Making your own cabinet scrappers.

[simonms]

Hi,

I am making some curves from 1" thick walnut and am wondering if anyone has ever made or had made some scrappers for fairing out the surfaces. I am having no issues with the convex face but the concave face is slightly harder.

I was thinking of having some scrappers CNC'ed to fit the curve (the panel it quite big at 1m x 1m roughly) and finishing them this way.

Any thoughts very welcome, what type of steel would be best suited and at what thickness? The scrapper I am using at the moment is a Veritas one at 1mm thick which seems fine.

Cheers,

Simon.

Simon.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

Hi - I'm having difficulty visualising exactly what you're trying to achieve, but to answer your question:

- you can buy ready-made scrapers relatively cheaply e.g. https://www.axminster.co.uk/concave-con ... s-ax806539
- you can easily make your own scraper - a good source of base material is an old hardpoint handsaw or and old bandsaw blade. Thickness is not critical, the burr on the edge is.

Cheers, W2S

PS You might find a 'scratch stock' helpful e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6_FoLhDgAU

 

[lurker]

I have these and they are fine.
Note their origin.... He bought up job lots of tools like this by ( literally) the ton about ten years ago and is still slowly shifting them.
https://www.proopsbrothers.com/wood-cab ... 0867-p.asp

they also sell them singly, but at the price you might as well have the set.

 

[MikeG.]

Call me a pedant, but a scrapper is someone who scraps (fights). I think we're talking about scrapers here.

Sorry.

-

It's an absolute piece of pee to make your own scrapers. A few minutes with a hacksaw and files on an old cheapo saw plate (never throw away old hard-point saws!) and you can make a scraper to any shape you need. As the idea is to have a worked edge, there is no need to have a CNC-cut masterpiece.

On a tiny scale, here's one I made last week, and it worked a treat:

 

[simonms]

Thanks for your replies, see pic attached showing curve.

I have tried a few methods but always end up with wobbles so was thinking making 4 or 5 scrapers that fit the exact curve to get best results.

It doesn't help that the curve doesn't have a constant radius.

 

[MikeG.]

.....see pic attached....

Is it just me? I see nothing.

 

[simonms]

 

[MikeG.]

How to post pictures.

 

[simonms]

 

[MikeG.]

I thought this project was done and dusted years ago.

 

[simonms]

If I was to have something made what would be the best option on the steel front, A2?

https://www.steelexpress.co.uk/toolsteel/

 

[MikeG.]

Honestly, read what we've said. We've told you about the steel already.

 

[simonms]

No you haven't, Woody has suggested making my own from old hardpoint handsaw or and old bandsaw blade (cheers Woody) but I have nothing like this to use. I was interested in what type of steel was used to make these things so I posted this link.

https://www.steelexpress.co.uk/toolsteel/

Mike, every time I post here I get this sort of low level intolerance from you, I won't rise to it as I have said before, maybe take a walk or have a cup of tea.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Traditional cabinet scrapers, like the sorts made in Sheffield from Clifton, Crown or Thomas Flinn (and probably all made by the latter), will be the same spring steel used for saw plate, I am sure. it is no coincidence they are available in two thicknesses - ~0.4mm (the same as a dovetail saw), or ~0.8mm (the same as a handsaw).

 

[MikeG.]

......Mike, every time I post here I get this sort of low level intolerance from you, I won't rise to it as I have said before, maybe take a walk or have a cup of tea.

I've posted 5 times here this morning (now 6), telling you precisely what you need to know, including taking the trouble to not only post a series of my own photos but to link you to an article telling you how to help you post yours. I have been nothing but helpful, and you have utterly ignored every single thing I have said, until my last post. It is you who needs to examine their attitude, not me.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

So we're talking about the inner face of coopered panel ?
The quickest route to where you want to be is to file or grind a gentle curve on your existing scraper - a bit like forming a camber on a scrub plane blade. I respectfully suggest you're overthinking all this...

 

[simonms]

That makes sense, cheers Woody.

 

[simonms]

It's just an observation Mike, "I thought this project was done and dusted years ago", Honestly...", "for goodness sake...." etc etc appear to me, slightly offish.

Off course I really appreciate the responses and your points haven't been ignored, it's just that I haven't got any old tools that would lend themselves to making my own so more NA than ignored.

To be fair though it might look like I am being a slightly arrogant sod so appologise.

 

[lurker]

Do you realise you are going to need a few tools to keep your scraper properly burnished.

I think you seem to tackle wood like an engineer would tackle metal, can't be done cos wood moves and is not homogenous.
The precise profile is unimportant as you scrape, look, feel, scrape a bit differently, repeat many times. Depending how good you are, the result will be either spot on or near enough, either way no where near the tolerance an engineer would expect from relatively inert metal.
Those swan necks I pointed out are ready for burnishing and use.

Further your comments about Mike : good as he is, he does not read minds so how was he to know you had no basic metalworking hand tools?

 

[simonms]

Well on first making these curves I posted cad drawings of the staves and was told that the engineering type approach was not the way to go, so I took the advice and hand planned and fettled the staves in as suggested which worked nicely. More recently I passed each stave through a spindle molder to get the precise angles and that came out very nicely as well. I guess I am just interested in methods to get the best results and wondered if making scrapers to match the piece might be worth considering.

I have burnishers and been using scraper for a few years now so not too bad on that front.