Ken Janes, lug cutter

this got relayed to the FBs list. great photos of a great shop. I've been doing lots of filing lately so it's fun to see other folks' tools and setups. tonight it was the right drop; time-consuming becuase it's in 3 planes that make it hard to remove steel quickly.

my Enco order came in, so now i've got 2 brand new Nicholson half-rounds, 8 and 10", a needle file set, and a riffler set. i'm wishing i'd ordered 2 needle file sets. and the link above suggests a wire wheel for the contoured parts. and i need more dremel bits. and chalk for the files.

2 comments:

jim g said...

What do you use chalk on the files for? Is this ordinary chalk like used on blackboards?

Ethan Labowitz said...

it's supposed to keep bits of metal from accumulating in the file teeth. that's called pinning.
i tried Prang art chalk, which worked ok but it was kinda dusty and i went through it quickly.
supposedly "railroad chalk" is better--more dense and thus longer-lasting. i think this is the same as the big sidewalk chalk sticks that some in buckets for kids. i have some of the latter but haven't tried it yet.
also soapstone, which is apparently sold at welding supply stores, is supposed to be good for the same purpose.
on the other hand, R. Sachs and K. Pacenti don't use anything on their files, so obviously it's not essential or anything.
there's a long thread on this on the FB list in the past couple days. check http://search.bikelist.org