shaper machine

J

Jared Stenoien

Joined
Dec 4, 2005
Messages
1,025
hello, i was going through a bunch of machines in the back of my school's industrial tech building and i found an old machine. the only thing my shop teacher knew about it was that it is called a "shaper" anyone know of where i could find out what this does and how to do it?
 
I don't know where you could find information on them. They are pretty old and not used much any more. I have used them at G. E. in the die shops.
Think of them as a lathe that cuts in a flat plane, instead of a circle as a lathe. They use about the same shape cutter. The arm takes a stroke removing metal, then returns to the starting position. At this time the work is advanced a predetermined amount. Then it cycles all over again.
Hope this helps. Some of the large shapers are called planers.
 
No that is almost impossible. You would have to dial the head down then back up before you got to the end of the stroke. No way to be consistent enough to get a bowl cut out. Its only good for flat planes. You can cut on angles or flats but that's about all.
 
A good example of what a shaper can do is cut a keyway slot in a shaft. I would suspect that they could be used to slot gears with the proper workholder and dividing head.
 
i'll probably go ahead and try to get it running again just for the heck of it. although it does sound like i'd be better off sending it off to have it cut than use it for serious work
 
Most shops use them to square steel up, or bring a piece of stock to the proper size. They are fairly slow. The advantage of one is that you can let it run while you are working on something else. The finish you get is pretty rough.
 
Just a word of advice Mrstenoien,if you should ever try out that shaper.

When I did my trade test we had to square up a few blocks on the shaper and then do some milling, drilling etc.
DO NOT "eyeball" the job while in a crouching position in front of the machine and then try to "edge" the ram forward to see better where the cutting tool is in relationship to the job!!
It can come forward rather fast and it is very solid compared to the human skull!!
A buddy found that out the hard way when we were apprentices, he heard about his mistake in the ER after they had fixed a hole in his head. There is normally a nasty bolt on the end for fixing the toolbit. Still, it is a fun machine when you ride it like a rodeo horse. :D :D

Young men......

Mike.
 
Most schools would have wood shapers.
Kind of a router table on steroids used to make decorative edges, rabbets, and grooves on boards.
 
thank you everyone for the advice, howie this one is left from when we used to have a machining shop. it got canceled in '93 for being "too dangerous" i've also recently gotten a lathe and bandsaw up and running from the same class. the belts and everything were in really bad shape and i actually ended up having to drill out and re-tap some screw holes on the bandsaw b/c some idiot decided it woud be fun to hit it repeatedly with a sledge. gotta love idiots
 
You can get a beautiful finish from a shaper, almost as nice as a ground finish. They were mostly replaced by milling machines which are more versatile. One big advantage is that the tooling is cheap for special cuts- you just grind a HSS bit similar to a lathe. The small South Bend, Logan and Atlas Shapers (7-8") are highly sought after for home shops.

George
 
i just had a thought although i could be completely mistaken, would a shaper work for setting the main bevel on a knife? assuming you have no access to a belt grinder of course
 
I was thinking of picking up an old one for doing a ladder pattern in damascus.
Yeah I know it's overkill but think how easy it would be to get a consistent profile
 
actually paul, that sounds pretty interesting. i got the machine up and running during lunch today and now just need to figure out how to keep the tool from crashing
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top