Thread: Shaper

no picture bob

I was using my wife's computer. Back on mine. I'd copied and pasted the photo. Obviously not the way to do it.

I only posted on that old thread today, so it's not old.
It's hard to tell with only one photo, but I think it would be attached to the shaper body or the shapers base with a pole supporting it because it looks to far back to be attached to the down feed.
Some one posted a photo on here a while back pretending to be under a mill holding it up, it's funny how photo's can deceive.

Stuart,
Notice there is no support on that one.

Dave

Good point Dave, if it doesn't need one, I doubt I will.

Its got the all singing all dancing table. That sure would be handy for the first job I want to try. But I'm sure I'll manage.

Stuart

Dave,

I noticed there was no table support on the grey and yellow shaper in the amputation thread. Also the table looked pretty light. Chinese or sub continental maybe?

Bob.

You're right about the light. I had another look at the photo and it appears to be mounted beyond the ram.

That ones only a little shaper, we where talking a while back about large shapers not having a table support.
It was brought up on another forum and we thought it was an Indian made one as they are still making them their to this day.

Dave

Stuart, some guys with universal tables reckon they're too flimsy. Maybe a single axis rotating one would be ok. I bet I know what you've got in mind. I was thinking of mounting my rotab on an angle, kind of side-on (but vertical) and cutting horizontally. I mean with the toolhead at 90 deg. Don't know if that would work. May have to lock the clapper.

I visited my two local machinists yesterday. (I didn't even know there was a second one till recently.) One of them had the biggest vertical mill I've ever seen. Said it was Swiss, didn't catch the name. And the other guy has two shapers. Pretty hard to see over in the corner through the filthy gloom, but one had Made in England on the ram, like the Invictas/Elliots. It was what I'd call a 'normal' size, and set up for slotting, with an angle plate. The other was big, maybe as big as the one in Bob's photo.

It's nice to see shapers still being used commercially, albeit in a country town jobbing/repair business, rather than a production environment. I also thought it was noteworthy - though not surprising - that the guy with the shapers only has a Bridgeport type mill.

"some guys with universal tables reckon they're too flimsy" I guess there really is no free lunch
Still I'm sure someone has one with both tables that can be swapped lol

First I was going to try bolting my indexing head* to the side of the table. If that doesn't work I will be trying the way you are talking about.

I think a shaper would be very handy when doing one off repair work.

Stuart

*indexing head is a pretty flash name for a big cast bearing and a change gear lol

Had a look in my library at home this morning and found that the little book " Shapers" written by Emanuele Stieri in 1942 is devoted nearly entirely to Cincinatti's 24 inch universal shaper. He writes " exhaustive tests of up to half-ton loads have proved that this type of construction( the direct mounting of the table to the cross rails i. e no apron) more than adequately makes up for any absence of table supports ".

The table enabled the vise to be rotated around 3 axes. The shaper had an 8 speed gearbox, rapid table traverse, power downfeed (naturally!) and you could adjust the length of the stoke with the ram was moving.

All in all, a nice bit of gear.

This shaper looks to have a machined flat surface on its base. Wouldn't that be for use with a table support?

Jordan

It could be but it doesn't look to have the length for the travel. Also being a swivel table it would have to snake from the front of the table back to the base.

Dave

Stieri states in his book that the universal table could be fitted to the 24" Utility shaper.

The Utility was supplied with a conventional tee slotted table with a very rigid looking table support. The Utility did not have the rapid table traverse feature of the Universal.

From the photos in his book, it would appear that both shared the same base / body casting.

BT

After looking at the photos of Indian made retro shapers in a link Bryan provided in the amputation thread, I dug through some old pics I have for something a bit more modern. This shaper was for sale at Bill's Machinery in Wangara, a northern Perth suburb, a few years ago. If I remember correctly, it was ex TAFE. It was big, but with an 18'' stroke, nothing like that Cincinatti. I wonder what the purpose of the window was?