Machining With Files/Hand Tools

Hello! I'm interested in getting into metalwork but I do not have access to a mill nor will I for the foreseeable future.

I was told that a lot of machining can be done with files and drills. So naturally I have a few questions:

1. Is there a book or resource out there that explains how this works? How does someone starting without any experience learn how to do this?

2. What are the largest projects that someone could make with files and and other hand tools?

3. How accurate can someone with a file be?

My background is in woodworking and wood carving.

Euclidean said:

. . .2. What are the largest projects that someone could make with files and and other hand tools? . . . 3. How accurate can someone with a file be? . . .

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First, welcome to the forum and to metalworking. Whatever you learn using hand tools will be of benefit when you acquire machine tools.

With hand tools, size depends on your patience level and stamina!
In the mid 70's, when I was in A&P school there was a class known as 'materials and processes'. We 'lovingly' called it filing 150. As for accuracy, the instructor would rough-saw a chunk of steel and we had to file it to within .001" of specified dimension and squareness. So again, its a matter of patience and perseverance.

Working steels by hand takes a lot of time and elbow grease. You may want to start using aluminum and brass, both are fun to work but both are typically more expensive than steel.

Look up Clickspring on YouTube: Clickspring - YouTube

Gordon Heaton said:

First, welcome to the forum and to metalworking. Whatever you learn using hand tools will be of benefit when you acquire machine tools.

With hand tools, size depends on your patience level and stamina!
In the mid 70's, when I was in A&P school there was a class known as 'materials and processes'. We 'lovingly' called it filing 150. As for accuracy, the instructor would rough-saw a chunk of steel and we had to file it to within .001" of specified dimension and squareness. So again, its a matter of patience and perseverance.

Working steels by hand takes a lot of time and elbow grease. You may want to start using aluminum and brass, both are fun to work but both are typically more expensive than steel.

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Thank you! I'm a patient person so I'm not concerned about the time or elbow grease required. I just want to learn how to do things the right way. I'm curious: How do you file to .001" tolerance and maintain squareness by hand?

You can make anything with a file. But time to a billable sale?

Well, here's where learned techniques carry over to the next level. You hit dimension by learning to file very carefully, holding and moving the file in different ways to achieve different goals. Squareness is achieved by constantly checking against a standard and planning ahead. Handwork to that level of accuracy is pretty much all craftsmanship.

Scruffy887 is alluding to the fact that this forum is primarily concerned with machining at a commercial level. Be sure to read the sticky-notes at the top, and abide by the forum rules and you can ask anything you want. Also, be sure to dig up whatever you can on your own before asking here, since a lot of these guys are only willing to help after you've expended some effort trying to educate yourself with other resources.

Gordon Heaton said:

Well, here's where learned techniques carry over to the next level. You hit dimension by learning to file very carefully, holding and moving the file in different ways to achieve different goals. Squareness is achieved by constantly checking against a standard and planning ahead. Handwork to that level of accuracy is pretty much all craftsmanship.

Scruffy887 is alluding to the fact that this forum is primarily concerned with machining at a commercial level. Be sure to read the sticky-notes at the top, and abide by the forum rules and you can ask anything you want. Also, be sure to dig up whatever you can on your own before asking here, since a lot of these guys are only willing to help after you've expended some effort trying to educate yourself with other resources.

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Thank you! I am sorry if I posed this thread in the wrong forum. I'm eager to learn as much as I can on my own. Is there a good book you can recommend on filing? Thanks again for your thoughtful replies.

You're welcome. It isn't necessarily the wrong forum and there are a lot of very talented and experienced folk here willing to share. There are also many who 'can't be bothered' and a few who are just plain rude. If you have a thick skin you'll get a lot out of this group. Another very informative place for mostly non-commercial machining is The Home Shop Machinist BBS and the coarseness and foul language prevalent here is not permitted there.

edit: The quality of the work done by some hobbyists often equals or exceeds that of some 'pros'. The biggest difference is how long it takes to get there. One who works metal for a living has to do it in a timely manner while the man or woman in the home shop can persist until its 'perfect'.

There are a large number of metalworking books from, say, 1900 to about 1940 that will have the information you seek. You can check ebay and abebooks, search for variations of machinist, benchwork, filing, trade school, etc. Read your results and use that knowledge to refine your search. There will be lots of cheap books available, so don't spend much money. You can get a lot of hours of reading for cheap.

