We may be heading for an open source shaper design!
Now you've got my attention!
Tim
We may be heading for an open source shaper design!
Funny I too was also thinking about using linear rails for a shaper too. Brings me to a question, " If today a machine designer today was designing a metal shaper what would he do?" That's why I have been studying the "Cincinnati all metal shaper" patents, which was at it time probably the most advanced design of a metal shaper. I really like the screw ram, seems better than the crank/gear/linkage, maybe simpler with todays motion control systems.
Now you've got my attention!
Tim
I'll have to look those up! Screw ram sounds rather interesting, for sure. I'm intrigued! The genius feature of how the crank arm is arranged gives the double speed return stroke and max force going forward. I love that kind of elegant simplicity in a design.
Only reservation I have about linear rails would be robustness. Cast iron ways have such an enormous bearing surface compared to any ball bearing based rail system. Only one way to find out for sure if they're up to it, though
If I were to sell plans, how many would I sell? A dozen over as many years? Pfff. I'd rather have the fun of collaborating with you guys and end up with a better design because of it. Hopefully we'll all be able to enjoy seeing a few others have a go at making one too, probably moving the design forward in the process. It's far more satisfying than the potential financial reward IMHO.
As I said further back in the thread, I've been down this road before with the KSP game expansion (wheel, caterpillar tracks, anti grav silliness) I wrote, and got the fun of seeing tens of thousands of people download and enjoy my work. Some joined in and helped me too - about a dozen people around the world. Something I'm still really proud of.
Sounds like a fantastic source of inspiration, I'll go take a look. Triangular ram has really got me thinking.... The joy of cad is that I can get a good grip on how the mechanics work with whatever I design. Always stuff that crops up when cutting metal, but gets 90% of it ironed out.