metal scraper tool

[peterd51]

Hi,

I've read about a metal scraper which I thought might be a flat steel with a slightly raised sharp edge that can take small amounts of metal off when it's dragged along a piece.

But looking again at the write-up it seems to be a small triangular cross-section, like a small file but with flat sides. I guess you'd hold it in both hands and drag a corner over the work-piece similar to a spokeshave in woodwork.

Would this be the item please?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Faithfull-Engineers-Hand-Scraper-4in-Triangular_W0QQitemZ370184213222QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Hand_Tools_Equipment?hash=item5630b2d2e6

That looks like a one-handed job, unless you hold the lighter coloured bit with your other hand?

Regards
Peter

 

[chiefdruid]

Are you after a tool to take the rough edge of a piece of metal after say, fileing I.e. a deburring tool????????????

 

[Country Joe]

Hi there, Peter,
I've used a spokeshave many times, but I can't quite see how you'd use this item.
I initially imagined a machined surface to be an ultra smooth flat surface, so with the handle preventing it from being used anywhere but around the extreme edges, I couldn't quite see how it'd be useable, in any kind of "flat" way!
Maybe if your workpiece was circular it might make more sense.
The "bigger" picture in the link just gives you a bigger frame -( almost making it seem smaller - hate it when they do that!) - so not too helpful, either.
All the Best
CJ

 

[bill_gj]

The ebay item is a standard triangular scraper alright. Often used for taking the sharp corners off machined or ground parts.
'Scraping' was the traditional way of getting machine beds and surface plates flat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_scraper
http://www.schsm.org/SCRAPING.pdf

I can remember my first experience of scraping a plate flat - I imagine that a Zen Bhudist would be good at it.

 

[wobblemonster]

For de-burring I use a "noga", quick, cheap and quick.

http://www.noga.com/nogaProducts.php?catID=hd32

 

[rtbcomp]

.....I can remember my first experience of scraping .......

Mine was lying on my back scraping big-ends in with a pair of scissors

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

well as I mentioned I imagined when I first read it that it would be a two-handed job for control and even pressure.

Bill found the exact thing...it's not the lathe bed that I need to sort, it's the new angled 'gibs' that I'm making to slide along the outside edges on the bed. One side will mate with the bed (oo-er) while the other side will have a gib with three adjusting screws. So I'll be angling one piece around 8" long and flattening off the 'indent' caused by the grinder along the whole length.

After it's cut in half the mating side will need to be taken down to a close fit while the other side can be left rough and the gib will need to be flattened off to mate with the bed side.

For the cross slide that I'm making from scratch I'll need two that mate together and another one to take a gib and these are likely to be 8" long...depending on how many 'T' slots I build.

This is one option, the other is to make a plate for the lathe and glue on sand-paper/emery then wet & dry to get it near enough.

I found that Noba site but the tools don't look much like the one's I saw in the write-up.

Regards
Peter

 

[peterd51]

Hi

Mine was lying on my back scraping big-ends in with a pair of scissors

Sheffield steel though? :-)

Regards
Peter

 

[Robotstar5]

2 fitters I work with did "proper" engineering apprenticeships many years ago and both can use a scraper, seen them blue a bush to mark the high spots then scrape and repeat until shaft fits in bush perfectly, I think it is a skill that will be lost with that generation.

 

[zzr1200]

Well its certainly a scraper, but I doubt that at 2 quid a pop it'll keep an edge for long.

I'd be shopping at a decent engineering suppliers for that if your going to use it using on bearings....

 

[gordon stephenson]

Hello Peter,
I'v used scrapers for years,(Turbines etc) 3 square scrapers are usually used for removing burrs or bedding in brass or white metal bearings etc although half round scrapers are usually used when possible. for doing your job I would think that a flat scraper is required,We used air operated flat scrapers to bed the top and bottom split-line surfaces on high pressure steam turbines (2000psi with only triple boiled linseed oil used beween the metal faces) finishing off with hand scrapers.(used in a pushing mode)

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

thanks for the info.

Can anyone find a link to one on the internet for me please to make sure I get the right thing?

Not massively expensive please, though I suspect the ebay ones are too cheap?

Regards
Peter

 

[badersbus]

I was talking about this only the other day with a young mechanic at work. He didn't believe there was such a thing as bearing scraping ... hadn't a clue what i was on about. He thought that bearings just came in a cardboard box , and you chucked the old ones away. He actually thought i was taking the p*ss , until i printed some stuff off of the internet
You are right... the old skills are being lost

 

[brightspark]

if u want a real one eclipse sell them between 14 quid and 23. type in eclipse scrapers

 

[stormin]

Fiathful tools are usually quite good. That scraper seems to be a good price for what it is. It si as other have said intended to scrape in bearings.

It may come in for fitting the dovetails and V ways of a lathe as well. I can't see how you'd manage to get in the tight gaps with a standard scraper which tends to have an edge about an inch wide and slightly curved.
Here's a real quality one.
http://www.greenwood-tools.co.uk/ishop/728/shopscr63.html

You may have to make one to suit for dovetails and other complicated shapes. People often start out with a ground down file and keep re-honing every few scrapes depending on the hardness of the material being scraped.

You will likely have to make some of your own tools anyway like a reference jig for dovetail angle.

A good source is "Machine Tool reconditioning and applications of hand scraping" by Edward F Connely. It's not cheap and best borrowed from a library.

 

[yarpap]

I aint that old ..honest,but as an apprentice back in the day..we used scrapers on phosy bronze bearings, flat ones made from old 12" flat file triangulat ..from ..triangular file and half round from ..well you get the idea.
i was up in durham on a job and a young lad said " wish I had a trade"..poor sods min wage and crap conditions,told him to get to local collage and ask about training,we need to keep skills alive

 

[bill_gj]

A couple of books that, if I recall correctly, demonstrate the practice of scraper finishing
NUTTALL,T National Certificate Workshop Technology
CHAPMAN,W Workshop Technology, Parts 1 & 2

If anyone's interested, try your local library as these now seem to be 'collectors books'.

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

thanks for the tips.

I've got an Eclipse scraper ordered, £17 including postage, and hopefully I'll see it before the weekend...then we'll see what I can do with it!

Regards
Peter

 

[beetlejac]

when l served my time as a fitter/turner we has to grind down a file and make it in to a scraper,l still have it after 20 years,young lads see it and wonder what it was and where l got it,they dont make them like they used to.

 

[MrFluffy]

To add to the chorus, grind a file down, theyre the right material to start with.
I do have some nice half round ones that I bought as discarded junk once, and used with some micrometer blue theyre very useful things indeed...

If you ever see the frosting marks on machine bedways these were traditionally done with scrapers by hand, although nowadays much more likely to be someone with a biax power scraper as their wrists might be a bit shot by now (its from a bygone age of precision for sure...)
Future toy?
http://www.dapra.com/biax/scrapers/index.html