Thread: Shaper basics

By a milling cutters nature, unless the head has been trammed absolutely perfect, the surface will be scallopped if using say, a fly cutter.
Using an endmill or the like there will be many scallopped lines of cut.
With a shaper, the surface will be as flat as flat can be flat as it is not rotative but linear.

Phil

Can somebody explain why many of them are running backwards ? Is it a easy mistake to do ?

Originally Posted by morrisman

Can somebody explain why many of them are running backwards ? Is it a easy mistake to do ?

On a 3 phase motor it means changing two of the three wires around to reverese the direction which could mean it is just a mistake in wiring the plug onto the motor.
On a shaper the moments of leverage come into play on the sliding block and yolk.
You will get more power and less speed on the cutting stroke and you will get more speed but less power on return stroke.

Phil

OK Phil............ BTW is this book on the stick ? I downloaded it from somewhere .. its a easy to read explanation of shaper basics ..MIKE

How often do you blokes use your shapers?

It's been a year since mine did any work and I've often toyed with the idea of chucking it overboard. I imagine Bryan's TOS sees some action because he doesn't have a mill but most of us have mills and in my mind a mill is a far more versatile machine than a shaper that can only cut in a straight line.

BT

This explains the forward /backward thing ..... different ... I hope it is readable

Originally Posted by Steamwhisperer

You will get more power and less speed on the cutting stroke and you will get more speed but less power on return stroke.

"Torque"? the power is the same.
But there is the same power for longer on the slow stroke.

Damn Mike thats just what I was about to post.

Originally Posted by Anorak Bob

I've often toyed with the idea of chucking it overboard

I'm going pretend I didnt hear that.
Although in fairness I do use my shaper as a scraper table more than a shaper.

Stuart

Originally Posted by morrisman

OK Phil............ BTW is this book on the stick ? I downloaded it from somewhere .. its a easy to read explanation of shaper basics ..MIKE

HI Mike,
I couldn't find it on the stick.
Perhaps you could drop it on when it comes your way.

Phil

Originally Posted by Anorak Bob

How often do you blokes use your shapers?

It's been a year since mine did any work and I've often toyed with the idea of chucking it overboard. I imagine Bryan's TOS sees some action because he doesn't have a mill but most of us have mills and in my mind a mill is a far more versatile machine than a shaper that can only cut in a straight line.

BT

Hi Bob,
I'm going to pretend I didn't hear any of that
eeeverybody knows gears cut on a shaper mesh better than gears cut on a mill with a form cutter
And of course a shaper can do anything a mill can do only the tooling is heaps cheaper (well for me it is)
It's way easier to do concave and convex surfaces on a shaper.
I could go on but I will probably get slapped

Phil

Originally Posted by Anorak Bob

How often do you blokes use your shapers?

It's been a year since mine did any work and I've often toyed with the idea of chucking it overboard. I imagine Bryan's TOS sees some action because he doesn't have a mill but most of us have mills and in my mind a mill is a far more versatile machine than a shaper that can only cut in a straight line.

BT

I use mine a lot. Every time I just need to take a mm or less off some metal that I would have done with an angle grinder in the past - then cursed doing it and spent twice as long again filing the darn thing flat. Alternatively, I might need to notch something or cut a camfer off an edge, I might have done that with a hacksaw or the bandsaw - and not got it quite even or straight or parallel, I now use the shaper: Clamp the part in the vice, let her rip, down or across or at any angle. Takes little time to set up and off it goes, making a nice surface with little exertion on my part. No dust flying in your eyes, nothing getting very hot, nothing crooked, nice straight machining marks. Wouldn't be without it now.... Milling machine is nice, but takes forever to set up. It will always be the machine of choice for repetitive tasks, anything involving rotational machining (e.g. on a rotary table) or fast machining, of course.

Originally Posted by Steamwhisperer

HI Mike,
I couldn't find it on the stick.
Perhaps you could drop it on when it comes your way.

Phil

link for you Phil

Index of /Shaper Books/Shaper Work

I think it was Mr Whitworth (as in whitworth bolts) that came up with the shaper's action. It uses 230 degrees of the main gears rotation on the forward stroke and 130 on the back stroke. As so many shapers have new motors or are re-wired it is easy to get it going the wrong way.
With a single phase motor you just need to wire up the starting circuit differently, with 3 phase all you need to do is swap any 2 phases to reverse the motor, its easy to do. When i re-wired my motor i had it in reverse to start with.

Not only is the finish better IMO but you can cut keyways, gears with true involute curves for the number of teeth, square holes, and they are so good to watch.....

Originally Posted by Steamwhisperer

HI Mike,
I couldn't find it on the stick.
Perhaps you could drop it on when it comes your way.

Phil

I put that book on the stick Phil, it was what i used before i got the stick.

BTW i posted the above before reading the entire 2nd page, sorry if i repeated anything.

OK Boys,

My tune might change if I had a larger shaper. I find the Douglas frustratingly too small. The jobs that would be perfect for the shaper, such as machining the abused face of my Waldown base casting, won't happen because I'm an inch short of travel. (In defence of the Douglas, it performed an nice job on the smaller Tough base.) A larger shaper would possibly address the one shortcoming of my mill... something to ponder.

BT