There is something unique about files that you should know.

[Reverend Recoil]

The file is the only tool that can reproduce it's self. Think about it. With a file you can cut a chisel. With a chisel you can cut another file. How about that? Now take this information and go out and win yourself a bar bet.

[possom813]

nuh uh...

I'm not good enough yet, but I've been told a vertical milling machine can reproduce itself as well

[clocker]

Pretty sure that is the lathe instead of a milling machine.

[fourarmed]

"With iron, fire, and a rock, you can make a chisel. With iron, fire, and a chisel, you can make a file. With a file, you can make anything." Or so it says here.

[bubba.50]

i was taught in machine shop that the lathe was the only tool that could reproduce itself.

[KCSO]

Keep them clean and use them properly and they will last forever. I stil use files that my grandfather used in 1910.

[Wayne Smith]

So how does a lathe reproduce the flat ways??

[bhop]

So how does a lathe reproduce the flat ways??

with a milling attachment. it replaces the toolpost and adds the Y axis

[M-Tecs]

"With iron, fire, and a rock, you can make a chisel. With iron, fire, and a chisel, you can make a file. With a file, you can make anything." Or so it says here.

Very true. When you look back at the stone, bronze and iron age the hammer was the tool that started everthing.

[Piedmont]

Al Gore reproduced himself and he is a tool.

[Potsy]

Thanks Piedmont.
Now I can wipe Diet Mtn. Dew off my computer screen. It's pretty rough when it shoots out your nostrils too.

[Gliden07]

al gore reproduced himself and he is a tool.

lol!!!!!!

[country gent]

I have files my Grandfather made in his apprenticeship, They still out cut most of the new ones. It used to be if you wanted a machine you laid up the sand and made the bed and castings then the parts. The accuracy of the shops equipment depended on the skill of the workers. We had plans for a wood lathe in my shop class. used heavy angle iron for the bed. Simple v-belt drive. Several students made them. I was using shop class to work on the work program the trade school had. Nobody teaches how to use a file hacksaw cisels or most hand tools anymore. The most preccision tool in my box is the set of hand scrappers I use.

[MBTcustom]

There are many tools that can be used to build duplicates of themselves, but its the craftsman behind them, and how well he knows them that makes it happen.
I have used the most state of the art machine tools in the world, and made many many things, but I value my files more than the milling machine or possibly even the lathe. A good file is a thing that is hard to find. Some of them just go and go, like the energizer bunny, but rest assured, one wrong stroke will ruin a file no matter how good it is.

Piedmont, goshdam son! That was like dropping a brick on a cockroach! Nicely said.

One tip I'll give you all on files. You know how Remington 742s have all kinds of feeding troubles? You can actually fix the problem with a #2 mill bastard file, and here's how you do it:
1. vice the action in a good padded vice and make sure that it's held securely by the butstock.
2. start at the crown, and keep filing till you get to the recoil pad.
3. Done! Go buy yourself a real rifle.

[bearcove]

Evidently you can make any tool with fire and the right rocks.

Other wise we'd still be sitting in a cave throwing rocks at squirrels

[nanuk]

Other wise we'd still be sitting in a cave throwing rocks at squirrels

and what is wrong with that??? perhaps some of us think of that as a release of stress from the Daily Grind of Modern Technology!

[Reverend Recoil]

Just fire and rocks? Those were the days when men were men and women were glad of it.

[Multigunner]

In the sci fi parody "Galaxy Quest" theres a scene where the captain is stranded without weapons and his science officer tells him to look make a rudimentary lathe.
That line reminded me of something I'd read about the Roman Legions.
When fighting far from any civilized towns in very rough terrain that caused many chariot axles to break the Romans would construct a rudimentary lathe suited to turning axle spindles and wheel hubs by bending two trees towards each other while one end of a log was tied to each and the ropes tightly wound.
When the trees were released the log would spin as on a lathe. Not very efficient but it worked.

In old time England they had itinerant wood workers who set up shop in public parks and their main product was chair and table legs and wheel spokes.
They would duplicate any broken part brought to them using a primitive portable lathe powered by a spindle with rope wound around it and tied to a stout tree limb over head. They'd pull the limb down while winding the rope, when released the limb acted like a spring.

[deltaenterprizes]

There are many tools that can be used to build duplicates of themselves, but its the craftsman behind them, and how well he knows them that makes it happen.
I have used the most state of the art machine tools in the world, and made many many things, but I value my files more than the milling machine or possibly even the lathe. A good file is a thing that is hard to find. Some of them just go and go, like the energizer bunny, but rest assured, one wrong stroke will ruin a file no matter how good it is.

Piedmont, goshdam son! That was like dropping a brick on a cockroach! Nicely said.

One tip I'll give you all on files. You know how Remington 742s have all kinds of feeding troubles? You can actually fix the problem with a #2 mill bastard file, and here's how you do it:
1. vice the action in a good padded vice and make sure that it's held securely by the butstock.
2. start at the crown, and keep filing till you get to the recoil pad.
3. Done! Go buy yourself a real rifle.

Good advice!

[bearcove]

A 7'' grinder is faster