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Other Stuff => Workbench => Topic started by: FramFramson on 05 April 2016, 07:42:06 PM
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In filing white metal, I find my fine files continually get clogged with white metal material. I do have a fine brass wire brush which is what you'd use on larger tools, but the needle files are too small and fine for the brass brush to do much good, if any. So what else can I do to clean my files?
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In filing white metal, I find my fine files continually get clogged with white metal material. I do have a fine brass wire brush which is what you'd use on larger tools, but the needle files are too small and fine for the brass brush to do much good, if any. So what else can I do to clean my files?
I was going to suggest a wire brush but it looks like you are already using one.
Maybe a stiff nylon brush - a shoe cleaning brush?
Tony
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I found out that the only proper solution is to remove the soft white metal remnants with the tip of my x-acto knife. Brushes don´t work at all.
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I found out that the only proper solution is to remove the soft white metal remnants with the tip of my x-acto knife. Brushes don´t work at all.
This and quite possibly a sonic bath (the type used for cleaning airbrushes).
cheers
James
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The following wouldn't work ?
http://www.daxmagic-webshop.nl/tools/flex-i-file/aacode349.php
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WD40 oil and or I have heard that lighter fluid or kerosene oil with a stiff wire brass brush can work.
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Running a piece of wood in the same direction as the files cut can dislodge a lot of metal. That being said I'm a goldsmith, we file literal hundreds of euros of precious metals away each year and I've never heard of a perfect solution to this problem. All of the above are common practice.
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Heard a new one what about dipping it into hot oil hot enough to melt and dislodge the metal but not so hot as to damage the metal of the file.
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Heard a new one what about dipping it into hot oil hot enough to melt and dislodge the metal but not so hot as to damage the metal of the file.
That sounds rather risky - I would not recommend to try it.
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Heard a new one what about dipping it into hot oil hot enough to melt and dislodge the metal but not so hot as to damage the metal of the file.
Given that white metal is melting beyond 200°C and oil boiling and igniting around that temperature combined with a flaming point already around 60°C it would be rather risky, I think.
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I use the tip of my xacto blade.
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Given that white metal is melting beyond 200°C and oil boiling and igniting around that temperature combined with a flaming point already around 60°C it would be rather risky, I think.
and at that point it would also more then likely effect the hardness of your metal files.
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The main issue with the x-acto solution (which is something I've done with larger files) is that the teeth on the needle files are simply too fine and shallow for this.
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Of course, the best fail safe option is to buy new ones :D
cheers
James
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I've never really had any issue with this that could not be solved with a stiff brush or copper brush to be honest; plastic, resin, metal; it all comes off easily.
What I did learn along the way though, is not to file metals too fast, hard or too long in one place; all of those things increase the risk of heating up the material so much that it melts and then it will hell to remove.
I've had a professional set of needle files since 1996, when I started a course in conservation and restauration of metal artifacts and those were mandatory to have. I never bothered to attach the wooden handles (and I'm glad I didn't; they're much more subtle to handle like this). But by now, I've had these for 20 years, and they're still as good as the day I bought them!
Well... bar one thing; the flat file is completely clogged up with Milliput, as I once started smoothing a Milliput repair with it, before it was fully dry. Now that file is completely FUBAR, as I have been unable to remove the (now rock hard) Milliput from it.
So; if anyone has any ideas on how to remove Milliput from files, I'm all ears... :D
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I'd figure some chemical should help with that?
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I'd figure some chemical should help with that?
Sulphuric acid...
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Seriously? Well that bites...
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Sulphuric acid...
If you think about using sulphuric acid to clean your files, I'd really suggest that you just buy new files of use disposable ones o_o
For epoxy, you might try soaking in aceton to soften it and then try to brush it out. Aceton is flammable and nog healthy- so beware and use proper protective measures !
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Sulphuric acid cool and I thought the last idea I gave was crazy. Perhaps buy new files. Use cheap and nasty ones and dispose regularly...
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If you think about using sulphuric acid to clean your files, I'd really suggest that you just buy new files of use disposable ones o_o
For epoxy, you might try soaking in aceton to soften it and then try to brush it out. Aceton is flammable and nog healthy- so beware and use proper protective measures !
Add to that a few hours in the freezer might also help loosen things as the metal file and the milliput clogs will contract differently as they cool/freeze. . Might be just enough to get it out with a stiff brush afterwoulds..?
I tend to use oil/rag on my files in similar way to cleaning my sharpending stones (the fine ones anyway), when I wipe them down after use.
