Hand Checkering advice

Bought a grobet 20lpi checkering file and power custom checkering guide. I plan to checker my dedicated lower that is used for my conversion. I am going to practice on a piece of metal pipe from Lowe’s first just to get the feel of it. 
Any advice before I get started? Anything else I need or need to consider?

1st thing you'll need to do is to square up your file.. if you look at it closely you'll see one side that has a half row of teeth. You have to grind the file edge so that each side ends in a valley. I used a belt sander to do mine years ago. A surface grinder is perfect if you have access to one. Practice alot using pipe of a similar size to your front strap. Put tape on your fingers as youll learn to guide the file with your index finger..

There are a few decent videos out there..

Don't change file sides as the teeth are just a bit different. I mark my files and which ever side I start with, that is the only side I use.

Clean & chalk your file often. Patience is a virtue

Practice, practice and a big bottle of Jack Daniels.
Phil

Even after you have filed in your base lines, be very careful how you start and end the stroke of your file across the horizontal lines. 

Your arm will fatigue and get lazy and you can start to enter and exit the filing motion with a sweep.  One side of the horizontal lines can have a sweep up and the other side of the strap will have a sweep down, even if the middle is straight.  Even if you establish straight lines with a guide, when you remove it, you can still sweep and reshape those base lines easier than you think.   It will not be an obvious sweep you notice right off, but one that you find filed in after several hours of fatigued hand work.

Also, blue marker, an Optivisor, chalk, a file card, and you can file on brass or copper rod to pick out and remove metal that gets lodged in the teeth.  The file will start to feel like it is “rolling”, not cutting.  If you are doing it right, you will say “Time to clean and reblue” a lot.

 Masking tape on your fingers BEFORE you need it or you will have regrets!

Use chalk and a brush often. You can use the checkering file to lay out the lines, then use a bent 60 degree file to bring the lines to full depth.