and the answer is ... yes and no .
one of the biggest reasons i wanted a shaper was to cut dovetails without having to buy rather expensive cutters .
so today i decided to see just how hard it was . turns out that it is a rather simple thing to do .
all it took was rotating the ram around to 60 degrees , setting up an indicator and grinding a tool .
setting the machine up and doing the actual cutting was simple enough that just about anyone with some patience and an iq of at least 70 could do it .
grinding the tool on the other hand requires a bit more thought and finesse . on my first tool grind i seem to have given no thought to tool clearance . thinking that i wanted a 60 degree dovetail so i should grind a 60 degree tool .
wrong ! ... on the first pass with the tool i quickly learned my error . having a 60 degree tool in a 60 degree dovetail means that the entire edge of the tool is in contact with the work . and to further complicate things once you hit the inside corner you now have both sides of the tool trying to broad nose across the work .
not good !
so back to the grinder i went and ground the tool to roughly 55 degrees and gave it a bit more rake maybe 10-12 degree's and started cutting again .
eureka .. semi success . i haven't decided yet what i need to tweek on my tool because i did get a bit of chatter but im sure i'll figure it out soon enough .
with grinding the tools and setting up the machine this took about 45 minutes to do .
considering that i am using the drill press vice that came on the machine i decided to not worry bout being precise and just cut a basic dovetail to prove to myself it really is that easy .
one of the biggest reasons i wanted a shaper was to cut dovetails without having to buy rather expensive cutters .
so today i decided to see just how hard it was . turns out that it is a rather simple thing to do .
all it took was rotating the ram around to 60 degrees , setting up an indicator and grinding a tool .
setting the machine up and doing the actual cutting was simple enough that just about anyone with some patience and an iq of at least 70 could do it .
grinding the tool on the other hand requires a bit more thought and finesse . on my first tool grind i seem to have given no thought to tool clearance . thinking that i wanted a 60 degree dovetail so i should grind a 60 degree tool .
wrong ! ... on the first pass with the tool i quickly learned my error . having a 60 degree tool in a 60 degree dovetail means that the entire edge of the tool is in contact with the work . and to further complicate things once you hit the inside corner you now have both sides of the tool trying to broad nose across the work .
not good !
so back to the grinder i went and ground the tool to roughly 55 degrees and gave it a bit more rake maybe 10-12 degree's and started cutting again .
eureka .. semi success . i haven't decided yet what i need to tweek on my tool because i did get a bit of chatter but im sure i'll figure it out soon enough .
with grinding the tools and setting up the machine this took about 45 minutes to do .
considering that i am using the drill press vice that came on the machine i decided to not worry bout being precise and just cut a basic dovetail to prove to myself it really is that easy .