Here in Italy my sister did at the end of the '80s, a couple of hour per week in the industrial technical school, but... then she got a degree in political science. 🙂
😀 Did you ever slip and have one gouge your hand?
Filed by hand during my first year of a mould toolmaker apprenticeship in 1975. Still use them......
Bastard is actually a description of the teeth style on a file, single and double cut are also used. Those are finer, used where less stock is to be removed.
It is a rough cut, for preparing metal or wooden surfaces, fast stock removal.
Nowadays, small angle grinders with wire brushes and different abrasive / cutter blades have become a common and faster alternate.
It is a rough cut, for preparing metal or wooden surfaces, fast stock removal.
Nowadays, small angle grinders with wire brushes and different abrasive / cutter blades have become a common and faster alternate.
Customer: I'd like to buy a file please.
Shopkeeper: This big bastard here?
Customer: No, I'll take that little f***er over there.
Shopkeeper: This big bastard here?
Customer: No, I'll take that little f***er over there.
Single cut file has teeth cut diagonally across the full width of the face.
Second (or double) cut teeth are cut both ways making individual points.
I made lots of hand tools as an apprentice: toolbox, scribing block, toolmakers clamps......
I don't know what happened to them.
Wish I still had them, they'd be useful now I'm dabbling in model engineering.
Second (or double) cut teeth are cut both ways making individual points.
I made lots of hand tools as an apprentice: toolbox, scribing block, toolmakers clamps......
I don't know what happened to them.
Wish I still had them, they'd be useful now I'm dabbling in model engineering.
Yes l had to do this in technical education as this was standard regardless of which direction one had chosen. It was not called "filing school" but it was just an exercise in the curriculum. When not up to standard it was thrown away and you had to start over. It was harsh and you had to obey. Also all the names of the tools needed to be known, materials needed to be known in detail with their properties and values had to be written 100% perfectly. This still works out. Can not stand to read mv, hZ, KWH, Kw, uuf, mf, ma etc. as it gives the impression of being technically illiterate. Being a boys school we had to run city to city without cutting any corner (otherwise back to the Start), do regular Cooper tests and swim in the outside swimming pool when it snowed! Still see the single girl they finally had to allow (as she fought her way in) shivering from the cold in the snow in bathing suit.
Only thing I can say to my teachers now is: thank you!
Only thing I can say to my teachers now is: thank you!
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Very nice toolmaker's clamps. Did you use buttons to assist on the rounded ends?
We never did filing school and I wasn't taught how to use a file properly. I've had to learn since then (and unlearn bad habits). Thinking about it, I can file a flat face, but I usually cheat by popping work in the mill. Still "filing school" was all about learning manual co-ordination, which is a very useful skill to have. One thing that using tools at an early age taught is to respect your tools - I still use the files I bought on my way to first serious job interview. If the interviewers had had any sense, they would have asked what was clanking in the brown paper bag I was clutching (twelve good quality files, 50p each or twelve for £5). Files are not allowed to clank together now and (Vallorbe) needle files have purpose-made stands, one in lab, one in workshop.
We never did filing school and I wasn't taught how to use a file properly. I've had to learn since then (and unlearn bad habits). Thinking about it, I can file a flat face, but I usually cheat by popping work in the mill. Still "filing school" was all about learning manual co-ordination, which is a very useful skill to have. One thing that using tools at an early age taught is to respect your tools - I still use the files I bought on my way to first serious job interview. If the interviewers had had any sense, they would have asked what was clanking in the brown paper bag I was clutching (twelve good quality files, 50p each or twelve for £5). Files are not allowed to clank together now and (Vallorbe) needle files have purpose-made stands, one in lab, one in workshop.
Ha ha! That reminds me of my Dad (a fitter and turner) telling me off for using a file without a handle, describing what happens when you slip and have the tang sticking into your forearm.
Did anyone here get taught the 'three, one, thumb' rule for holding tools? I still remember a teacher Mr Sergeant walking around woodworking class repeating this mantra to errant woodworkers.
Yep. It was the start of the practical phase of the module entitled "Maintenance Practices'.
We were given the rusty block of mild steel and had access to a square, 3 grades of files, a surface table and some dyechem.
At the end of 2 weeks, the DTI would come out and all surfaces had to be precisely flat, square and parallel to pass the subject.
Pretty soul destroying stuff. Sorry I meant to say 'Character Building'.. 😣
I remember the dyechem stuff now - sort of dark blue ink! Used for finding spots on the work that were above the rest of the piece when they weren't supposed to be plus other stuff. Memories!
I have a 35 year old tube of 'bearing blue' in the shed from my engine building days which I think is similar to dyechem.
Didn't use buttons, just marked them out as far as I can remember. The filing was a means of keeping us occupied for a few weeks probably.
The first year was spent at a training school. We also learnt turning, milling, welding, grinding, electrics and sheet metalwork. I hated sheet metalwork due to the lack of precision involved.
I re-machined the splines of a pair of Jag wheel hubs using a dividing head, it was probably a homer for one of the tutors.
On the first day at the company who employed me, I was given a round bar of copper and a button and told to replicate the profile of the button on the end of the bar to make en electrode for sparking. It was the first time I'd seen or heard of a sparker....
We still use tubes of Prussian Blue oil colors (paint) to match mold faces, it is called 'blue matching' here...high points need grinding or filing down.
I have used valve lapping compound at times for even matching.
It is artist's paint, really, used by students here for oil painting whatever they feel like...portraits, landscapes, flowers, and so on.
The local university has a reputed Faculty of Fine Arts, and there is a style of painting called the Baroda School style....so such things are easily found here at art supplies shops.
I have used valve lapping compound at times for even matching.
It is artist's paint, really, used by students here for oil painting whatever they feel like...portraits, landscapes, flowers, and so on.
The local university has a reputed Faculty of Fine Arts, and there is a style of painting called the Baroda School style....so such things are easily found here at art supplies shops.
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We had a Jesuit priest who would put a hot dog into the nitrogen dewar in the solid state physics lab. Take it out and whack it with a hammer. Bologna all over the place.
I was horrible at breaking diamond saw blades cutting up the copper-gold alloys we used for super-conducting experiments, two score and ten years ago!
Never used a hand tool in my live until I wanted to make a live steam locomotive. Got a lathe to turn wheels on it. Still can feel the real PITA it was.
Wow.
High school is where we made metal objects on lathes. Cut external threads, tapped holes. I may still have a metal hammer I made so long ago. Made stools and other things in wood shop, I have boards I made in electronics shop and we fixed our cars in auto shop. Bluing ink. Yeah. By the way, it is excellent acid resist ink. I used it for years.
In uni, we built a receiver. We made each PCB and the chassis on our own. Then we made a bread board in a chassis with connectors and pots along the front. Again, we built the chassis ourselves. Never were we expected to file metal bar stock or make anything true and square. Bonsai, you went through hell!
High school is where we made metal objects on lathes. Cut external threads, tapped holes. I may still have a metal hammer I made so long ago. Made stools and other things in wood shop, I have boards I made in electronics shop and we fixed our cars in auto shop. Bluing ink. Yeah. By the way, it is excellent acid resist ink. I used it for years.
In uni, we built a receiver. We made each PCB and the chassis on our own. Then we made a bread board in a chassis with connectors and pots along the front. Again, we built the chassis ourselves. Never were we expected to file metal bar stock or make anything true and square. Bonsai, you went through hell!