Camelback Straight Edge Scraping

[Rex Walters]

Putting an eyebolt into the end of my 36” camelback won’t be nearly as interesting a thread as Will scraping in his 6’ monster, but I’ll be sure to take a couple pictures when I do.

I’ve got to build some sort of wooden saddle or clamp out of scraps first to hold it while scraping, especially the dovetails. I just need something to hold it canted at 45deg while I scrape the dovetail.

I’m thinking of basically just a couple of wooden vee blocks (milled out of a two by four) clamped to a bench. I’m pretty tall, but I still might need to stand on a platform while scraping with it that high up. If you’ve got any suggestions, I’m all ears.

Will, Richard’s comment #19 above looks to have answered your original question completely (yup, it’s doable). Now it’s on you to take a bunch of pictures and document your progress to entertain the rest of us! Really looking forward to seeing how it goes.

You’re leading a purer life than me, by the way, if five foot lengths of precision granite are falling into your lap. (Laugh)

 

[Richard King 2]

There is a few ways to hold it. I used to have a 32" Bridgeport table I camped it to and leaned the table up on scrap wood. I also sometimes will drill & tap 2 - 1/2" /13 holes one on each end and use a long bolt fed trough a jam nut and set it in wood V blocks and either use 2 Johnhanson wood clamps or machine vises to hold the nut. I have a picture someplace. Some use wood V block and use a wood 1 x 4 clamp screwed in with a electric drill and long wood screw . Use your imagination and you'll get it
Pic's L to R -Using 2 screw wood clamp to tip grinder table to 45deg. More of my cash of SE castings, 2 wood clamps holding nuts n end of SE, Tom Utley's wood jig he built at K. Ruckers class 2 holding non ribbed SE, Rex testing his part at K. Rucker class 4

 

[wcunning]

I like those methods Rich! Seeing that kind of setup is half the battle -- once you see one picture, you can modify it to suit your situation, but without ever seeing anything you have no starting point. To throw another one out there, Ken (@4gsr) posted pictures of using the Harbor Freight tilting weld table to hold a lathe cross slide at the right angle to scrape into the dovetails. I thought that looked like a particularly good design.

On a related note, I'm nearly done building the "Moravian Workbench" per, or at least inspired by, Will Meyers' design, and my intention is to make up a set of hold fasts so that I can use basically random scraps of lumber to hold parts for scraping, make corners to butt a compound or a slide or the like into, etc. As a fellow woodworker turned machinist, does that basic plan seem reasonable @Rex Walters ?

Thanks,
Will

 

[4GSR]

The only problem I have with it, you have to hold it down with one foot. If you don't, it starts dancing around on you. Works real well for those inverted vee's and dovetails on the saddle of your lathe.

Ken

 

[Rex Walters]

Rex testing his part at K. Rucker class 4

Sadly, I wasn’t able to walk away with the squaremaster. Apparently the owner wanted to keep it!

 

[Rex Walters]

On a related note, I'm nearly done building the "Moravian Workbench" per, or at least inspired by, Will Meyers' design, and my intention is to make up a set of hold fasts so that I can use basically random scraps of lumber to hold parts for scraping, make corners to butt a compound or a slide or the like into, etc.

I’d love to see your bench! (I actually own some property in Pittsboro, NC where Roy Underhill has his shop, but I’ve not been back there since before he opened it.)

In my VERY limited experience (a box square and a few small straightedges) a woodworkers bench is extraordinarily useful for scraping. Lots of workholding options and they’re heavy enough not to move around while scraping. Hold-downs are definitely useful for clamping a handscrew or whatever in place. I use both the traditional “whack it to clamp” style as well as the Veritas screw type hold-down. The latter is particularly useful as you can control the clamping force and don’t have to worry about table thickness to get good clamping. Don’t forget holes on the sides/legs for the holdfasts (especially with the Veritas holdfast where extra thickness isn’t a concern).

Fair warning, though. As I’m sure you know already, scraping is gloriously filthy work. My bench is now so filthy with embedded scraping swarf, bluing, and miscellaneous oil stains that I can’t let an instrument or fine piece of lumber anywhere near it. One of these days I need to make a hardboard cover for the thing to protect it from metalwork. Before that, I need to handplane away the filth (with a fore-fore-fore plane and disposable blade!).

 

[Richard King 2]

The only problem I have with it, you have to hold it down with one foot. If you don't, it starts dancing around on you. Works real well for those inverted vee's and dovetails on the saddle of your lathe.

Ken

He had 2 on there, but took it off so i could take the picture, it worked pretty good. EDgar who has taken 4 classes now. He was at the Texas class you parked on the grass ken..lol. That picture was taking at the Peter Ross NC class and he has been at 2 Keith Rucker classes and he assisted me on the 4th one. what sucks now his prostrate cancer is back...

 

[Rex Walters]

Rex how about you start a new thread showing where and how you did it, please.

Not worth a whole thread, but here’s a photo of the result. I just found the balance point using a piece of pipe on the bench as Rich suggested, marked with a sharpie, and drilled and tapped for 1/4-20. Since the web is only about a quarter inch wide, I just milled a hole in the web so I could use a jam nut. The eye bolt was a bit of a loose fit, so the nut is definitely stronger.

 

[Richard King 2]

Be sure to weld the eyebolt. I also would have prefered you would have drilled into the thicker angle just under the rib webbing end and not cut into the rib itself. Have to keep an eye on it and see what happens doing it that way (first time, i have seen that). Have you rung it while scraping it?

Andy one of the Rockford students also bought (HKA-36) one and is scraping it in class this week. He's ringing it and it first time changed .001 he said and 2nd time only .0005". We suspect the 3rd will be the charm and not move that we will do today . I'll add some photos in a couple of days.

Just got 2 more orders for castings this week. Picking up some HKA-18 from foundry next week and I'll be dropping off the HKA-72 pattern as I got an order for one going to Australia.

 

[Rex Walters]

Are you joking about welding the eyebolt? THAT would cause it to move, surely!

I should probably have picked up a smaller eyebolt than quarter inch. Then I could have just drilled into the web. The hole I milled is more for appearance than anything (no way I’d have drilled exactly in the middle of the web without blowing out one side).

The nut is just to keep the bolt from spinning/rattling - not because I had any worry about threads in cast iron being strong enough. It was a very loose fit, however. I could have used loctite, but it came with a nut from the hardware store, so I used it.

I’ve not started serious scraping, I just took a few initial passes to remove the milling marks and break up the surface. I’ve not blued it up yet (I won’t have access to a large enough plate until the class).

I’ve got one more surface I plan to scrape (the 90 degree side). I’ll ring it a bit more after I take a couple passes along that side. I think removing metal unevenly will cause as much movement as anything (except maybe heat from spot welding!).