Building a Shaper experiences-

Haha, I got a feeling you're going to be ahead of me for quite a while. I still don't have the welder nor any of the steel, and want to finish my engine project first (which probably has another 2-3 weeks left). Hopefully I can use your build thread as a guide!
 
Hehe. I've got plenty I need to finish! I'm almost done rebuilding a land rover bulkhead, then moving onto the chassis. Much welding. And around that I'm making a tool and cutter grinder out of an old broken vice, a lathe vertical slide, a band saw motor and some graphite for air bearings on the rotary tool holder. I've got my hands full too, but I'll get going soon :) This is going to be fun!
 
Lo-Fi said:
Hehe. I've got plenty I need to finish! I'm almost done rebuilding a land rover bulkhead, then moving onto the chassis. Much welding. And around that I'm making a tool and cutter grinder out of an old broken vice, a lathe vertical slide, a band saw motor and some graphite for air bearings on the rotary tool holder. I've got my hands full too, but I'll get going soon :) This is going to be fun!
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Those sound like some fun projects! My buddy told me today he can have his Miller stick welder live at my shop for a while (he doesn't use it much in the burbs!), So I might just have to do this thing :) I'm spending the afternoon moving my gun safes out of my shop and into the garage (plus cleaning up some stuff) so I'll have room to both work on the project and to put it when I'm done!

I think I have to tinker with my bandsaw as well to get it to start cutting straight.
 
Perfect! Alright, let's do this!

If you want some pointers for brushing up on stick welding, look up weld.com and Welding Tips And Tricks on YouTube.
Just to get some hood time in, I'll join you and stick weld too. Been a while, but I was taught arc welding by an old boy who used to volunteer at the railway in his retirement. He'd worked on oil rigs, under sea pipelines, nuclear power stations and all sorts. Absolute legend and so happy to pass on his knowledge. Was a formidable team with the retired platemaker that used to turn up - I learned so much from those two.
 
ErichKeane said:
2- The plans suggest using stick welds because they are often machined afterwards. Apparently MIG can create problems machining the welds after the fact?
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I am not sure where this bit of "lore" comes from but I've machined many mig and stick welds with absolutely no problems.
 
savarin said:
I am not sure where this bit of "lore" comes from but I've machined many mig and stick welds with absolutely no problems.
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The cost difference is the bigger difference maker for me. A free-to-use stick vs $1000 to setup mig makes a huge difference :)
 
ErichKeane said:
I REALLY don't think I want to do any casting. I've heard mention of people making the Gingery without castings, but I presume that uses welding anyway. That said, the design leaves a bit to be desired I think, having to open the side of the machine to adjust things, and the exposed clockworks. That, and the more I see them, the more "home-made" they look, which is disappointing.
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That actually doesn't seem to be uncommon on commercial shapers, at least the small ones. I've watched a bunch of videos on different shapers and was surprised that several require getting into the machine's inner workings to adjust the stroke.
 
Looks to be a really well thought out design, but I don't much like the drawing style. So many drawings because they've split components - and sometimes even views of components -into separate files, so it's nowhere near as scary as it seems!

Lots of this could be high-def plasma or laser cut and would save a huge amount of time. We're doing lots of that on the loco. It often doesn't make sense to spend hours messing around making a bracket or flange when it's ~£8 or something to get one laser cut and delivered. You pay less for material too, as it's bought in in bulk by the cutting place and you just pay for what you use. Might be worth looking into for this, it'll take a lot of grunt work out. If we weren't opposite side of the pond it would make a lot of sense to get it ordered as one batch from somewhere.

External stroke adjustment would be great, but that's a whole lot of crazy mechanism, bevel gears and complication. I love that it incorporates auto side and down-feed, though. They're lovely features to have on a small machine.

EDIT: Some of these drawings are dreadful. Proper general arrangement drawings and a few isometrics where appropriate would have made the world of difference, as would sticking to the tried and tested standard for how to lay out engineering drawings. Why the parts and views are marked up with letters rather than part numbers and the correct name on the drawing is beyond me. I know it's in the wall of text, but that's not the way to do it for quick reference. The design looks very sound, but there's going to be some discussion needed to demystify the drawings here and there! I'll ask if they'll give us permission to post snippets of the drawings here to discuss...
 
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Lo-Fi said:
Looks to be a really well thought out design, but I don't much like the drawing style. So many drawings because they've split components - and sometimes even views of components -into separate files, so it's nowhere near as scary as it seems!
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The drawings themselves are pretty awkward which makes it that much harder for me to read :)

Lo-Fi said:
Lots of this could be high-def plasma or laser cut and would save a huge amount of time. We're doing lots of that on the loco. It often doesn't make sense to spend hours messing around making a bracket or flange when it's ~£8 or something to get one laser cut and delivered. You pay less for material too, as it's bought in in bulk by the cutting place and you just pay for what you use. Might be worth looking into for this, it'll take a lot of grunt work out. If we weren't opposite side of the pond it would make a lot of sense to get it ordered as one batch from somewhere.
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That is a nice thought! I'm not sure at all how to go about that though :) I might make you take the lead and figure out who/what I can do on this side of the pond :)

External stroke adjustment would be great, but that's a whole lot of crazy mechanism, bevel gears and complication. I love that it incorporates auto side and down-feed, though. They're lovely features to have on a small machine.

Lo-Fi said:
EDIT: Some of these drawings are dreadful. Proper general arrangement drawings and a few isometrics where appropriate would have made the world of difference, as would sticking to the tried and tested standard for how to lay out engineering drawings. Why the parts and views are marked up with letters rather than part numbers and the correct name on the drawing is beyond me. I know it's in the wall of text, but that's not the way to do it for quick reference. The design looks very sound, but there's going to be some discussion needed to demystify the drawings here and there! I'll ask if they'll give us permission to post snippets of the drawings here to discuss...
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Right?! I spent a few days examining just the 'stand' part and was unable to figure out a few things for a long time. I don't know why he insists labeling his 'views' with letters instead of Letters, it is incredibly distracting. I do very much like the design, but the drawings leave A LOT to be desired.
 
Also,another complication I have: Getting metric metals is actually surprisingly much more expensive! I'll ALSO likely have to be adjusting plans to account for being "close". For example, the stand uses 40x40x3mm square tube,but I'll likely have to do 1.5"x1.5"x 1/8" (roughly 38.1x38.1x3.175mm).

For the most part it shouldn't matter, but I have that heavy lifting to deal with :)

As far as the collaboration, we could possibly do so in private if you'd wish. Feel free to email me, my firstname.lastname@verizon.net << obviously fill those in :)
 
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