Thread: Show us your Shaper

Originally Posted by Abratool

Phil
I can see a benefit in that paper weight, because the dovetail allows a good grip.
It appears to be an accurate 60 degree,
Well done
regards
from the Shaper support group Dural NSW
Bruce

HI Bruce
when I read this I tried it out and it does make a great hand grip. Oh and give my regards to the Dural Shaper Support Group

Originally Posted by eskimo

OHWS...

HI Eskimo
I can get most of these but OHWS has plain got me stumped

Originally Posted by Neebs

Hi Phil,
Glad you like my Shapers...thanks for that!

Phil...A very nice dovetail...but of course, as a "Shaper-Nut", I would expect absolutely nothing less...when producing dovetails on a Shaper...no fuss, no drama, no broken tools, no bad language...just a beautifully made component time and time again...
...and all done with a little bit of HSS that only cost a couple of quid!

Unlike those poor souls...with only a milling machine to produce dovetails...
£50 for the dovetail milling cutter, another £50 for the Vallium you need to take before you switch the Mill on...and then another £50 for the paper hankies...for all the tears when your Dovetail milling cutter snapped with no warning!...bummer!
You Milling "chappies"...have a nice day now!

Think I'll stick to my Shapers!...for the "tricky" jobs!

I have attached a couple of photos of a set of "dovetail paperweights"...I made for a mate of mine...just a month or two back...

Oh sorry...It was actually supposed to be a QCTP with eight toolholders...18 dovetails in total...all done on the shaper...

However, as he hasn't got around to fitting it to his Emco Maximat Lathe yet... technically...they are still paperweights!...and in one of the pics you can see how many dovetails were needed to hold the paper down!

Regards,
Neebs

Hi Neebs
you are right about no fuss no drama and no tears as well. Materials and tooling so far have cost me nothing and if I get a longer piece of stock and increase the stroke then my new QCTP holders may quite easily come to fruition. Doubtfully up to your standard but something to aim for. Very nice job.

Phil

Originally Posted by Dave J

Hi Phil,
Looks good, is that your first dovetail? If it is, it looks like you did well.
I had to think what shaper you had, then when I looked I remembered your comment and mod about the table support and it flexing. I think that is because you have the short base model, because I haven't heard anyone else complaining and I don't find I get any flex to really talk about. I am not sure when or why they brought out the short base, but I don't think it was a good decision. I am wondering if these where the first type of bases, is yours a plain bearing model?

You shaper came up well, I was looking on you tube the other day to find out where a washer went and spotted yours running. I wasn't able to spot where the washer went on any of them, but thankfully Jordan and Pipeclay helped me out of where the brake washer and spacer washer went on the clutch shaft.I pulled it down before Christmas and had forgotten where they went. I did take pictures of the assembly before I dismantled it, but my memory card disappeared on new years along with a lot of other pictures, after putting it away safe in my wallet.

My Douglas is down getting mods, it only started out with a clean after mounting a grinder to it to do some surface grinding, then I thought I would paint it, now I an doing some major modifications to it. I will do a thread on it when I am finished, I just want to test it all out first, so then others could copy it easily.

Dave

Hi Dave
yes, my first dovetail. I am quite proud of it. Probably more astonished as to how easy it was to do on the little Douglas. Looks like the QCTP is going to get a heap of birthday presents
My Douglas is the only one I have seen(after heaps of research) with that style of base. It used to have a piece of 1" all-thread as the table support but the previous owner in his efforts to remove it cut it in half with a 9" angle grinder. It's an idea I have never liked anyway as while traversing the work table it ran across the rough casting of the splash tray. Any decent cut would give me ,what I consider, too much flex, so I designed the table support to suit what I had and now it doesn't matter what size of cut I take there is no flex at all. My table is not universal and so, does not rotate. My Douglas is as you suspected, a plain bearing model. I have thought about machining up new housings to accept bearings but I deal with plain bearings everyday and know the importance of adequate lubrication and it seems to be one of the rare things that I don't forget about (nowadays)
Damn I love shapers. It might be time to bring the big 16" no name one I have, inside and do a rebuild on it.
Can't wait to see the new mods on yours as well.

Phil

Originally Posted by jhovel

PDW, could you show us a bit more of your shaper here?
What's that drilled plate/sub tasble on the right of your T-slot box and what's it used for?

Joe

Joe, I don't have any good pix of it on my computer & it's buried in the corner, surrounded by other stuff I'm not using ATM. It's a reasonably modern 20" stroke unit with a rotatable (L-R) table and a forced lube system that doesn't really work. I think it was ex TAFE of similar because it had seen abuse & lack of lubrication but not a lot of wear otherwise. The downfeed slide has been broken off in toto & brazed back together. Looks ugly & needs scraping in but works acceptably. The price was cheap & I've had it a long time.

The extension table was added to provide support to a single axis DRO and a steel bar when I was cutting the teeth on a new rack for my Colchester Chipmaster lathe. It was 14 DP 14.5PA which is apparently unobtanium these days so I made one. That decision was the start of a long saga that involved building a big tilting angle plate and making a complete new pinion shaft. Still, with some tools & sufficient time you can make nearly anything.

