Help Me Get Shapering!

Well, I got the ram off. Took awhile to figure out the procedure.

I also ordered up some press in zerk fittings. Got 25 1/4" fittings for like $7 from ebay. If this works out I may swap the cups for zerks on my lathe.

The more I look at the filthy, sticky innards of this machine the more I want to take it down completely. I haven't found much in the way of instructions for this so I may just dive in blind and start removing parts. How wrong can it go?

I'll start a new thread here in a minute to document the process. I took 40 pics in the ram removal process.

Oh, are the ways supposed to be scraped on the ram? They are not scraped on my machine... Is that necessary, or just an upgrade?
 
Weldo said:
Do you know if there are different types of zerks? Like a kind for oil and a kind for grease? Or maybe the auto part store fittings were a low quality?
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I'm not sure. It's entirely possible that the auto store units are not great, but they do work. The ones that came on the mill are shaped a bit differently, a larger flat area on the end. I suspect that's the biggest difference. I was planning to just get the OEM parts.
 
Ordered up some lubrication accessories!

Gonna try this oil out, ISO 32. The manual recommends "No. 10 motor oil" which I assume is SAE 10. From my research, ISO 32 is the same as SAE 10. I figured I'll try this renewable non toxic kind of oil. It'll likely end up all over my hands when using the machine so the non toxic-ness is a bonus.

Oil

And this push style oiler. You can get this thing with up to 3700 psi application but the one I got is only 20 psi. The higher pressure ones take over 30 pumps to dispense 1 ounce of oil! With such lightweight oil I don't think the high pressure is needed. Most of the oiling on the shaper is pretty open anyway, no real need for high pressure.

Oiler

I'll try it out and see if it's gonna work. If I need a higher pressure oiler they're not too pricey.
 
Weldo, I am not sure if anyone has responded yet but the threaded hole in the back of the base is for a conduit fitting. The original fitting was threaded into the base. The fitting was hollow because the flexible steel conduit (spiral wound) went through it and ran up the side of the main casting to the on/off switch and the other side was connected to the motor. The conduit fitting also clamps the flexible conduit so it can't be pulled out. The flexible conduit was also secured to the inside of the casting by 2 or 3 clamps which held it firmly in place because it literally ran right behind the bull gear. The tolerances by the switch are tight! These clamps were held in place by flat head screws.

The below pic shows the clamp. I will try and get a pic of the conduit and clamps by themselves but at the moment these are the best pics I have already taken. Oh and ignore the shoddy wiring job done by the previous owner!
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In the below photo I have circled where the clamps for the conduit are secured. Its not the best photo but you get the point. The top red circle shows the screw on the casting just behind the makeshift switch housing which I will be replacing, I just need to find a switch that fits in the rectangular hole.

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Weldo said:
Finally there's this hole at the rear of the machine. Should it be plugged? It has threads.

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That little shaper is so cute! I like it. the big ones just wouldn't be worth the room but one like that would be fun! I can't wait to see photos of yours working. Thanks for sharing.
 
They’re not just cute Rick, they are useful. There are quite a few fans of shapers who see the small ones as useless but I have almost exclusively the larger end of bench machines and my 7b does work that my drill/mill doesn‘t do as well. Like as close to a ground finish as you can get. I can’t cut inside key ways with my mill, which I can with the 7b. I can also cut dovetails without buying special cutters.

I don’t have any CNC so the 7b is the only machine I can set up and let go while it do something else. It’s super cheap to run. It’s just not fast, but neither am i. It also doesn’t take up hardly any room and runs on 110v.
 
After much time and effort my little 7B is back together and ready to shape! I'd like to resurrect this thread to ask questions about the use of the thing. Even though I'm now intimately familiar with its inner workings, I still have to learn how to use it!

Firstly, I did a dry run with the table cross feed. There was no cutting, just table feeding across with the ram moving. After a few seconds I notice a weird noise and discover that the feed gear T nut has loosened.

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I didn't wanna crank it down super tight, but I guess you have to? Does this bolt have to be super, gorilla tight?

Also what's the consensus on tool head adjustment? The tool head on the shaper is pretty much a compound like on a lathe and usually we like to have the compound fully engaged on its dovetail for general turning. This is most rigid. Does the same apply to the shaper or is the loading different and it doesn't really matter?

The pic below is just me getting an idea of where things should be and where they'll end up during a cut. It's not a final setup, but you can see the slide is not fully on its dovetail. Is that something to be concerned about?

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@9t8z28 hey man, it's bit late but thanks for sharing those pics! Now I know what that hole is for!

I didn't get it at first because all the wiring on my machine is external. There are no wires on the inside at all. Some one ran the flexible conduit from the motor to a switch mounted to the table that the shaper sits on. In my case the hole is unused.

Mine had this plate covering the switch location.

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