Shaper vs mill

[dlane]

Is a shaper able to do things a mill can’t ?.

 

[T. J.]

The one that first comes to mind is making an internal keyway, as in the bore of a pulley or gear, etc.

 

[C-Bag]

And internal splines and shapes along with gears and dovetails. It can leave a really smooth accurate finish too. Close as you can get to a ground finish without a surface grinder. Not to mention it uses lathe type bits to do all of this. But it has a pretty steep learning curve in operation, and proper profiling of tool bits.

 

[Dranreb]

A shaper is able to achieve most things a mill can and you still have some money left over...

 

[T Bredehoft]

On the other hand, I'd hate to have to bore a hole with a shaper. There are times I do wish I had one, though.

 

[C-Bag]

As an unrepentant tool a holic, I think it's not a question of either or. I have both and only sometimes wish bigger and better of both.

 

[Doubleeboy]

with a shear tool a shaper can surface crappy, gummy steel and get a beautiful finish, one not likely obtainable using an end mill in a mill. They also excel at keyways, dovetails, slots. If the cross feed is set course enough they can do great looking checkering, but most small shapers have too fine a feed to do it well.

 

[Dranreb]

Shapers have personality, they are the nearest thing to a plug in steam engine you can own..

An often overlooked bonus is that when you're working in your man cave late at night, the slow mellifluous rhythm gently reverberating through the fabric of your home will lull your nearest and dearest to sleep, not many machines can manage that

 

[Ironside]

New guy here. First post, I've been reading on this forum for a while now. Caught this thread about shapers and thought I'd share. I used to have a really tiny one, but sold it a couple of years ago when someone offered me "insane" money for it. I think it was a model maker's shaper. It didn't have any identification on it anywhere. I used it to cut a few keyways and played around with it a bit. Kinda wish I had kept it sometimes.

 

[FOMOGO]

Kinda like Godzilla & King Kong. You really need both to make a decent movie/shop. Mike