Technical Shop Class Basics #2: Proper Storage of Files and Rasps

Burn Out, they make file cleaners called "file cards", that are a small, flat, wire brush. Why they are called file cards, I don't know.

 

Input, input! (reference to Johnny 5 scene)

Chris

 

Ok thanks woodiewagon46
I wuz try'n ta make a yoke son.LOL

 

I teach the students to properly use files and we talk about storing them and all that.

After that it's all out the window And it's do as I say not as I do

I know better and I just don't care. All of my files are stored together in a drawer in my tool box.
After so many years of working with tools I have come to realize that even good files that are treated well eventually wear out and become scrap metal.

As such I have come to view them as a consumable for the most part.

 

First is the file card with extra tool for added cleaning. The file is a St.Crispin's made in the USA and I have had it for 50+ yrs. (and it was old when I got it, probably my Gramps). It is a 10" 4-way cobblers rasp and is flat on one side, rounded on the other with 4 different gradations of teeth. So now you know that not All files have a handle! I have several others including Black Diamond, Nicholson and Simonds, most passed down to me by Gramp. Hope ya like the trivia, Carp.

 

High school shop classes used to teach all this stuff.
Now, it's like rediscovering the wheel.

 

I am anal about how to use a file. I called out my 75 year old buddy a month or so ago when he was "sawing" back and forth with a file. It still amazes me how few people know how to properly use hand tools.

I store them in a drawer, however and I DO own a file card. I try to buy Nicholson files when I can and I throw them away when they get dull. I have handles for most of my files and I hate using one without a handle. A file is a great tool when used properly. I keep lots of different files for different jobs.

 

Pretty tight in my shop...file rack is a must.

 

I have a reall hate when people dont have the peice of work low enough on the vice and the file vibrates and "screeches"
My freind does this often and i go mad !
I say to shout to him across the workshop "poor file, file killer "

 

I guess it's because it looks like the tool you use when you're carding wool.

 

Made this years ago for small files.

 

I have the same thing happen with our students, teach them to use a file and all we hear is "can I use a grinder"
Most laugh when we tell them they have to use actual hand tools, almost all say that they don't own files or even a hacksaw.

 

Us country boys just get a corn cob out in the field to use as a handle.

 

And I've heard that you country boys are so tough that you can use corn cobs to wipe your butts too

 

File handles? Golf balls, learned that from the shop savvy book by Roy Moungovan several decades ago. They fit in the palm of your hand perfectly, and they are dirt cheap. The odd ones do still have liquid centres when drilling though.

 

Great tip

Sent from my moto g(6) play using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Great , now its out to the shop to find all my files and give them a proper living space , im gonna try the golf balls.

 

Litchfield, love your shop. Are the race boat pics of you?

 

Here is a video on another very inexpensive way to make a file rack:

 

Thank you...
Yes they are. Been driving drag and Circle Hydro and Flatbottoms for over 40 years.
Had a bad crash about 7 years ago. Still do some driving but really enjoy restoring old boats/dragsters and a few cars.

 

Current restoration project...1963 all wood Blown Fuel Hydro...

 

Gorgeous, absolutely beautiful.

 

No picture to show now, but I remember seeing Lil’ John Buttera’s file rack in a HRM photo. It looked as though he used 1 x 2 lumber mounted to the side of his work bench spaced 3/8” or so to leave a gap that the files dropped into.
Typical Buttera, less is more.

 

I was about to give up on my toilet brush, and go back to toilet paper, but I might hang in there a little longer if country folk are tough enough to use cobs.