Improvements in or relating to the Use of the File, and Appliances therefor.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Nov., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 25th Aug., 1894-Accepted, 6th Oct., 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to the Use of the File, and Appliances
therefor.
I, FREDERICK WILLIAM HOTHAM of Telham Grange, Battle, in the County
of Sussex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This invention relates to a method of using a file and to devices or appliances
employed for this purpose. The device would usually be connected to a vice or
arranged upon the bench in connection with the vice, but other application of it may
be made in connection with the file.
The device consists primarily of preferably a single roller located say at the back
of the vice or work in such manner that the file rests upon the roller and upon the
work and having thus two points of support the operator has merely to draw it
backwards and forwards and apply the necessary pressure to produce an absolutely
or at least approximately flat surface whereas as is well known with the ordinary
method of using a file it is extremely difficult to produce a true plane surface.
Besides the one roller already mentioned another roller may be fixed at the opposite
side of the vice or work in which case the file would have three points of support;
in some cases this may be advantageous, in others not. The roller would probably
be the cheapest and most convenient form of the device but it will be readily seen
that so long as the two points of support are obtained for the file the true surface
can be produced so that forms of support other than the roller may be adopted.
For example a slide moving with the file and resting upon a suitable bed or support
would effect the same purpose or a suitable form of parallel motion with links.
A convenient device which I have satisfactorily tested consists of a single roller
carried in a bracket or frame conveniently of an H-section, the lower ends of
the H being permanently or detachably pivotted upon the back of the vice and the
upper ends having pointed screws or suitable centres or bearings to carry the roller.
The cross bar of the H may have an extension through which passes a set screw
taking its bearing upon the vice so as to elevate or lower the roller as required.
For draw filing I may employ a suitable guard or shield moving with the file upon
the roller and protecting the latter from the teeth of the file; or a form of filing
with a radial movement may be employed by providing a saddle piece to fit upon
the roller, the saddle piece carrying a pivot upon which a bar or arm can turn, the
bar carrying by means of any suitable clamping device a file or portion thereof, the
file operating upon the work by the movement imparted to the bar by its free end.
The file or piece of file may if desired be of special construction and have the teeth
cut in a different direction to that usually adopted; or the file or piece of file may
be of ordinary construction.
The roller may be made of any suitable metal or material hard enough to retain
its proper form but not hard enough to damage the file; or a protecting strip may
be used between the file and roller to protect the latter.
Dated this 28th day of November 1802
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents for the Applicant.

page_text: Improvements in or relating to the Use of the File, and Appliances
therefor.
1, FREDERICK WILLIAM HOTHAM of Telham Grange, Battle in the County
of Sussex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to a method of using a file and to devices or appliances
employed for this purpose. The device would usually be connected to a vice or
arranged upon the bench in connection with the vice, but other application of it
may be made in connection with the file.
It enables unskilled persons to file a flat or approximately true surface which
cannot be accomplished by unskilled persons in the ordinary way of handling a file,
and consists in providing a supplemental support for the file so that in use it has
two points of support-one the supplemental support and the other the work.
The invention will be best understood by reference to the accompanying drawings
in which
Fig. 1 is a side elevation showing the vice, the attachment and a file in position.
Figure 2 is a plan of Fig. 1 but without the file, and
Figure 3 is a perspective view of a fitting appertaining to the attachment to
facilitate the operation of "draw" filing.
Like letters indicate like parts throughout the drawings.
A represents a vice of any ordinary construction and B a block of metal to be
filed. C is a bracket or pair of brackets secured in any convenient manner
either to a portion of the vice itself or to the bench or support upon which the vice
is fixed. D is a frame the arms of which are pivotted at D' to the brackets C;
the forward end of this frame carries a steel or other roller E, firmly held but free
to rotate in the frame, being carried upon pointed pivot screws F or in or upon any
other suitable form of bearing. The ends D2 of the frame D may be turned up as
shown in Fig. 1 in order to raise the roller E to about the level of the work in the
vice and the proper adjustment of the roller may be effected by the thumb or other
screw G which screws into a portion D³ of the frame D and takes a bearing upon
any suitable part of the vice; by turning the screw G the roller E can be raised
or lowered as will be readily understood. The construction of the frame D and
roller or equivalent support may be varied without departing from the spirit of this
invention, for example the roller may be provided with one or more raised collars
for the safe edge of the file to bear against or it may be made of a number of collars
or equivalent placed side by side.
Where the work is large enough the apparatus may be placed upon the work
itself a large casting for instance-and bolted or otherwise secured thereto.
The apparatus is used in the following manner :-The work B is clamped in the
vice in the usual way and the height of the roller E adjusted according to the plane
-horizontal or other-in which the work is to be filed; the file is then placed as
shown in Figure 1 so that the file itself has two bearings, one upon the work and
the other upon the roller and consequently by keeping the file firmly in contact with
both supports a practically true surface can be produced even by an unskilled work-
man. The same advantage may be secured with "draw filing "the file being
pressed upon the two points of support while being drawn backwards and forwards
along the surface of the roller. "Draw filing" may be carried out with the file
actually in contact with the roller but as this would be likely to damage the roller
I prefer to employ the slide shown in Figure 3. This may be formed of a curved
plate H adapted to fit upon the roller E and a wire or other back or bracket I

page_text: having raised ends I¹ between which the file can rest. These ends may be tapered
so as to accommodate files of various sizes or they may be adjustable or fixed
without any special provision for fitting the file. The slide may be formed or cast
in a single piece if preferred. In using this slide it is simply placed upon the
roller E and the file placed in the back or bracket I and if necessary the height of
the roller E readjusted to allow for the thickness of the slide and the operation of
"draw filing" can then be carried out as will be well understood.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:-
1. The supplemental file support substantially as described.
2. The combination with a vice of a supplemental support for the file for the
purpose of facilitating the production of true surfaces by the operation of filing
substantially as described.
3. The combination with a vice of an adjustable roller such as E or equivalent
support substantially as and for the purpose described and illustrated in the
accompanying drawings.
4. The combination with a vice of a roller such as E frame such as D D' D' D'
bracket C and adjusting screw G substantially as and for the purpose described
and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
5. The combination with a roller or equivalent supplemental file support such as E
of a slide such as H substantially as and for the purpose described and illustrated
in the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 21st day of August 1204
FREDERICK WILLIAM HOTHAM.
W. P. Thompson & Boult,
Agents for the Applicant.