How to True up the table/box?

Be sure to leave some clearance on the tight spots or you will get scored ways. You need a gap of .0005" per side for oil. If you would like to take long weekend off in April we are having a scraping Seminar in Vacaville CA. If a machine is worn...your SOL unless you can scrape it back to new spec's.
 
Have a utility shaper that looks a lot like yours. Table was out about one and a half thousands low on the front of the table. The table and column were fine. The wear was in the ram and it's ways.
 
Hey guys, I bought the shaper this spring that Madmodifier posted about from him. I have not had time to sort out the .005 difference but am getting close to having some more free time to explore it. I did remove the ram and did some quick measurements from the surface the top gibs or plates mount and the measurements were all consistent, I tried to measure the ram and it appears to vary but i will need to address that again being I didn't have a decent micrometer to fit where I thought there were unworn surfaces. I have used it to repair a cheap cast vise for a co worker and also played a bit surfacing some scrap that was laying around. needless to say it may be slow but leaves a surface finish that is remarkable. Every time i have run it it leaves a smile on my face so i think a shaper will reside in my little shop for as long as I am around.
 
You're discovered the hypnotic calling of an Awesomely wonderful mechanical Beast that is The "Shaper"! Something about the rhythmic motion that just draws you in and holds your attention....in some ways its kinda like sitting around a campfire!
 
Just to follow up, I put the vise back on the Ammco shaper table today with a 0.002" shim under the outside end of the vise base. Indicator (0.001" plunger ala Shars) showed no (vertical) movement on a thick parallel held in the vise.

Some day I'll take the table off and monkey around with the bottom gibs to try to take that 0.002 out, but this is more than serviceable.
 
One of my students and he helps with the VT classes lives in NH. His name is Warren Jones and if you need some help scraping it, he can I bet. He does coach hockey though so he is probably busy now....PM me if you want his email.
 
Thanks for the offer. I'm not going to consider scraping until I actually take the table off and examine it and the ways. That right there is an investment of time that is months away.
 
ThinWoodsman said:
Thanks for the offer. I'm not going to consider scraping until I actually take the table off and examine it and the ways. That right there is an investment of time that is months away.
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+1. I'm more in the camp of useful not perfect. I've come to view my old shaper like how I felt about my dad's old Toyota Landcruiser. It had so many parts when driving down the road it just felt like a bunch of separate parts moving in a parallel trajectory instead all one unit like VW's did. The same with that shaper. It has so many parts all interacting. And I've managed to get my surfaces flat and perpendicular within .001, some within .0005 after much experimenting, inspecting and fixing. Then another run and checking.

Every time I've taken something apart I've learned something. When I took the table off the gibs were caked in ancient grease and other mitigating factors. I also suspect the base of my shaper to be slightly bent because the stand it is bolted to doesn't support to the end and when I got it the motor pulley cover was gone and the cast iron boss where it was mounted was broken. That indicates to me it fell over. There a slight ding in the end of that base plate too. And when I put the guide foot down my readings when I check the finished part on the surface plate go all screwy. So until I decide to find what the deal is with that I don't use the guide foot. For me it's all about the finished product and repeatability. Something I learned here on HM in thread about using old worn surface grinders.
 
I definitely would not cut the box itself. If push comes to shove and you’re convinced that it’s out 0.001 then just attach a sacrificial 1/4” aluminum plate to the top of the box and cut that. That way you can alway fix properly at a later date by scraping the ram... if you find out that the ram is the true culprit.
I can’t quite remember exactly what I ran into on my Rhodes shaper, but there were a few screws that bolted to the box that were loose. I tightened these and it seemed to help my issues. But I forget exactly what was exactly going on. These were located above the lower gib and could only be seen when looking at the front of the box from underneath where the vise is bolted to the box. These looked like 1/4” pilaster slotted screws.
I’ll try to post a pic later, even though I doubt any of this applies to your issues of high on the far side.
 
Once I am sure of all the operating interactions and everything is truly as it should be it might be that one final step to skim the table like how they do on magnetic chucks on surface grinders. What I find interesting is I don't think I've ever seen the damage to the table of a shaper like I see on almost all mill tables. Even though there were quite a few problems with my shaper so far it wasn't wear, it was operator abuse. As I find and fix them things improve.
 
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