PDW

Originally Posted by PDW

Joe, I don't have any good pix of it on my computer & it's buried in the corner, surrounded by other stuff I'm not using ATM. It's a reasonably modern 20" stroke unit with a rotatable (L-R) table and a forced lube system that doesn't really work. I think it was ex TAFE of similar because it had seen abuse & lack of lubrication but not a lot of wear otherwise. The downfeed slide has been broken off in toto & brazed back together. Looks ugly & needs scraping in but works acceptably. The price was cheap & I've had it a long time.

The extension table was added to provide support to a single axis DRO and a steel bar when I was cutting the teeth on a new rack for my Colchester Chipmaster lathe. It was 14 DP 14.5PA which is apparently unobtanium these days so I made one. That decision was the start of a long saga that involved building a big tilting angle plate and making a complete new pinion shaft. Still, with some tools & sufficient time you can make nearly anything.

PDW

Very innovative, & a clever idea in cutting a rack on the shaper.
regards
Bruce

I was just looking at PDW's shaper and noticed the way wipers on the ram. Most serious shapers feature wipers on all the ways. Douglas shapers have none. Maybe Hercus improved the situation with the 270 reincarnation. A question for Jordan.

So Dave, do your amendments include wipers?

BT

Hi Bob,
Yes there on the list for small mods getting done, just have to get the bigger job finished first, almost there.
I was really happy when I picked up this shaper years ago as it had almost no wear, so no rebuild is necessary. I would call the ram way just bed in.

I have degreased and inspected ever single piece and the only thing I will be replacing is the rocker arm to top link pin, as it has a small amount of galling from lack of oil. From the look of it I don't think they knew there is a oil hole under the ram locking bolt. I have some hardened shaft here the right size to replace it with, but other than that I am good to go once the mods are finished.
I find it strange the Douglas never gave the bottom link pins a oil hole, so I am looking into doing some but don't want to weaken anything.

It has a battle scar on the front of both the way and the gib of the ram way from students, but it's only minor and wont affect anything at all. There is no way of fixing it or I would, but is only a couple of mm each side about 75mm back, from the down feed being wound down too far.

Comparing some of the parts I got with it from a plain bearing model, there are a few differences even in the castings. I will try to remember to take some pictures when I go back down.

Dave.

All these these blooming shapers about,,,,sheesh

I've got 1 and 3/4 shapers.
The 1 is a Douglas 10"stroke with clutch The 3/4 is another story.
Miss Douglas is like Matthew_g's , Anorak Bob's and Dave J's as on page 2 of this thread. Colour wise she is mostly like Dave J's, colour though, holds no sway with me, they are all very good lookin, well beautiful actually.

I'll try to get Miss Douglas' permission to photograph her and post her pic up for all and sundry to perv at.
I'll tell her about her Douglas cousins and the other peers and the very good company her photo will be with.

Cheers.

If I'm not right, then I'm wrong, I'll just go bend some more bananas.

Originally Posted by Anorak Bob

Most serious shapers feature wipers on all the ways. Douglas shapers have none. Maybe Hercus improved the situation with the 270 reincarnation. A question for Jordan.

No wipers on my 270.

Jordan

Greetings chaps These are the two shapers I have access to at Newport workshops. The big one only has a ministy of munitions tag with a number on it. The Top speed is 97 stroke per minute I am gradually oilng the beastie up before trying to run it. A good clean is also in order. The length of stroke must be controlled from the levers on the ram. It will be interesting to see what it is.
The smaller one I obtained from Geelong and was told that it was built at the Gordon Institute I have shown both before in a different thread Your 4-6-4

Originally Posted by Woodlee

Heres mine , Alba Type 4S ,18" stroke ( just discovered this today thought it was a 14" stroke ).
Got it for free , went under water in the 98 Katherine flood .
Previous owner bought it in Adelaide in 1962 .
No vice , but a couple of tools come with it.
Is in very good condition for the treatment it has been dished out. Full restoration is under way .

Well done woodlee.
I am the guy who was negotiating from Darwin & had to pass it up.
I damaged my back & could not take the chance of further damage. I did suggest to the owner that I may be able to contact someone who might be interested if the deal fell through.
That some was you as I knew from your posts you wanted one. I am pleased to see it went to a good home.
Did you also get the radial arm drill & Macson?

Cheers
Barry.

Picked up my Douglas shaper today - yippee!
It looks in very good condition and seems complete, except for a vice an any tooling.
Anyway, its in my shed and I'll start cleaning it up tonight. I haven't had a very close look at ways and slides yet, but nothing looks worn from the outside.
The manifacturing year is a surprise to me though : 1938? it looks too "modern"....
Cheers,
Joe

Hi Joe,

Congratulations, pleased to see it has landed safely .. it looks good in your workshop! it seems like it's in pretty good condition too that's a big plus

What do the ram ways look like, that will give some idea.

I'll save a seat in the shaper support group meeting for you.. That's the one where we all sit around mesmerized, watching a shaper running...

Regards
Ray

Its a 77 model.

Joe,
Just one problem, you were supposed to deliver it about 700k northeastish.......
Looks good, no doubt you'll be after a second one soon. Thats one more person who doesn't have to get his fix watching yuotube, you can watch it in real life!

Ewan