file CLEANER: Can I cheap out?

[Whiterabbit]

As a preface, While I believe some tools MUST be bought of the highest standard and quality, I do not believe ALL tools must be this way. For example, an angle grinder for slag chipping, I've been happy with a $40 model from Home Depot. Table saw? You bet I own a Jet!

I bought one inexpensive file. It was actually a reasonable brand, but an entry level "combo" model that got me a rasp on one side and a bastard on the other. It doesn't cut for anything.

So all my files (minus one) are quite nice. They cut like a dream, and the tip to chalk them up has been a lifesaver.

But even so they now have a few pieces of gunk stuck. My question is can I buy a cheap file CLEANER from Harbor Freight? Will the cheapies get the job done?

[zuke]

If their that cheap just try one out and post your result's.

[seagiant]

Hi,
I have no idea what file cleaner you refer to from HF. I think you guys need to put up a pic or at least a link to the item that you are refering to! Pictures ARE worth a thousand words!

I have always used a file card even though the expert machinist don't seem to care for them. I use files a lot on my job as I have to sometimes fabricate odd things wanted by other departments. Here are a set of HD hand grabs I made! Oh yea,some guys buy a file and figure to hand it on down to their grand children but thats not how it really works!!!

[waksupi]

Smash an old cartridge flat, and use it to scrub out pins in a file.

[rbuck351]

Any thing made of brass (wider is better) and just push it along the grooves like you are cutting checkering. Even a piece of brazing rod flattened with a hammer works pretty good. In just a few strokes it forms teeth on the brass that is a perfect match of the file and works very well. Although I haven't tried it, I have heard a file can be sharpened by soaking it in battery acid over night and then washing.

[Bret4207]

A file card is great to have, but I've never noticed one at HF. For the little chip stuck in the teeth, "pins" I think they call them, anything from a sharpened nail to the already mentioned smashed cartridge case will work. The best file card I have is likely 50 years old and has a steel pick inserted on the backside that you can draw out to get at the pins.

[EMC45]

I use a wire brush and a disposeable razor knife to get the pins out of my files. Just mind the cutting edge of the file teeth and you are ok. I also use chalk.

[Whiterabbit]

chalk has got to be the biggest file lifesaver. I'm glad I caught that tip when I did.

Thanks guys for the advice on the file comb :)

[looseprojectile]

dirty, good quality files out of the junk boxes at thrift stores.
I test them on my finger nail and if they seem to cut well I take them home and clean them. I am a file freak. I don't know their names or the difference so much, but I know what works. I make a lot of stuff and gun parts with files.

A pound of caustic soda used to cost a few cents. Seems that now this same lye is used for making drugs of some kind and the price has gone up exponentially.

A half a century ago I blued guns and used Herters cleaner to degrease guns before they went into the blueing soloution. That cleaner would make a new file out of the ugliest one in the collection. Any kind of solvent is a step in the right direction.
My father was a tool maker and worked in the tool room in Dearborn for Henry Ford in the late twenties. He used a lot of files. I learned from him.

A file card won't work on fine files.
These days, just because I can, I use brake cleaner or carburetor and choke cleaner to clean my files while I use them. Oil and grease is a files enemy.
Keep your file dry.


Life is good

[MBTcustom]

I take a 1/4" piece of copper pipe 6" long and crush one end flat about 3/8" from the end of the pipe. This makes a dandy file scraper. Do not use anything made of steel to scrape your files. I don't even use a file card on my files anymore, as I am convinced that it dulls them over time. Maybe I'm paranoid, but some of my files cost over $40 a piece.

[Bret4207]

Tim, I have a large double cut Black Diamond file my Dad bough in the early 70's. He paid $48.00 and change. Think what that would cost now! I know how much it cost because he caught me getting ready to use it on some oxy cut off bubble gum one day. Ouch!

[deltaenterprizes]

Smash an old cartridge flat, and use it to scrub out pins in a file.

Plus 1 on that!

[Whiterabbit]

I have a date with a 50 BMG shell and a bench clamp.

[leftiye]

As a preface, While I believe some tools MUST be bought of the highest standard and quality, I do not believe ALL tools must be this way. For example, an angle grinder for slag chipping, I've been happy with a $40 model from Home Depot. Table saw? You bet I own a Jet!

I bought one inexpensive file. It was actually a reasonable brand, but an entry level "combo" model that got me a rasp on one side and a bastard on the other. It doesn't cut for anything.

So all my files (minus one) are quite nice. They cut like a dream, and the tip to chalk them up has been a lifesaver.

But even so they now have a few pieces of gunk stuck. My question is can I buy a cheap file CLEANER from Harbor Freight? Will the cheapies get the job done?

I use a pick, or a utility knife blade to remove the stuck galling chips. Also a wire brush instead of a file card. You're gonna have to manually force a lot of thse out of the file teeth - one by one if a brush won't do it. I have more than a few pieces of gunk stuck whenever I use a file (probly cause I put some elbow grease into the effort).

