Metalworking Exercises

[Jenrick]

As I contemplated making a jig to ensure I didn't mess up the sear or hammer angles on my Beretta 92, I thought back to a lot of the exercises I did when I was first learning how to metal work back at a local vo-tech program. You spent the whole program learning to make progressively more involved tools and fixtures, using the tools, fixtures, etc. that you had made previously.

Having read through a lot of threads here on THR (particular here in the G&S forum), a lot of people seem to be very hesitant (or overly enthusiastic with the dremel) when it comes to working with metal. Most of this seems to come from unfamiliarity with the tools and techniques, and of course the best way to get familiar is with practice. I'll post what I remember in terms of basic exercises, please feel free to add to the list.

As most action work involves filing and stoning:

Start with a piece of 1/4" plate at least 2 1/8" x 2 1/8", file a 2"x2" square.

Start with a piece of 1/4" plate at least 4 1/8" x 4 1/8", file a 4"x4" square. Lay out a centered 2" square. Drill a 1/2" hole, and then file out the square.

Fit the 2"x2" square into the hole in the 4"x4" square. Ensure that no matter what sides of the 2"x2" square are in the hole it fits correctly. (You can keep adding sides, doing an octagon is not particularly enjoyable.)

Start with a piece of at least 1 3/4" round stock at least 1 1/8" thick. Lay out a 1" square on the face of the disk. File a 1" cube.

File a 1" cube. Find the center point of 1 side and mark it, the opposite side will be the base. File 4 sides forming a pyramid.

File a 2" cube, find the center point of 2 opposites sides. File a 1" tall pyramid at each end with the same base creating a 2" diamond shape.

Start with a piece of at least 3" round stock at least 1 1/8" thick. File it into a 2"x2"x1". Lay out a 1" square on the face of the square, drill a 1/2" hole and file out the 1" square. File a 1" cube. Fit the 1" cube into the hole, so that any face can be inserted and the cube fits square and flush.

I'll post more when I have more time. Learning to do these will give you great confidence in your ability to work with metal. The first time you make and fit a perfect cube is an experience you wont forget.

I recommend using simple mild steel as it's cheap and readily available. A basic metalworking file set, file card, a square, machinist ruler, and permanent marker/layout fluid/scribe, and a bench vise are all you need. You can scale the projects up for more difficulty, as the larger the surface to be filed is, the harder it is to keep it all flat and true.

-Jenrick

 

[navyretired 1]

Jenrick: Did we go to the same school and same metalworking class? 1964 Amarillo, TX, Palo Duro High? I still use the 2" and 4" squares I made out of the first project you named. I still have file handle scars from blisters but it taught me that the file and cold chisel were the first real machine tools. I still use them to make parts I don't want to heat.

 

[Jenrick]

No, I graduated HS about 25 years later, and about 500 S. of you. I think that any good vocational education has a lot of the same things in it. In this case a whole lot of sweat, time, and energy

I'm still looking for my course journal that had all the different exercises in it.

-Jenrick

 

[Digger Odell]

Jenrick:
You bring back many memorys. In the late 1950's I went to work in a shop that did engraving & die work for injection moulding. Upon being hired ALL hands, engravers, toolmakers, machinests & helpers were handed a piece of cold roll stock & were told to submit it to the inspection room when it was made SQUARE by hand. Only after being checked on the surface plate with a cylindrical square & accepted were you given your first job to carry out.
Digger.

 

[nad3ooo]

i love this thread, i did some benchwork last weekend, what a treat, i think im going to try to snag some stock to do some more with, make some squares and angles...ill take emery cloth and a file any day over a dremel

 

[tingle]

I had to do the same filing exercises the first few weeks of my apprenticeship 1958 U.K. Except the square and hexagon were 1". How many hours did it take you guys to do the cube?

 

[navyretired 1]

To the best of my memory it took about 3 weeks of 45 minutes per day to make the perfect (hah) cube.
One of the first lessons after that was making a 2" machinist square and how metal moves when worked. I kept getting it flat to then find it was out of square. When the inside was square the outside edge was out. That square as well as the cube took a whole semester to finish (12 weeks). The 2 nd semester the instructor lets us look at power tools (but only look).
The Next year we had to cut the metal with a cold chisel before filing to shape.
When I make gun parts to this day I often drill the outline, cut with cold chisel and file to shape and it's amazing how fast it goes. I learnd my lessons on files, chisels and surface plate and have never forgot.

 

[Zeke/PA]

Oh! The days of Yore!!
The file, chisel thing is a trade school disapline of course.
The "apprentice BOY" thing something different altogether.
The "Boy" was rewarded with the crappiest jobs that the company had to offer.
HOWEVER, when you hooked up with a Journeyman or two that knew you REALLY wanted to learn, a fountain of wisdom was yours for the taking.
I served my "trade" in a small jobbing shop with a really varied work offering.
The first die that I built was for a front sight cover on an M-60 machine gun.
A short while later I completed an aperatus to stamp cookies on an oven oriented belt.
Good old days??
OF COURSE!!!

 

[nitetrane98]

Funny. Years ago I took a night course at a local community college called Strength of Metals or something. It was part of the curriculum for a drafting associate degree.
After a week or so of classroom it sort of evolved into Metal Shop 101.

The instructor was younger than any of us students and started us out with worn out files and a hunk of scrap iron to make squares with. I actually learned a lot from it because I really didn't know how to properly draw file etc but after a few weeks of that there was a pretty big rebellion and a lot of the older guys allowed that they came there to learn to use machinery, not files. Soon after, we were running lathes, mills, surfacing machines and the like. It was night school and a lot more laid back than a trade school type environment. I still have my neato little 8" ball peen hammer, complete with knurled handle!! I made it all by myself!!

 

[Clark]

When I work on a trigger, I extend pins or get longer pins and assemble the trigger outside the action, so I can see how it works. Sometimes it is too simple for that and I make a picture.

The 91/30 trigger is so simple [only one pin], it is drawn instead of assembled outside the receiver on projected pins.