Modern technology has certainly made an impact in the machining manufacturing world with automated processes. But one process still done manually at Bardons & Oliver is precision scraping To be able to hone a piece of metal to perfect flatness takes experience, skill, and talent. It is, in essence, an art. Bardons & Oliver’s very own Jeff Nosky has that skill.
Precision scraping is used to finish surfaces and generally used to improve the surface quality and flatness of surfaces after filing, milling, or shaping; most times it is used to increase the accuracy of a ground surface.
How do you know where the high surfaces are on a surface? By a process called Blueing. Blueing is used to accentuate the high points or bearing points of the surface, in this case a gib for a manual lathe. Each gib will be fitted to a machine’s carriage and slide. Each part is customized for a machine. A master plate or master straight edge, with blueing rubbed lightly on the surface with the ball of the hand or a piece of chamois leather (shammy) is moved slowly, in a circular motion and with little pressure over the surface to be scraped. This results from this process are shown below: The bright shining spots are the lowest points on the surface which have not come into contact with the Blueing.
BLUEING
The finished product:
Credit: Dapra Corporation and Jeff Nosky of Bardons & Oliver
