Alba 1A Shaper Graduated Dials?

[_Paul_Participant @_paul_]

I have a late 30’s Alba Shaper (an early type with no box support).

 

The machine currently has small plain unmarked collars making accurate work difficult so I would like to add graduated dials to both the topslide and crossfeed.

 

Sounds reasonably simple so far, (i’m not that lucky) my problem arises with the machines screws which are all 6 T.P.I.

 

This means that one revolution of either feed produces a (measured) movement of 0.16666 therefore (working in thousandths) giving a dial calibrated with an unusual amount of divisions.

 

I did then start to think that it may be calibrated in 64ths as some really old machines are, this dosent seem to produce any kind of meaningful number of divisions either.

 

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

Regards

 

Paul

[_Paul_Participant @_paul_]

[David Clark 13Participant @davidclark13]

Hi There

Near as dammit 4.25 (4.233333) mm

I would divide it into 34 and use that.

You are unlikly to want any closer measurement on a shaper I would think.

regards David

 

 

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Chop a cheap digital caliper up for the top slide and use one of the horizontal DRO bars for the cross feed, probably a lot quicker than making and graduating odd sock dials.

 

John S.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

A $15 DRO will sort all your problems.

 

Something I haven’t really seen anywhere is profiling with a laser.

 

Attach a $2 laser to the head of the shaper, put a ball point pen picture of the shape you want on the opposite wall, or a freestanding markerboard, and profile the shape.

 

 

edit:Not many shaper users left nowadays though.

Edited By Ady1 on 18/01/2012 23:50:23

[alan frostParticipant @alanfrost17805]

Don’t you believe it ,Ady. Even the venerable editor is pushing his luck with a comment like ,and I quote, “..unlikely to want any closer measurement on a shaper”. Some of us use a shaper to pare off layers of atoms and the really hot guys can even remove selected electrons. I can think of a website not a million miles removed where new members have been advised “watch out for the shaper boys “. Certainly no one on that site would be rash enough to make these sort of statements.

Like the laser profiling idea–Try that with a mill, if you get any spare time from sorting out the rough finish !!!

Edited By alan frost on 19/01/2012 00:31:54

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

Like the laser profiling idea–Try that with a mill, if you get any spare time from sorting out the rough finish !!!

 

ooh…nasty…lol

 

It also occurred to me that it might be possible to finish off bores for bushes and perhaps even model engines with a shaper, with a rounded tooltip on a rotary table, although the highly skilled engine guys do talk about a slight tapering when they hand finish the bore.

 

Even by hand, with no graduated dials on a shaper, you can skim minute amounts of material from a piece of metal.

As soon as an endmill/slotdrill touches something it vibrates.

Edited By Ady1 on 19/01/2012 01:45:12

[John OlsenParticipant @johnolsen79199]

Seems to have been traditional to use odd threads on shaper feeds. I have a six inch Ammco which came with a half inch Sellers thread on the downfeed, eg 13 tpi, and a V form thread at that. Somebody had put a little dial with 62.5 calibrations around it, which might have been some use had the thread been 16 tpi. I scavenged a nice 10 tpi thread leadscrew and nut from an old lathe cross slide, peace at last. I have four shapers, the others all came with calibrated dials and sensible threads. So either change the thread or put the digital readout on, the latter might be easiest and gives you metric as well.

 

regards

John

[_Paul_Participant @_paul_]

Thanks to one and all for your replys & advice, sounds like it will be having a cheap digital caliper grafted onto it.

 

Has anyone done this with a shaper? any design ideas would be gratefully recieved.

 

Another thought gripped me before I started this thread which was what about a CNC shaper? has this been done I wonder

 

Regards

 

Paul

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

The Boxford tailstock screw is 12tpi so I have thought of a 42 division dial but since the usual adjustment is a ‘tad’ or ‘smidgin’ why get obsessed with a subdivision of a distance that was imprecisely chosen a few centuries ago.

If it is reasonable to divide a foot by 12 then the next division is logically 6 or 12, or some multiple thereof so 42 is on the cards for the next stage.

Anyway counting in base 10 is just a passing fad of a couple of thousand years and we will revert to base 60 again in time.

 

 

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Bazyle,

 

We need to redefine the centimetre as 2.56 to the inch.

 

Work out the implications.

 

Neil

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Neil,

Agreed; it would be wonderful … bringing instant convergence of Metric, Imperial, and Binary.

On a practical level [as I’m sure you realise]; we can often get away with the approximation …
“Quarter Scale, Metricated” is a favourite of mine.

i.e. One Inch at QSM is 25.6/4mm = 6.4mm
One sixty-fourth is then a very convenient 0.1mm

Makes scaling-down from old drawings very simple!

MichaelG.

[alan frostParticipant @alanfrost17805]

We’ve got Napoleon to thank for 2.54. Bloody French, what can you expect !!

 

I expect his thoughts at the time were. “Vell, the bloody English fink they rule the world-ve vill see. I vill metricate and the world will follow. Now eet would be sensible to make the centimetre 2.56 to ze eench, but ve vill make eet 2.54. Eet suits me and I have ze beegest army in Europe. Ze Eengleesh will be so busy making 127 teeth gears France vill be number one for years”

 

What the basket forgot was we had the only universal language and once Le hotdog and Le computer were invented the French were on the slide.

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

I suppose we should be grateful they standardised at 2.54 – for a long while it was 2.54and a load of tiddly bits on the end.

 

Neil

[NobbyParticipant @nobby]

Hi

I read once that the Congress of the USA stated that The inch Should be 2.54 What year I can’t remember. Having said that I found it easy to program machines in metric . also a 127 m.m sine bar can be very useful !!!!!

Nobby

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

For info …

http://www.npl.co.uk/reference/faqs/on-what-basis-is-one-inch-exactly-equal-to-25.4-mm-has-the-imperial-inch-been-adjusted-to-give-this-exact-fit-and-if-so-when-(faq-length)

MichaelG.

[Author]

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