Help Me Get Shapering!

[benmychree]

The tool that I use for roughing on the shaper has a large radius on the cutting face, culminating in a small radius at the point, then continuing back to a large radius on the backside, then having a generous side rake on top. This is the sort of tool that F.W. Taylor determined to be the most efficient tool for removing metal, whether for lathe, shaper, planer or whatever. He published a summary of his work in 1897 or 1898, titled "on the art of cutting metals", it has diagrams of the tool shapes, this after 26 years of experimentation under the patronage of William Sellers.

 

[Weldo]

The tool that you show would be appropriate for brass, for ferrous metals, it should have both side and back rake. Shaper tools need little clearance on the front or side, but need rake on top to cut freely.

Hmm. You think I could just grind some top rake on the tool I have?

Got any pictures of the tool you described?

 

[Weldo]

I made some cuts this morning!

I ended up just using the tool I picted above but I did grind some top rake into it. In my research, it seemed that a round nose tool with some top rake is a decent general purpose cutter. My profile was like a mini version of that.

I had a few issues. It was for me that 0.007" depth of cut was the max I could do. I was able to cut 0.010" DOC for a few strokes but halfway across my workpiece the ram stalled out. I noticed the motor was spinning and the countershaft was spinning but the belt was slipping on the countershaft step pulley. So nothing catastrophic happened. I'm using a link belt until I get a proper V-belt and I think maybe it stretched a little since it's been running.

Also, as you'll see in the video below (at about 20 seconds in) the guard keeps popping open on me while the machine is cutting. I think I need to get the tab on the guard to go a little deeper into the spring latch on the column. Maybe I can just grind the tab shorter.

Below are a few pics of my workpiece and a short vid. The camera struggled for focus on the repetitive moving of the ram though.

The finish is very rough for sure. The tool I used was probably not ideal but I had come to a point where I just wanted to try the thing out. I could read for weeks on proper tool edge geometry but I figure I may as well dive in and learn as I go. No one's gonna be an expert their first time, right?

Here's a short fuzzy video!

 

[frugalguido]

@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.

View attachment 349180

View attachment 349179

That plate is for the optional motor saver, which was mostly sold to schools, if the shaper jammed for any reason (kids messing up) it would save the motor. When using the motor wiring was run on the outside of the shaper body as yours is not on the inside. Here is a picture of my restored shaper with that switch.

 

[Weldo]

Cool, thanks! Beautiful machine by the way! Were the belt guards optional as well? I've noticed not all 7Bs have them.

 

[Weldo]

I got around to making another cut with some changes.

The cuts below came out much smoother than the previous ones. I noticed that there was a small amount of chipping on my previous cutter from when I stalled the ram that likely led to my very rough finish.

For the cut pictured below I used a rounded tip cutter with some top rake. Not sure how much exactly. The DOC was 0.005" and I reduced the step over from 3 clicks on the previous cut to 1 click. I also used some cutting oil and flipped the tool holder around as described by @benmychree above. Finally I removed 1 link from the link belt to tighten it up and set the ram speed to the 2nd slowest speed. The previous cut was at the slowest speed.

Here's the cutter.

And the cut.

This cut is very smooth, almost feels sanded.

 

[frugalguido]

Cool, thanks! Beautiful machine by the way! Were the belt guards optional as well? I've noticed not all 7Bs have them.

Thanks it was labor of love. Yes, the guards where optional. I only have the small guard, I hoping that one day I can find the large one for a reasonable amount. I don't want the newly made plastic one. I don't really miss it, since you have to constantly open and close it to change speeds, but it would be nice to complete the machine.

The Motor saver and bracket are really rare, hardly any of the 7's had them.

Be sure to over oil the machine, that is the one weakness of the 7's poor oiling.

 

[Weldo]

Hey, I'd appreciate if you guys would take a quick look at this video.

I'm hearing a somewhat pronounced "Kuh-Chunk" every time the ram changes directions. Is that normal or should I be looking for some loose or sloppy fitting parts?

 

[frugalguido]

Slop in the yoke/sliding block, common problem and/or a broken pinion in the sliding block also seen many with this problem. Wear, amplified because of poor oiling. This is where the South Bend shaper, later models, they are superior that they had a built in oil pump.

 

[Weldo]

I found the following quotes from my rebuild thread. I'm glad I documented everything.

Yes, the position of the block in the crank arm that sets the ram stroke length. No, on the limit, I measured the room left between the stock block and the arm with it assembled at the max stroke length , then added this amount to each end of the block. I hope you are going to make a new block? Yours looks pretty bad, have you measured your slot width for wear and grooves? Mine was worn in the center of the slot, probably from being used at a small stroke length most of its time. The block must be fitted with a very small clearance to the slot or you get a clunk when the ram changes position. This area of the shaper is a high load situation , which is why the pivot pin was broken and the sliding block wear takes place.

I just spent some time with my parts and a feeler gauge. Looks like I have about 0.005-0.006" on one end, about 0.007" on the other end and 0.011" in the middle.

Any idea what's the target? Some gap is required for a film of oil I'd imagine.

Sounds like it's exactly as you said, @frugalguido, I need to make a new sliding block. I may have a few question regarding this if, you don't mind.