Keith Rucker straight edges?

lucky7 · Mar 20, 2019

I recall seeing on one of Keith Rucker's youtubes a year or two ago that he was going to cast a run of his 6", 9", and 12" straightedges. Has anyone purchased from him? If yes, what are they like in use? Reason for asking is, I have some smaller projects that would be easier to print with something smaller than my current SE's and am debating whether to make a smaller one out of durabar or get a casting.

Thanks for info.

Lucky7

Richard King · Mar 21, 2019

Keith made some small ones that he made some 3D patterns or a friend of his made for him when I had his friend make me a new 12" double sided dovetail camelback 3D pattern at the same time, Mine is called a HKA-12 Special. His are cute little dovetail camelbacks and handy as heck. I'm not sure he is going to make many as straight-edge sales is not a fast way to make money. Keith as I have been having issues finding a reliable foundry too. I thought I had one and as you know the quality went to hell. Have to email him or PM me for his email address as he doesn't come on PM to often anymore. I have switched foundries and hope to have better success then I had. I think he was getting them cast in PA and now is using a foundry in Mississippi or someplace in the SE USA. I switched to a foundry in South Dakota. I have my fingers crossed. Keith and I have become pretty good friends after I believe he has hosted 4 or 5 scraping classes now. Oh Gary Martin in Oregon has some small ones too...Warren Jones out in NH gave me one of his 4" camelbacks made out of bronze...handy as hell.

Hbjj · Mar 21, 2019

These are from a doall bandsaw counter weight
I would sell the solid back one it doesn't hinge well now so consider it just rough scraped
I have no need for two!

lucky7 · Mar 22, 2019

My thanks to hbjj for selling me his spare small straightedge.

Lucky7

Matt Rulla · Jan 6, 2020

Keith is in production and shipping 9-inch camelback dove tail straight edges cast in grey iron from Windy Hill Foundry in Mississippi.

I just received my raw casting today.

Matt

lucky7 · Jan 6, 2020

That looks great. In fact too nice to be direct from foundry. Would be nice to know how it machines and scrapes in.

L7

Matt Rulla · Jan 6, 2020

Even though the casting is only 9 inches long, it's just a little too big to fit on my Logan shaper (8" max stroke), so I'll rough it in on one of my mills. Before I start scraping, I'll try to post photos showing the quality of the casting once I get below the mill scale.

The box did ship directly from Clarke Easterling of Windy Hill Foundry. I believe that he also has a YouTube channel showing his small production casting process.

Matt

cmelo · Jan 7, 2020

Where did you guys purchase the small Keith Rucker Camelback? Also how much are they?

Matt Rulla · Jan 7, 2020

cmelo said:
Where did you guys purchase the small Keith Rucker Camelback? Also how much are they?

Keith allowed pre-orders starting back on Dec 1, 2019.
Cost with shipping via USPS to me in Washington was $115.

You can contact him through email: [email protected]

Keith mentioned that if he receives high demand for the 9", he may make other sizes available in the future.

Matt

cmelo · Jan 8, 2020

Matt Rulla said:
Keith allowed pre-orders starting back on Dec 1, 2019.
Cost with shipping via USPS to me in Washington was $115.

You can contact him through email: [email protected]

Keith mentioned that if he receives high demand for the 9", he may make other sizes available in the future.

Matt

Awesome, Thanks!

ncj9769 · Jan 21, 2020

There is a Foundry in Baton Rouge Louisiana off Hwy 61, Airline Highway that has been around a very long time. You might could try them. Pearce Group | Foundry & Machine Works On there website they look like they mostly cast pump parts but someone told me they cast an array of products. I heard they were good might be worth a try.

JN

Matt Rulla · Jan 23, 2020

I finished the Rucker 9-inch straightedge.
I can report that my casting machined flawlessly. No hard spots and zero inclusions or voids. I removed about 0.125" from the bottom and less than 0.100 from the other surfaces. I scraped this in over a two day period using a Biax. I got in in the ball-park of 40 points but I'll probably retouch it prior to actually using it for a job.

Matt

Richard King · Jan 23, 2020

Keith brought one of his 12" straight edges to the Florida class we had last week. It is a dandy, but a bit heavy. Looked like a fine grain iron. He, Adam Booth, Lance Baltzley assisted me teaching plus Lance and Kieth scraped a Cincinnati 36" shaper while I taught the class.
I will post more photo's and info in the original Florida 2020 class thread.

Pic L to R Keith Biax Power Scraping Ram and 2nd, one shows Keith scraping the ram again and John Terry our host scraping the shaper ram base which was worn in the front and was high in the middle.

MCritchley · Jan 24, 2020

That's a rare sight, a 36" shaper being rescraped! It will be interesting to see how straight it cuts after the rebuild.

Richard King · Jan 24, 2020

Matt, I will post more info on the original thread about the class.

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