As far as what can be made with a file? Just about anything if you have the patience. I've seen pictures of third world boys hand filing copies of 1911 pistols.

Look for books in the audel's machinist series. I had one that explained metalwork with a cold chisel and files. I can't find it now but I bought a bunch of paperbacks in this series for around $7 each.

- Mike

If you have woodworking machinery (bench saw, band saw, drill press, router), they can machine brass and aluminum at normal operating speeds, but you have to take small cuts and feed slowly. I would not use woodworking hand tools on any metal. Steel and cast iron need powered cutting tools that move at less than 10% of wood cutting speed, so those metals cannot be cut with wood working machines. But some machines, like band saws, have been designed with gear boxes to allow both high and low speed operation.

You can use metal working chisels struck with a hammer on metal to do jobs that cannot be done with files. The process is called "chipping" and used to be as much part of everyday bench work as filing. Special shape chisels can do keyways and vee or round bottom grooves. You need a good metal working vise to do filing, sawing and chipping. You need a good grinder to sharpen tools.

Decades ago, elementary metal work was taught in middle and high schools in the USA. You can still find some of those old text books on eBay and at used book sellers. Even earlier, there were "correspondence school" text books with multiple volumes on bench work and using all the common machine tools. Some of the old ones were reprinted in more recent times.

Larry

R. Dan said:

Look up Clickspring on YouTube: Clickspring - YouTube

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Came in to post this, Chris is an amazing artisan that makes beautiful metal show pieces using barely more than the most basic ancient tools, and filing is a pretty major part of it. I'm still learning from his videos.

You often don't make things to a dimensional tolerance, you make them to an interface tolerance. Making them fit properly is the important part, and that can be done with abrasive lapping or honing or various other techniques.

You will want:
A hacksaw
center punch
drill bit set
drill
cold chisel
ball peen hammer
tap set (probably)
scribe
good metal ruler
protractor
crescent wrench
A flat, solid piece of metal (or granite)
A solid vice

And go from there.
A cheap drill press and belt sander will help you a lot. Jigsaws can be great depending on what you are making.

I used to do agricultural mechanics competitions in high school. There are 6 rotations, and you have 20-30 minutes in each rotation. One rotation was cold metal, and no power tools other than a drill was allowed. A typical rotation would be you receive a dimensioned drawing, 12" of 3/8" round bar, and a 4x4" piece of 10 gauge steel. You then had to layout with a scribe and ruler a general trapezoid shape, cut it with a cold chisel and backer in a vise, file the radii, hacksaw slits and snap them out with a crescent wrench, then file it to an open square slot. Then you had to cut the rod to length, thread one end, and form a 90 degree hook on the other. I believe this project also required us to make a matching nut, but I don't remember that entirely.

Anyway, by the end of the 25 minutes, you would have a plate that bolted to a battery strap on a tractor that received the nut of the hooked bolt and tighten down the battery.

So you can make things quickly. There was no setup allowed. You weren't allowed to open your toolbox or look at the drawing until time started.

Final result looked something like this

We had metalwork in school when I went, I’d guess 90% was hand work, hacksaw etc, I got more exercise in metalwork than phys Ed, which I avoided like the plague btw, I did learn lots, always keep Elastoplast in pocket, don’t pick up hot things, even a saw can burn!
It’s fun
Mark

Audels' Machinists (early forties edition) has 30 pages on bench work - chisels, files etc

Lots of this going on to get one of these done mostly (Bill Large barrel) from scratch - including lock - no kit of any kind

Yours truly in 1965



Before you get such as this frizzen - from 01 tool steel, you first have a pleasing to the eye concept

All the above plus the 3 P's

Patience

Practice

Persistence

Step into the 21st century and Turbocharge ! your education....
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Take a look at The Complete Practical Machinist (1895). You can download a copy for free from losasso.com — Servers or something like that. It covers lathe work and milling, but also has chapters on hand work.

I have done quite a bit by hand, but at the very least a drill press and angle grinder are relatively inexpensive tools that will give you help with speed or accuracy.

Hack saw, simple drill press, a good vise. a chop saw with a cutoff wheel, bench grinder, files and hones, a caliper, sandpaper bench block, all good for making stuff. good square and some blocks with a scriber.