Cleaning needle files?

[YPU]

I'd figure some chemical should help with that?

[Michi]

I'd figure some chemical should help with that?

Sulphuric acid...

[Daeothar]

Seriously? Well that bites...

[gnomehome]

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 

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 !

[Golgotha]

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...
 

[Tactalvanic]

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  

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...

[YPU]

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.

[Brandlin]

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.

[DELTADOG]

I would vote for a nuclear blast to clean them up   ........ 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:



Nothing resists a rotating Dremelbrush on 10000 rpm.

[Golgotha]

Dammit I feel stupid as a have a Dremel and numerous brushes and for some reason never used that attachment.

[YPU]

Sulphuric acid?

I've handled worse, and take in mind the solution it would be at.

[FramFramson]

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.

[Major_Gilbear]

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!

[FramFramson]

Now that's not a bad idea...

[Hammers]

This and quite possibly a sonic bath (the type used for cleaning airbrushes).

cheers

James

Got one of those?