A Hand Shaper's Table Refurbishment
About a decade ago I picked up what I thought was an unusual tee slotted angle plate from a place called Bill's Machinery in Wangara. Then a year ago or thereabouts RodM very genereously gave me a small hand shaper to accompany the little Super Adept lathe I had. The shaper is similar to an Adept No.1 but is devoid of any manufacturer's markings. The angle plate wasn't an angle plate but a shaper table exactly the same as Rod's.
Prior to its identification, I had used the table as an angle plate once to hold some awkward thing on my drill press then it remained forgotten for years. Then BobL acquired his little Hercus milling machine providing me with the opportunity to clear out some surplus gear, the table included. The table needed one modification to render it useful on the mill, the elongation of its mounting holes to suit the 2 1/2" centred tee slots in the mill's table. A modification that would latter prove extremely worthwhile on Rod's table also.
Both tables were pitted so starting with Rod's table I cleaned them up on the Douglas then fly cut the bases using a cheap Ausee fly cutter - Fly Cutter 19mm Dia. with 10mm Shank
While each table was mounted on the mill I lengthened the original mounting holes. On Bob's the slot was left at 12mm wide but I increased the slot width to 1/2" on Rod's to enable the table to be fixed to the Douglas's table with the 1/2" vice fixings. A fortuitous move because this allowed the cleaning up of the rough sand cast table sides.
On Rod's table I thought that it would be prudent to face the upper surface of the elongated slot, prudent because the stumpy 13's 2 horsepower will exploit any clamping inadequacies and the existing rough casting would not assure even clamping. Bob's table had been "modified" with the inclusion of additional mounting holes by a previous owner and Bob was going to fill the holes prior to any further modification.
My first attempt at facing was less than satisfactory. With the mill's table bottomed out I had only a couple of millimetres of clearance between the ER40 chuck and the shaper table, insufficient to cut through the hard skin of the casting. The HSS did not fare well in the encounter. With the tool sharpened and the chuck with its makeshift extension mounted in the horizontal spindle, a far improved result was achieved.
The table can now be used as a shaper table but also as a versatile angle plate. With the little Hercus rotary table affixed it will make a pretty good substitute for the Schaublin 102 faceplate I need and will probably never have for 13's dividing head.
Thank you Rod.
BT
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