A Filing Machine with motor drive

I've just about finished making a "Harold Hall" filing machine. The drawings and article in MEW were followed pretty much to the letter. I have however motorised the device using a motor from a cheap drilling machine that has been lying around for a while. My first attempt at this used a 1" small pulley and 2.5" large pulley with a J section poly v belt (4 ribs) - this proved to be a bit "fast" and, whilst it did work there was quite a bit of vibration. I have now modded it to have a 3" large pulley and the whole thing is more sedate and controllable - it certainly shifts brass at quite a rate!

Looks tremendous. What are you using for files and is it restrictive for file size?.

It uses 4" files (with the tang cut off) - I can get these from Arc Euro in most shapes that I need. I'm using 2nd cut files that do seem to work - if a little slowly for roughing out. However if you cut out close to the line in the first place they are quick enough. The one shown in the machine is a 4" square file with its missing tang uppermost - ie it cuts on the downstroke. (It may not look it in the photos but the file is dead square to the table!)

Edited By Bizibilder on 14/05/2017 14:52:27

Edited By Bizibilder on 14/05/2017 14:52:52

I can't remember the ideal stroke rate for a filing machine, but I suspect that for steel it would be 100 per min, or a little less, brass could be near double that, too high speed will kill your files, remember they are carbon steel. The best is to have a variable speed motor.

Ian S C

If it's of any help, the stroke rates for an old industrial filing machine I have are 70, 110, 150, & 280 strokes per minute.