Shapers (obsolete or not)

[_Paul_Participant @_paul_]

Thanks John I'll have to have a dig through my old copies, having started to make the Aloris/PhaseII type I am now sort of commited but I can change that.

You make me quite envious any heat treat I have done is by yours truly and is never as good as I would like

The Shaper can have some "diverse" uses I recently made this it's a slitting saw designed along the lines of Ian Bradley's (from his Shaping Machine book).

You may think this wouldnt have a great many uses but its great for slitting bushes and the like, uses scrap bits of old hacksaw blade as a cutter and unlike a thin lathe/shaper slitting blade it's 1" length means it dosent snap or shatter easily.

Regards

Paul

[Shaun TrewinnardParticipant @shauntrewinnard48432]

I bought a shaper some months ago and have been a little diffident about using it for fear of messing it up. Ian Bradley's book has been mentioned which might be just what I'm looking for. Any ideas where I could obtain a copy?

Shaun T

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Saw a big shaper in action under steam power at Clay Mills Pumping Station.

It was a delight to watch.

Neil

[NobbyParticipant @nobby]

Hi
I've shaped 36" long half round cavitys on a shaper top and bottom half . for a compression 6 imp mould . No pictures sorry about 25 years ago. How ?
Nobby

[colin hawesParticipant @colinhawes85982]

My 10 inch shaper does frequent work on preparing the lumps of rusty steel, that lay on my scrapheap, for milling. It can machine wider flat surfaces than an average amateur's mill without leaving the overlapping cutter marks, is quick to set up,uses cheap tools and is very suitable for use on the tough steels and rust that soon ruin good milling cutters.I have recently thinned down pieces of car leaf springs that the milling cutters jibbed at ; some for a model and some to make a flypress tool. I have also used it as a slotter to cut internal splines ,keyways, gearteeth and various other profiles. So a shaper does have it's place in the amateur's workshop if you heve the space. I wonder if I could make it do hacksawing ? Colin

[_Paul_Participant @_paul_]

Posted by colin hawes on 26/07/2012 11:27:42:

I wonder if I could make it do hacksawing ? Colin

There are a few ideas online here's one on the NEMES site

I've not made one (apart from the slitting saw) but from what I read the issue centres around chip clearance, the working area of the saw blade would have to completely exit the work for the chips to clear so to cut a 5" lump of metal you would need a machine with at least a 10" stroke to clear the chips.

It's the same principle as my old Donkey saws both have 14" blades but only have a 6" stroke.

Paul

Edited By _Paul_ on 26/07/2012 12:22:17

[colin hawesParticipant @colinhawes85982]

Thanks for the info Paul .It seems that a shaper has more possibilities than is generally assumed. Too busy now to make a shaper hacksaw but is a future project. I like the bush splitting saw idea. It's a quick thing to make. Colin

[_Paul_Participant @_paul_]

Posted by Shaun Trewinnard on 25/07/2012 19:45:25:

I bought a shaper some months ago and have been a little diffident about using it for fear of messing it up. Ian Bradley's book has been mentioned which might be just what I'm looking for. Any ideas where I could obtain a copy?

Shaun T

Ian Bradley's book is OK but IMHO copies seem to be very overpriced, especially for the amount & type of content it also concentrates too heavily on the "Acorn" shaper (7" Atlas clone/copy).

Here are some other tomes you may wish to consider:

• Shaper Job Operations: J.W.Barrit 1937 (reprinted by Lindsay Publications)
• Shapers: Emanuele Stieri 1942 (reprinted by Lindsay Publications)
• Lathe & Shaping Machine Tools "Duplex" 1949 (Tee Publishing)
• Machine Tool Operation Henry D. Burghardt 1922
• Machine Shop Practice K. H. Moltrecht Volume 2 1981

Online you will find Machine Shop Operations & Setups (Chapter 7 I think) which is from "Cincinatti" tools and for a freebie it's very good.

There are many others but I guess these are my favourites.

Paul

[DuncParticipant @dunc]

I second the NEMES site.

Many of the books noted above can be found by searching on: books.google.com

Another site worth trying is: http://www.archive.org

There are Yahoo groups:

Metal Shapers

Atlas Shapers

South Bend had How To Run a Shaper & Drill Press: my copy dates from c.1954

I have heard of a book/ME article (both?) that dates from the 1950s by Duplex.

I expect that ME would have many posts but I am not a digital ME subscriber.

MEW has a three-part article By Don Morris starting in MEW #22, Mar-Apr1994.

Part 2 is in #24 & Part 3 in #25.

The US magazines have some as well:

Popular Mechanics How To Use, June 42; Know Your Shaper, Feb 54; How To Cut Contours, Oct 58.

 

Popular Science articles: How to Use, Aug 43; How To Cut Keyways, Apr 44.

 

Edited By David Clark 1 on 30/07/2012 09:35:52

[John CoatesParticipant @johncoates48577]

Having just got back from 2 weeks holiday and missing this thread can I just say my Elliott 10M is now a much loved addition to my workshop. As previously stated it makes perfect flat planes which I found great for cleaning up my Keats angle plate castings from CES with none of those milling problems about getting beneath the cast iron crust. Cheap 1" x 5/8ths tool steel and I can make any number of useful cutters. I do like that slitting saw idea though – I'll be making one of those!

[Martin Walsh 1Participant @martinwalsh1]

I couldn't agree more I also have a elliott 10m great machine you get a

much better surface finish than fly cutting on a milling machine

also as the previous poster said If you are machining castings it is much more economic than using expensive milling cutters I love my shaper Best Wishes Martin

ps Iam just going to try and cut a dovetail on mine

Edited By Martin Walsh 1 on 16/09/2012 12:59:30

[_Paul_Participant @_paul_]

Rudy Kouhoupt did a couple of DVD's on using the shaper in one of them he shows how to cut a dovetail, I found both of his video's very helpful.

I think Camden Miniatures stock most of Rudy's DVD's.

Paul

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