South Bend 7" Ram Problem

--It is a shame. Some companies will do discount work for hobbyists if time is not pressing, and you could then get the ram surface ground to straighten it, but that would still be in the (small) hundreds of dollars. I wish you were closer to Calgary, we could have a go at fixing it!
 
Thank you for the help and support. I don’t know about the shaper’s past history and use, but I’m nevertheless surprised ( and sad) that the dovetails wore out. Funny how you can get so attached to an old machine.
 
I'm attached to all my old machines!
 
The dovetails are worn but not worn out.
If you don't have the machine capacity for the job it could still be scraped in. lots more time involved but will not only save the shaper but will have it cutting to very close tolerance. With the measurements I've taken on old machines I've learned that many left the factory with very poor tolerances and even an amature scraping job cam make them run better than factory new.
Perhaps you could also sell it whole and get your money out of it.
 
There’s an article on the NEMES website where a person recut his shaper ram dovetail ways on a milling machine. It’d be worth reading. He didn’t express anything about the job being especially difficult. I can’t remember if he scraped it afterward. I do think he made a new gib strip. Anyhow, New England model engineer society I think...check it out. I’m not a member, but there’s good info there about this.
 
Another idea is to mill the dovetails flat (If your mill isn't up to it, perhaps a HM near you?) and then do minimal scraping to remove machining marks. This will require minimal effort/skills and get you running....
 
Back
Top