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Thread: How flat is a file?
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20th April 2015, 07:22 PM #1Senior Member
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How flat is a file?
This the base and top of my cross slide. The base appears to be made from quality steel and the top is cast iron.
The problem is as I advance the the cross slide it gets tight. I dont think its an adjustment problem.
I think the top is slightly bowed. You can just make out scuff marks each side at the top of the top photo.
My question is...With a good quality file, could I slide it back and forth to flatten off the high spot.
If the idea is feasible I'd probably need a half round so I could get it into the wedge.
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20th April 2015, 07:32 PM #2
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20th April 2015, 07:36 PM #3
Use a fine diamond plate.
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20th April 2015, 07:38 PM #4Philomath in training
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You need to work out which bit has the wear - pointless filing out a presumed high spot if the majority of the wear is on the other part. For machine tool flatness purposes a file is probably not dimensionally stable enough - ideally you want something that has a movement range in tenths of microns.
Michael
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20th April 2015, 09:34 PM #5Pink 10EE owner
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All you will do is wreck something with a file... What will probably will be worn is the dovetail section that is on an angle... it is not a hard job to fix, just very time consuming... Not even expensive to buy the tooling to fix it... One of those $100 Carbotec surface plates would probably do... If you were closer I would happily help out...
Light red, the colour of choice for the discerning man.
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21st April 2015, 12:28 AM #6
As RC says, It's fixable, and there are well known and proven procedures to follow, first... don't go crazy filing at random. You need something known to be absolutely straight to use as a reference to blue against, that will tell you where to scrape.
Here are a few videos to give you the general idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esAqz6bCVyQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hEMTmM1mBQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1eOQa1gYiU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt9f2QiVbt4
Nick Mueller's is probably the pick.
Ray
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21st April 2015, 12:47 AM #7Senior Member
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If I recall long ago, we were taught a file isn't flat, bowed.
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21st April 2015, 09:07 AM #8GOLD MEMBER
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Nick should've fed the siamese before he directed that clip
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1st May 2015, 05:51 PM #9Senior Member
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Watched the videos...eazypeazy, piece of cake, like laying bricks, the easiest thing the world till you have a go at it.
Couldn't even get the bluing to work. I think I must be putting it on too thick, because the pieces stick together after sliding them back and forth forth a few times. Then spilt the blue over the phone, another +1 for the Otter case.
I don't have a flat surface so I'm working on the assumption the base of the cross slide is flat. It does seem to be a custom unit made from a good quality steel whereas the top is the original cast iron.
As long as I get a noticeable improvement I'll be happy.
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1st May 2015, 10:07 PM #10GOLD MEMBER
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Would it be possible to get a couple of parallel ROLLERS out of a roller bearing, that will go in the dovetail, so that measurements could be taken, which will give an indication of variances, I know mine is about .011mm. It's sloppy at the furtherest point away from the chuck and gets better on the way in, except for a small section in the middle where it gets tighter marginally.
Kryn
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1st May 2015, 10:32 PM #11Senior Member
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1st May 2015, 11:14 PM #12Senior Member
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1st May 2015, 11:18 PM #13Senior Member
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What you have is L.O.S. This is not suitable for what you are doing, just get a tube or bearing blue from Repco or other automotive parts suppliers.
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2nd May 2015, 07:51 AM #14Philomath in training
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I notice that you are in Newcastle. Flick a PM through to Joe (jhovel) as he's looking for someone to visit up that way in about a week. He's done the scraping course so may be able to help you out with regards to technique and point you in the way of the correct stuff.
Michael
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4th May 2015, 09:04 AM #15Senior Member
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Thanks Techo, was definitely using the wrong stuff. Bearing blue from Repco for $13 was the go.
It has showed up a bow in the slide top. Had a bit of a scratch and it has improved a little but more time needed on it.
RC is on the money too. I just used some round tooling and sliding callipers to check the dovetails, just a little short of
Nick Muellers standard but enough to tell me its out from one end to the other by about 0.1mm.
I'd also welcome a visit from Joe but with the way trees are falling over here, time is a real problem. Normally I would
just take the day off.