Thread: My Invicta 4M arrived

Thanks Brendan
No idea how long it took sorry as I was just playing around getting the angles "rightish" on the tool and I don't have an hour meter on the shaper.. yet.

I say rightish because I ground them from looking at one picture and watching a video of one cutting so I assume there is still some room for improvement. As it cant cut very deep the set up of the angle to the material is touchy. Lay it to far over one way and it cuts with the front corner and pushes up a burr/wave infront of the cutter, to far the other way and it cuts with the back corner and the finish is rubbish.

The material is just normal black bar 100mm wide, the length of the smooth finish is about 35mm. Here is a better picture.

Stuart

Wicked. Nothing like playing around with a new toy!

I havent been able to get a real good cut out of my mill yet. Im starting to wonder if the cutters are blunt?

Indeed, not I just have to find a use for it.
Had to back off the gibe adjustment on the ram this morning, hope thats not a bad sign.
Feeds, speeds cutter size and pictures Brendan. Some should be able to help.
Stuart

im about to head overseas for a few weeks but when I get back i'll put up a post with the cutters and finish im getting.

Brendan

Originally Posted by Stustoys

The video I took is 56meg Stuart

Stu, You can use Movie Maker ( comes with Windows) to shrink your movie down to a more manageable size.

Originally Posted by Sterob

Stu, You can use Movie Maker ( comes with Windows) to shrink your movie down to a more manageable size.

windows 7? I cant find it maybe I didnt install it.
But I've found it on my XP machine I'll upload it shortly(hopefully)
Thanks
Stuart

No idea what I was doing, can't see how to adjust the size so I guess I have the default. Its not as pretty as my video but it is 1/50 the size

Thanks Sterob

Stuart

Originally Posted by Stustoys

As far as the tube goes, don't sweat it, the day I walk out to my shed and say "well everything is done except for the coolant system" I'll hold it against you...... that you have a little while before that's going to happen lol
Stuart

Hi Stuart,
I finally got the tubing for us, he said he has been sick lately and not going to markets so that's why I couldn't find him. The other guy I saw with it was his partner, so it was both coming from the same place.
I found out he works for the company and gets it from them to sell at the markets, I tried but he wouldn't go down on the price because he said he doesn't make much out of it as it is. He offered to go down on his other tooling but not the tube.
I will cut it in half and organize postage next week, I PM you with the details etc.

Dave

I made a plate to go on my mill to hold a magnetic bases. So I milled one side and did the other side on the shaper. To answer Brendan I timed it, just on 5 minutes to cut across a width of 54mm with a length of 65mm. I'm pretty sure I could have run the shaper at full speed which would be 2.5 times faster. I set the power feed this time and took a finer cut. I've posted a picture but its hard to see the finish so I posted one of the face cutter finish. I can barely feel any roughness with my nail and I think there is still room for improvement.

Dave, Great new on the tube.

Stuart

Looking great Stu. Beats a milled finish anytime. I've seen youtubes of pretty slick finishes coming from shapers. Like, nearly mirror. From a distance of course, but still...

One thing I've been wondering: With shapers, as the ram ways wear, the straightness of the cut must suffer right? I guess it would kind of sag in the middle, as there would be less wear at the far ends of the stroke. I've never heard of it being a problem though. Maybe other things wear out and break first. I wonder how could you test for that when buying a machine?

Not sure what you are trying to think there might be a problem with.
Most shapers wont work over there full stroke distance all the time.
The wear area would virtually change everytime a new job was set.
If straightness becomes a concern offsetting the job to compensate would be easily done at setup time.
If parallelism was a concern that also could be compensated with re adjusting the set up.
Have never found any of these 2 items to be of a concern when opperating either shapers or planers.
The best way to check for any of these problems when buying a machine would be to take your testing gear to the sellers premisis and do the checks on the machine before purchase.
At least this way you would also be able to determine the full codition of the machine.
You would also be better off if you were able to take some stock and do a series of test cuts for piece of mind.

Hi Stuart,
Below is a picture of a piece of 40 x 10 black flat bar I cleaned up on the Douglas shaper to show my grand father the other month. Just like lathe tools sharpening and honing make a huge difference.



Bryan,
My big shaper has a bit of wear at the front it seems to be evenly worn tapering from the back. It is not a huge concern because most old shapers have a bit of movement that you have to use a combination of the table support and knee height to get the table running exactly true with the ram. To set it up for precision work you use a dial indicator from the ram to the table and adjust it . If it becomes to much that you can't adjust it out, you can take a light cut off the table top and it would then run perfectly true with the ram.
If your going to look at one, sliding the ram from one end to the other and comparing any difference in the ways front and rear on the main casting will tell you if it's worn, most these days have a bit but can be corrected as above. As in Stuart's picture earlier and the same on my Alba shaper, they can come with a little bit of galling on the ways from lack of oil at sometime. Minor galling here and their is not a big concern for a machine used in the home shop, and if anything will hold a bit of oil.

Dave

Bryan, I'm pretty sure I need to start with better honing of the edges, the best finish you can get reflects the finish on the tool and all that. I just didnt expect it to come out so well first time, so I didnt both to hone it very well.
As far as the wear goes I couldnt say. The only tops of the ram ways show much werar on mine. The start point of the ram would normally be in about the same spot all the time, so it wouldnt sag in the middle so much as taper(I think). Not sure how you could test it with something big and flat.

Stuart

Originally Posted by pipeclay

Not sure what you are trying to think there might be a problem with.

That's an interesting way to put it. My starting point was observing the wear on the dovetails of my hacksaw. I know it's a bit different, but it just got me wondering if wear was ever a problem with shapers. Your reply and Dave's have answered my (rather vague) question very well. Thanks.