Home built die filer

[DaveH]

Al,

Very well made from the castings to the finished article.

An excellent post, very well presented, well writen and photographed
 
DaveH

[doubleboost]

Very nice
Thank you for a well photographed & written project log
Other than mining the ore yourself this is poropper scratch built
I am sure you will find lots of uses for your die filer
Well done
John

[arnoldb]

Really good job Al 

Will definitely save a bit of wear on the fingers 

 , Arnold

[danstir4]

Great project and I was amazed at the versatility of your skills!

[CallMeAl]

Thanks everyone for the nice comments.  I'm glad that I could contribute some thing to the form after watching all the wonderful builds that have been presented here.

Anzaniste:  Yes the fly cutter was made from the plan in Harvey's book.  One the first tools I made.  I use it every once in a while when I need a wide cut.  I need to make a counter weight for when the arm is extended out too far. Also, I haven't found the perfect grind on the tool bit yet.  As to the speed at which the project progressed, you need to figure in the week and a half of building the pattern that I didn't show this was by far the most time consuming part.

Bernd: I mounted it on my grinder stand to share the work light and to save space.  It vibrates a little, but it is not the bad for how much it will be used.  I will experiment with the variable pulley to find a speed that lessens the vibration but works fast enough to actually get some metal removal.

[dvbydt]

Al,
Flycutter grinding. Think of it set up in the lathe as cutting from the inside to outside. That gives you a good idea of the rake angle and the necessary clearance angles. Radius the point a little like any lathe cutting tool and you should be OK to go! Hope that helps.

Ian

[crab]

Hi Al.NICE.A lot of that vibration may be due to the belt.You might try a twist link v belt and mabe a cast iron pulley.
Crab

[Pete.]

I think if you lightened the cross-slide block below the slot for the brass slider and thinned it either side of the pinch bolt, and used a hollow tube instead of solid for the ram, you'd see a huge difference. You could also cut out the crankshaft webs either side of the pin to make it a counterbalance.

[CallMeAl]

Crab:  I agree with you on the belt.  The belt is tensioned by the weight of the motor.  If I push down on the motor a little it smooth out the vibration somewhat.  Twist link belts are expensive, so I will live with a little vibration.

Pete: Your suggestion of lightening up the reciprocating weight would probably help, but I'm to lazy to do it.  Thanks for the ideas.

[nearnexus]

Probably one easy anti vibration measure would be to drill into the drive/fly wheel rim (or the face) each side of the pin that connects to the brass block - or mill a slot in it if there is room.

As it is, the weight of the pin is throwing it out of balance.

So countering that with a bit of metal removal would help.

It would be worth running the drive/ flywheel disconnected first to see just how much vibration it generates by itself.

[Davo J]

I watched this from the beginning, and all I have to say is really great work.
For people not into casting, it would be easy enough to make out of weldments.

Dave

[madjackghengis]

Hi Al, I hadn't looked for a while, computer down and all that, but your project turned out great.  I built the MLA filer years ago, and use it a lot.  The key to the vibration is everything has its natural harmonic frequency, and you have to stay out of that frequency, and the primary harmonics of it, and the vibration will be negligable.  I wouldn't lighten up any shafts as they are stressed primarily by inertia far more than the actual work performed and inertia is absolutely unforgiving.  Mine runs about the high speed of the first half of your first video, and it works well with steel, iron, brass, aluminum and stainless, just not anything hardened.  I assume you're cutting on the down stroke, so won't mention that.  Any old file can be used, you just have to grind the front end down to fit in your shank/clamp arrangement.  They're great for profiling side plates or removing casting sprue and lines I use mine all the time on engine parts.  I'll bet you find yourself using it more often than you think possible right at the moment.  That's a fine piece of machinery. Cheers, mad Jack

[raynerd]

Hi Al,

I`ve not looked at this for the last week and just found your newest video and the table looks great.

A quick question for you; based on a comment I made in this thread, I have kindly been given a die filer from a fellow madmodder!!!!!      I`ve not had time to look at it properly yet, not because I`m ungrateful, I just really want to get the clock near finished before I start taking on any new projects, be them from scratch made or just repairing/modding! One thing I have noticed about your video and others I have seen as well as from my own machine when I switched it on just to see it run, is that that they run pretty damn quick. Can you see any issues that would arise from installing a 3ph motor on my die filler and using it with a variable speed pot? I`m just thinking that that way I could slow the machine right down and take more time with delicate filing jobs.

Nice work on your die filler and it is hard to believe you made it right from your own pattern!!

Chris

[Rob.Wilson]

Hi Al 

Just read the complete thread ,,,,,,,, very nicely done  ,,,,,, A very fine bit of workshop kit you have made there ,, love the casting , first class 

Rob