ugly but functional fuller scraper (easy to make)

[kevin (the professor)]

Greetings everyone,
I am sort of on light duty, surgery a week ago.
today I was able to make a simple fuller scraping tool, and it works really well.
It is simple, it is ugly, it is sturdy, it is something that someone who has a minor grasp of forging grinding and heat treating can make, and most of all...
it WORKS.

So:1. take a half-round file, heat it bend it so you can put pressure on it with hand clearance, and rock it to get the optimal cutting angle.
2. grind a bit (whatever shape you want your fullers to be) on the end, with flat side doing the cutting.
3. Heat treat - leave really HARD
4. Clamp something for a guide to follow until you have a good channel started
5. Fuller away.

Sure, there are better ones, but this will give you the ability to make fullers while you learn. As long as the fuller you want follows a straight line, you can set up some sort of guide to get you started.

Enjoy the scraping,

Kevin

[Frosty]

Looks like it works, what's ugly about that?

It looks like you're still using it as a file rather than a true scraper. Am I mistaken?

Frosty

[kevin (the professor)]

Frosty,

Nope - its a true scraper. The flat side of the "bit" is smooth and at a slight angle off of perpendicular. I see what you mean though, and in fact, the round side with the teeth may be useful for cleaning out later, but I think I probably ground them too much for that.

I am holding it with flat side of bit bitting into metal at about 60 degrees, and the flat side of bit is smooth and sharp. But, you are right that it may have worked with a filing action if i had left teeth on.

Now that I have thought about it (thanks to you), next one I will try to leave teeth on the back side, to use for cleaning the groove out and finishing. (I will have to make one for every shape of channel that I want to cut).

Thanks for looking,

Kevin

Edited June 5, 2009 by kevin (the professor)

[Frosty]

Gotcha! Pic 3 is the working edge yes?

Somewhere I've seen something like a small spoke shave with a movable blade and "feet" like a plane. When I saw it I immediately thought of a sen with changeable scrapers.

I think for what you made to work as a file it'd need to be drawn rather than pushed. Then again a set of die makers files ("rifflers or riffling files" I think) aren't too expensive from HF.

Thanks for showing us.

Frosty

[Charlotte]

On the subject of scrapers. One thing that works really well, if you have access to discarded carbide inserts from a machine shop, is to silver solder them to a piece of mildsteel and grind to shape. I have one my father made 50 years ago to scrape steel dies with that I've used to scarpe rather than file knife blades.

Of course new carbide is not terribly expensive, but where's the fun in that.

[kevin (the professor)]

Charlotte,
Yes - there is another forum that showed a couple of different designs to make interchangeable scrapers for fullering in this way. They looked like good tools, with guides to track the work, etc.
I was trying to achieve the same outcome with less ability and raw materials.

I have a combination ruler/scribe that I am thinking of modifying to hold carbide bits. If the thing wasn't an antique, I would have done it already.

Good insights, at some point when I have the stuff and ability, I will make on of "those" Here is a youtube link for one of the nicer ones.
 

thanks,
Kevin

 

 

 

[Messerist]

Good idea Kevin! I used a old round file a few years back to make fullering tool. I just heated it and bent it about a third of the way down at a 45 degree angle. Worked pretty well until I stopped messing around with fullering blades. I guess I like a heavier knife that's all. Hope your surgery went well and you are gtg!:)

[Ecart]

I like it! I've got plenty of old half round files laying around. When I use up a file at work, it used to get thrown away. Now I bring them home for odd projects around the forge/house. Several of these of differing sizes just made the top of my "to make" list.

[Charlotte]

I got the your point in the inital post Kevin. I as posting about the carbide so that people less familiar with the technology would have that information also.

Acually one of my favorite tools is the triangle scarper make out of a used triangular file. I worked in a machine stop where my job was to run a buffing machine and polish stainless steel discs used in couplings. We had to inspect and remove the punching burrs before placing them in the buffer.

Later on I found that the same scarper worked well for chamfering drill holes and excess flash on castings. In the machine shops I've worked in no file was thrown away. It was recycled until there was nothing left.

When I was married I used my little scraper to sharpen my machete. :D