Camelback Straightedge/August 2011 scraping class in Arlington

Mike Gibson · Feb 3, 2012

Sorry, for the long title. I wanted to catch the eyes of my classmates who attended the scraping class in Arlington conducted by Rich King.

I have acquired a camelback straightedge that is 4 feet long and 6.75 inches wide.
Stoned it with the India stone and checked it for flatness with a straightedge I scraped at the class and I can't get the thinnest feeler gage(.0015) under it anywhere. Pretty hefty piece of metal. It has no name on it anywhere.

I hope my pics show up.
Mike

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/members/mike-gibson/albums/camelback/3402-straightedge-001.jpg

gcude · Feb 3, 2012

Congratulations Mike. I don't see that as something you would use to make your famous putters, so do you have another application or a machine to recondition?

Mike Gibson · Feb 3, 2012

Gary,
I think I'll have to put up a hoist to move it around. Nothing I can use it on right now. How's your scraping going?
Mike

gcude · Feb 3, 2012

I still have on my project list to scrape the 18" camelback I got from Craig Donges. I have picked up a Glendo grinder and a Biax scraper and other odds and ends for the job. I'm kinda hesitant to work on it now with the temperature swings we are having. I should go ahead and swivel and spot it and make a few passes to see where there might be high and low areas that may need a lot of work. Heck, I may have a long way to go to get it close enough to worry about the temp ups and downs causing me much grief anytime soon.

Mike Gibson · Feb 3, 2012

I'm in the process of making a Scrapezall out of a Sawzall.

gcude · Feb 3, 2012

Mike Gibson said:
I'm in the process of making a Scrapezall out of a Sawzall.

I would like to see pictures of your progress. I had looked at different options like one of those conversions. I wound up getting a single speed biax and wiring it to a dimmer switch for speed control. The dimmer seems touchy or mushy, depending on how you want to look at it, like it doesn't seem to engage for the first half of the range of the knob and then a small turn of the knob changes speed a lot. I think at our class that Lewis was using a dimmer switch like I have and Robert had a nice heavy rheostat.

lazlo · Feb 3, 2012

Here you go Mike:

I'll ask the same question I always do when people show up with these giant camelbacks -- how are you going to spot it?

Mark Rand · Feb 3, 2012

On a straight edge with those proportions, you could probably do quite well with another (trusted) straight edge and a precision level to detect twist.

I've got a 48x2½" straight edge and the only way I could prove it was cork-screw shaped was to scrape a lathe bed against it and find that the lathe bed was f*cked when I checked that with a level. That cost me a 36x48" surface table

To be honest, a 48x6.75" camel back would be useless for a lot of work, like dovetails, but would be extremely useful for a lot of other work, like lathe beds and milling machine tables. I'd be happy to own one.

Looking closely at the photo it would be best to think of it as a 48x6.75" surface plate. It's not designed for dovetails. Bloody useful for scraping big surfaces though..

Mike Gibson · Feb 4, 2012

Haven't figured out how to spot it and I am thinking about it as a surface plate.

How are you Robert? Doing any scraping?

Richard King · Feb 4, 2012

Straight Edge or boat anchor?

I'll be up in Nowata, OK Monday and will be there for about a month doing some rebuilding. It's about 1/2 hour NE of Tulsa, so if any of you guys are up that way give me a call and you can buy lunch.

I hope we can all get together sometime and have a reunion or do another class in Texas.

Just teasing on the title...I would stress relieve it and then grind and scrape it if your going to try to hold any tight tolerances. If you don't high temp stress relieve it it will move around on you I'm sure. They have a rusty appearance when they have been stress relieved. I would bet it's a raw casting. I would make a 3 point stand and use it for a surface plate flipped over. A good way of storing it too. You better eat your Wheaties the day you use it to scrape ..LOL I still have fond memories of that class and the heat. Take care guys!

Mike Gibson · Feb 8, 2012

Gary,
I am making slow progress on the Scrapezall but I'll post pics when I have something to show.

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