  Thank you for sharing!


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## Monk

graybus said:


> Wow!  Excellent craftsmanship!  I bought one on these same casting kits with plans years ago, didn't get started (still have it raw), then found a nice Milwaukee die filer with variable speed drive.  That feature is nice.  A larger pulley on your die filer would help, but consider a small 3 phase motor with VFD or a DC motor off a treadmill too.  Being able to vary your speed really helps.  One other option of course is an intermediate shaft to get your speed down.  Once again, great workmanship!  Mike


Thanks, MIke. Been out of the shop for a bit due to extenuating circumstances. Intend to make a few changes when i get a chance.


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## Monk

wachuko said:


> What a great build!!  Thank you for sharing!


Thanks!


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