Not had any major problems with clogs, but never filed "soft"milliput...
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For epoxy, you might try soaking in aceton to soften it and then try to brush it out. Aceton is flammable and nog healthy- so beware and use proper protective measures !
Aceton and paint thinner would be my first tries, the big downside to sulphuric acid is that it also effects the edge of your files cut.
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I've always used the sanding belt cleaner that I use in my other hobby woodworking.
It's a resin/rubber block that you sand/file as you would a piece of wood. The resin/rubber abraded and pulls the residue from the file. VERY effective.
Here is an example.
https://www.tool-net.co.uk/p-402618/tool-net-150-x-25-x-25mm.html?gclid=CJ3RpNqq_MsCFU4o0woddQMPBQ
Available everywhere.
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I would vote for a nuclear blast to clean them up lol ........ Seriously.... guys..... Sulphuric acid?
Aceton is a bad idea as well, depending on WHAT glues on the files. Some of the epoxyputties react with aceton to very unhealthy vapors! And Aceton is a resolvent. Theres nearby nothing known, that brings solved toxic chemicals better through the skin barrier in your Body than Aceton!
I use a Needlefile set that I´ve inherit from my Dad. He used this in the 60s in his education and they still work perfect. My everytime successfull treatment to clean my files from EVERYTHING even 2k Epoxyglue is this:
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71ulMUcPZqL._SY355_.jpg)
Nothing resists a rotating Dremelbrush on 10000 rpm.
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Dammit I feel stupid as a have a Dremel and numerous brushes and for some reason never used that attachment.
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Sulphuric acid?
I've handled worse, and take in mind the solution it would be at.
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Dammit I feel stupid as a have a Dremel and numerous brushes and for some reason never used that attachment.
I have several steel ones, but being too aggressive with them results in bristles shedding from the brush head. And then I spend days finding metal slivers all over (I live in an apartment... work spaces are constrained) and even had to throw out a sweater after a particularly spectacular failure - while burnishing pennies of all bloody things. In fact burnishing pennies with steel brushes always seems to cause the brush head to shed wires and I have no idea why.
I do want to try the brass dremel wire brushes but no one here seems to carry the bloody things and I've been too cheap to buy them online since paying shipping for a single brush triples the cost.
Might try the cleaning block brandlin suggests.
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A tip that I picked up absolutely years ago (can't even remember where/when!) was to rub a little bit of white chalk onto your files, and then gently brush the excess off. This means that when you file your metal models, the filings don't gum up the cutting faces so badly (you can just wire brush them down and carry on).
If you get milliput or plastic gumming up your files, then let the files soak in acetone for a little bit and the stuff will just dissolve out (although you may want to encourage it with an old toothbrush as well).
A similar trick for drill bits is to drill through a wax candle first, then through the (metal) models - this helps to stop the bit from sticking and breaking off in the hole you're drilling. I daresay this could work for files too, and to remove the metal you could soak them in boiling water (make to sure dry and oil them afterwards though - don't want rusty files!).
Although I've clumsily snapped the tips off a couple of files over the years, I still regularly use 25-year-old files in my toolkit! ;)
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Now that's not a bad idea...
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This and quite possibly a sonic bath (the type used for cleaning airbrushes).
cheers
James
Got one of those?
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A tip that I picked up absolutely years ago (can't even remember where/when!) was to rub a little bit of white chalk onto your files, and then gently brush the excess off. This means that when you file your metal models, the filings don't gum up the cutting faces so badly (you can just wire brush them down and carry on).
If you get milliput or plastic gumming up your files, then let the files soak in acetone for a little bit and the stuff will just dissolve out (although you may want to encourage it with an old toothbrush as well).
A similar trick for drill bits is to drill through a wax candle first, then through the (metal) models - this helps to stop the bit from sticking and breaking off in the hole you're drilling. I daresay this could work for files too, and to remove the metal you could soak them in boiling water (make to sure dry and oil them afterwards though - don't want rusty files!).
Although I've clumsily snapped the tips off a couple of files over the years, I still regularly use 25-year-old files in my toolkit! ;)
*Preventive* meassures. Now, that's cunning...!
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I also chalk my files before use, then use a file brush and 90 percent of the white metal comes right off. I learned this trick working on the lathe, but it works for the miniatures also. I have files that are 20+ years old and still going strong.
When I used to use the files on lead figures a soaking in mercery would take the lead right out, but my supply of mercury is about gone, and it is really not a very safe thing to play with, and the mercury becomes contaminated. I have not tried it with the lead free metal the figures are made of today.
Dale