[Shaper] Little problem with shaper table

[ScrapMetal]

Needle scalers are great they leave almost the same finish as sand blasting but without any grit, the paint just flakes off after it is hammered into submission, but don't use it on anything thin, that is less than maybe a half inch as it will be distorted, as they can peen the outer surface inducing a compressive force into the top surface, it won't hurt anything on a shapers column, but keep it away from thin cast belt guards and the like.
Best Regards
Rick

Hmmm, can't think of anything on the QC that would qualify as "thin" so I should be safe there. :biggrin: What about very nice smooth or machined flat surfaces that have been painted? Would the peening give those a textured look?

By the way, I can start moving forward again (or backwards depending how you look at it) as I picked up a 2-ton shop crane yesterday. I was waiting for HF to get one in but while searching on the 'net I saw that Advanced Auto Parts carried the exact same crane and a nearby store had one in stock. I ended up paying about forty bucks more than I would have spent at HF but I saved $15 in gas money (Advanced was a half mile from my office) and I got it in my hot little hands "right now" as opposed to "we don't know when we'll be getting more in". I managed to slap the crane together today and will be ready to start using it tomorrow as long a "work" or something equally silly keeps me out of my shop. I'll have to re-arrange a couple of things first (LeBlond grinder ) so I have room to set down/work on the horizontal slide.

-Ron

 

[ScrapMetal]

Thanks Rick. It's usually best to know what a tool will do before trying to use it. "A man's got to know his limitations..." - H. Callahan

-Ron

 

[GK1918]

Rather than another dumb question, its more like my need to know. My opinion to repare or produce
a new assembly is no big deal, but i follow this thread as (how your making out) I study your photos
and compair to my drill press yesterday. I took rough measurements and I maybe a little larger. Its
got nearly 3ft travel. Also the table on this press, I cant lift it either. Yes I know how it works. I worked
it up and down (this table has ways like a shaper with locks) After playing with this, my need to know
is, how in hell did yours get in that condition? Judging by mine, that cant be done by a human unless
somebody had a 20 foot crow bar on it. Now food for thought, picture my table (that I cant lift) with
say a Detroit Diesel head on it (for valve work) and this screw, jack, whatever you call it has no
problem & thats two guys to put the head on it. ????? sam always curious

 

[lnr729]

As you can see, it appears that the outer tube was also pinned to something on the other end. I have no idea what though. The nut/base can be wiggled around but cannot be turned as it has a flat side against the body of the shaper. It feels like it is attached to something farther down in the base.

I'm having a bit of trouble putting together a mental picture of how the lift/screws functioned together. I'm guessing the "key" to it is whatever the outer tube was attached to in the base.

-Ron

I suspect that there should be a stopper at the bottom to prevent the hollow screw from unscrewing from the nut. The nut must lift up somehow so that the stopper can be assembled onto the screw.

 

[rgray]

My steptoe shaper has the same sort of jack screw. No threaded sleeve though. they internal and external threaded the large section so no seperate threaded sleeve to have to pin to the outer threaded portion. Your vertical gibs were stuck and the jackscrews have enough force to easily tear themselves up if the gibs are stuck.

It would take some force and anyone familiar with the machine would not force the crank handle in that way.

On my steptoe the nut in the base is brass and has a hole that a bolt engages to hold it in place. It was pulled up and out of place when I got it and by the marks on it had been installed and pulled out of place 5 times.

The only way to pull it up out of place is to lock the vertical gibs and crank the lowering handle down....there is enough gear reduction that it will just pull the brass nut right up out of the base. I'm sure the damage would be worse if it had not been built with a brass lower nut.

Been using it for years since there is very little stress on those parts when used correctly.

 

[ScrapMetal]

I suspect that there should be a stopper at the bottom to prevent the hollow screw from unscrewing from the nut. The nut must lift up somehow so that the stopper can be assembled onto the screw.

I also have my suspicions that it also acted as some kind of "foot" to prevent the "screw" from grinding a hole into the concrete beneath it when it is lowered all the way. If that's the case there will have to be some creative reverse engineering. I'll have a better idea once I get the new cylinder made for it and see just exactly how it travels under load and where everything ends up. I should be getting back to this project soon as the doctor just gave me the "all clear" yesterday (I had to have some spinal surgery back in October to "fix" a disc that I blew out.), once I get caught up with the backlog that is.

-Ron

 

[rgray]

I think it was broken at the top and turned upside down and broken again.
There is not enough travel to reach the floor if it is built like the steptoe.
When all is working right the small thread has less turning resistance so it always extends or retracts first. When it reaches the end of its travel the large thread turns...in that way it can never extend up out of its nut because the table runs out of upward travel before the large thread is extended that far.
When going back down the small thread turns into the large untill it bottoms and then turnes the large thread in.

So a shaper table at mid point can have a thread column with the large thread up and small thread down(if table was decended from top) or large thread down and small thread fully extended(if raised from bottom)..hope that makes sense it realy is simpler than it appears.

 

[ScrapMetal]

I think it was broken at the top and turned upside down and broken again.

Yep, that's the other (also likely), scenario. The thing is though, with the table all the way down, there is nothing to prevent the outer screw from hitting the concrete or at least I can't get my mind around what may stop it's travel. If there was some kind of "stop" on the dovetail ways to prevent the table from going down, I could see it. As it is, it appears to me that the only limiter to how low the table would go would be the length of the outer screw. If you have looked this thread over though, you'd also see that this screw assembly has held other surprises for me so I don't rule out anything at this point. :biggrin:

-Ron