Absolutely MARVELOUS photos of shaper restoration!!

Ed Huntress fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

It seems like _everyone_ this week taken to twisting words of a post to their own meaning so they can make their non-sequitor answers fit the problem? Not just misunderstanding a post, no; actually changing the terms to fit their arguments! Where the heck do you read the word "planing" in _anything_ I wrote? I never even IMPLIED 'planing'. The closest to that was the word 'cutter'.

It was cutting profiled grooves in large slabs of bronze, when I saw it.

I have no idea what the parts were -- if they were bushings, it seems like they'd have been better made on a lathe, even if they were clamshell style bearings. I also cannot understand the advantage of cutting the bottom-side surface, where it's impossible to check the profile, except at the very end of the slab.

It really looked like a dumb idea, but it was sitting there stroking along piling chips on the floor, so they obviously had some practical use for it.

I am only reporting it. And all I know about it is that it was ACTING as a shaper when I saw it running. Maybe it planed, too, but it could have only planed the surface to a width of the space between the bed memebers... which iirc was about 18"-24".

LLoyd

"PrecisionmachinisT" fired this volley in news:CYGdnb8eIcfaXwzMnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@scnresearch.com:

Yup... I have a one set of indexable-insert boring bars that have been converted with custom-ground inserts into lathe keyway cutters.

LLoyd

Sure does. Now a shaper costs..what...$250-800?

How much did that Colchester and CNC package cost?

I was replying to the following classification of a shaper...

"Since press brake dies usually require some sort of grooved profile, and since the basic difference between 'planer' and 'shaper' is the shape of the blade and work -- shapers being relegated to grooves and edging, mostly... "

As I said, the difference is in whether the tool, or the work, moves. Not in tool shape or whether the edges are being machined.

I suspect that one advantage of that setup is the clearing of chips by pure gravity instead of either re-cutting the same chips, or needing air or flood coolant to blow them away.

Depends on how difficult it is to get the chips out from under the machine. Perhaps there is a conveyer to do it automatically?

Enjoy, DoN.

But you can also take any suitable piece of shafting you've got laying around, drill and tap the end for a setscrew, and then cross drill it to accept a round bit that you've made out of something like an old center drill.

--lay your 4th axis onto it's side and you can cut splines, internal (and external) ratchets and spurs; square, hex, and octagonal socket recesses, etc...