Surface grinding on a shaper?

I recently bought a book on tool room grinding published by the Carborundum Company. It's quite old but makes interesting reading. One picture is of a shaper with a grinding attachment being used as a surface grinder. Now that started me thinking. I've got a shaper that's rarely used and I want a surface grinder. Obvoiusly I will need a tool post grinder and a magnetic table. Both can be had relatively cheaply. Also, using the shaper in a dual role will save valuable workshop space. A suitable toolpost grinder could also be used in the lathe making it even more useful.

Does anyone have any experience of using a shaper for this sort of work?

Any thoughts?

John

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John
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Like most grinding attachments to it's a good way of spraying abrasive over , which is never good.

That said, as long as your shaper has enough traversable area for the grinding you need - why not?

BugBear

Reply to
bugbear

Im sure someone (maybe nick or mark rand) attached an angle grinder to one. :)

Dave

Reply to
dave sanderson

Father, I Can Not Tell a Lie, I cut the welds down..

I patched up the various dings, holes and crash sites on the table of the drill press that I got from JS. I used MIG for the job and intended to cut the whole thing back to flat with brazed carbide cutters in the shaper. Didn't work at all. So I drilled a bit of 5/8 square bar to bolt onto the 4 1/2" angle grinder in place of the side handle. Said bar got clamped in the tool holder of the shaper.

It did a very good job of restoring the drill press table but... As people have intimated. It gets grit everywhere and will _without doubt_ destroy the shaper. The only way to avoid destruction would be to fit bellows over the ram and the cross rail and to completely seal the body. I did it once, but would not do it again.

Because of their mode of operation, shapers are even more vulnerable to damage with a toolpost grinder than lathes are. I wouldn't stop anyone from doing it, but I would suggest it as an option last resort only.

Having said that, I do now have a surface grinder, and it's a very useful tool. You don't realise how useful they can be until you get one.

Mark Rand RTFM

Reply to
Mark Rand

Thanks for the replies, they've given me food for thought. As I say, I would like a surface grinder but space is an issue. There's also some things I don't understand about them but that's probably best in another thread.

John

Reply to
John

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