[geargnasher]

Chalk and an antique file card keeps all my coarse bastard files going, filing across a piece of shim stock clamped close in a bench vise keeps the small ones clean. The worn-out ones get coated with two-stroke oil and sued for aluminum.

Gear

[W.R.Buchanan]

I use an air hose, and sometimes a wire toothbrush. I like the tip on using a flattened piece of copper pipe for a tip. Never done it but it sounds like it would work, but if I get something stuck in a file, I usually just take a scribe and pick it out.

The chalk in the file teeth tip does exactly the same thing as beeswax on a grinding disc or belt. It cloggs the low spots so that they cannot become packed with soft metal chips.

The best way to not get a file clogged up is to not do it in the first place. Holding a file stationary when using it on a lathe is a guaranteed way to pack one. If you keep it moving and don't run it down the same path twice in a row you'll find that you don't pack the teeth.

Packing the teeth is all about jamming chips already on the file,, into the file, by making another pass over the dirty area.

If you make a pass and blow the file off and so on, you won't pack the teeth in the first place. Also a file only works in one direction. Draggin it back over a cut will pack it also.

When you are draw filing an area, if you don't want to be at it forever, clean the file after every pass. This takes patience. If you are going to work on guns you must develope patience and strict adhearance to specific practices which don't harm the gun worse than the work you're doing to it.

Randy

[rbuck351]

Whiterabbit
PM me your address and I'll send you a thing I use for file cleaning. I think you will like it.

[Bret4207]

I have a number of files and rasps I'd like to send out to that file sharpening outfit Waksupi linked to a couple weeks back. Many of them are type you simply can't get anymore anywhere.

[Casting Timmy]

Like others have said a copper pipe or something brass, cartridge cases smashed flat. I wil also use a brass brush during filing to help keep it clean during use.

I have thought about making a handle for the back of a piece of brass, I just haven't got around to it yet. It would also require drilling and tapping the primer pocket in the back of teh case.

[Whiterabbit]

I smashed a BMG case. makes its own handle. I havent tried it yet though.

[bigdog454]

i use a brass grill brush, works great.
BD

[blademasterii]

I am an aluminum fabricator and when I file aluminum its forward stroke on the material and back stroke on the meat of my palm. That clears most of the chips in one stroke. I have also heard of battery acid dipping files to restore the edge. If all else fails save the file for a knife. A little work with a grinder will make a dandy knife from a file.

[waksupi]

I just sent out a pile of files to Boggs Tool today for resharpening. If all else fails, I guarantee they will send your files back clean, and SHARP!

[shotman]

Kroil works for files too.
battery acid will clean some things out but not others. Leave a file in it over night and you wont have a file.

[725]

I hit mine with Kroil or PB Blaster and let 'me run off or soak. When it's time to use them I tap on a shop rag and start my work. I do use a file brush once in awhile, but the penetrating oil is good to clean and store with.

[MBTcustom]

Many of them are type you simply can't get anymore anywhere.
Seriously Bret, you gotta try that company out! I sent most of my company profits to Boggs tool in the last month. I have bought files that would bring a tear to your eye. Harry sent me a couple specific ones that I asked for that were made in west Germany!
I needed something specific, a fine cut rat tail between 1/2" and 3/4" diameter. I asked Mr. Boggs if such a thing even exists, a day later he calls me and tells me that he found one in Alabama. A couple days later, here it shows up on my doorstep. Its an honest to goodness 5/8" tapering to 3/8" finecut rat tail!!!
Harry will go to the other side of the world to get you a file, and he is willing to do it for an order of just one, and he is scary competitive on his prices.
If the Smithsonian Institute had a "files" division, Mr. Boggs would be head of it. (give them a call, you'll see what I mean.)
Also, he will sharpen files for cheap I think it was less than $5 each IIRC.
I swear, I think I'm going to send Boggs tool a Christmas card.
Boggs tool is the funnest time I ever had spending $200. (I got a lot of files!)
Seriously, if you need a special file, or need them sharpened, just give them a call, (800) 547-5244.
I have only ever spoken to a very nice young lady (cant remember her name) and Harry Boggs himself.
I just can't say enough about this company. I hope that everybody that does business with me leaves as pleased as I did with Boggs tool.

[Beekeeper]

Have never tried it so don't know but a horseshoerier I know soaks his files in muratic acid to clean and sharpen them.
Claims the acid will sharpen the teath enough to make you think you have a new file. When they get dull he simply puts them back in the muratic acid.
Not a bad idea for swimming pool acid maybe!!
By the way they are not the hoof rasps but the metal horseshoe files he uses


beekeeper

[KCSO]

From the time I was a kid my Grandfather drilled proper file managment into me. All filles stored seperated in racks. Use a file card and scraper before you need to. All files sorted for aplication... Steel files, wood files and soft metal files and don't swiitch them. Chalk your file for drawfiling. As a consequence I am still using some of my grandfathers files. When I clean my files i soak them in simple green and finish with a little Kroil.