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Elliott 18M shaper restoration

Marcuschrist

Aluminum
Joined
Jul 11, 2017
Recently started disassembling the shaper to get it ready for scraping, I was of course expecting the worst as it spent a few nights out in the rain before I got my hands on it and it had a terrible paint job that gave me used machine tool dealer vibes but aside from a few issues its going to clean up quite well.

As it turns out it had been "rebuilt" at some point and there was so much paint on the gearbox that it could both not be filled with oil and oil could not leak. When I chiseled away the paint(at least 1/8" or more thick) to drain the gearbox it was both full and the oil was perfectly clean, the gearbox seemed altogether very tidy. Even better the The bull gear shaft and bearing housing still have the original machining marks and seem to have been always kept lubricated, the yoke and sliding blocks were also more or less free of wear minus the bronze bushes which should be easy enough to replace.

The saddle and column seemed a little worn but nothing serious however the ram ways had clearly been left running without lubrication often and there is some serious gauling. The other issue that made shudder a little was the taper pin that located the bevel gear to the saddle. it had been attacked with a hammer and as far as I can tell the gear is 180 degrees from its proper position as the hole on the opposite side is bigger than the pin protruding through. Honestly blows my mind that someone could not only do that but follow up with a heavy bashing to lock it in, I guess I'll have to figure that one out once it finishes soaking in the electrolysis tank.

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Probably a little overkill but I've already started to fettle and shape the yoke up to a fine finish. I'm quite intent on refinishing all the casting and attempting the copper plate followed by nickel plate the castings instead of painting. I'm also intending on separating the body from the base and scraping the base flat, cutting out a large copper gasket to seal the bottom of the shaper up so I can have a sort of internal sump. Hopefully adding provisions for a pump and filter to draw up oil from this sump to feed the ram ways along with the plane bearing of the bull gear and yoke. I know its not practical and these shapers were something of an economy model but its going to be at the front of my shop behind the glass facade and I was hoping to making it something of a showpiece and a practical tool for the shop. constructive criticism is welcome.
 
Hows the progress Marcus ?
Im interested to see the 'sump' idea you have - the machine has some significant differences to my 14S - not least the gear box arrangement. The Yoke on mine comes down below the join line between the base and body casting - so any 'sump' I fit will be more of a drop tray & drain and likely slide in from the side. I like the copper plating and then nickel plating of the castings. Hope you have plenty of nickel. My electroplating experience is limited to Black Chrome (actually bright nickel with an additive which makes it look shiny black. Looks wonderful on clean shiny copper. I never even thought about that as a coating option.
Best of luck
Mat
 
Hows the progress Marcus ?
Im interested to see the 'sump' idea you have - the machine has some significant differences to my 14S - not least the gear box arrangement. The Yoke on mine comes down below the join line between the base and body casting - so any 'sump' I fit will be more of a drop tray & drain and likely slide in from the side. I like the copper plating and then nickel plating of the castings. Hope you have plenty of nickel. My electroplating experience is limited to Black Chrome (actually bright nickel with an additive which makes it look shiny black. Looks wonderful on clean shiny copper. I never even thought about that as a coating option.
Best of luck
Mat

You could of course still employ the same method albeit with a little more effort involved by cutting a section from the middle of the sheet and silver soldering in a tray to give the yoke clearance. The body of mine also has a large access hole cast in place behind the engine mount that I'll need to clean up and make provisions for an oil tight cover. altogether its quite a bit of extra effort but I think the end result would be worth it as you could maintain oil pressure to the ram ways where it would mostly seep out back into the sump. new felts to the front and rear would also be required and possibly a leather cover at either end to prevent any loose chips entering the interior.

As to progress I had a lovely afternoon working on some of the harder to reach spots of the yoke with a die grinder and I seem to have cleaned up the worst of the casting. I'm very tempted to fill a few of the smaller inclusions with some lead but I'm a little worried the copper won't adhere in those areas. It is a strange idea and probably not practical but I like the idea of an easy to clean machine that can be disassembled without the cracking or chipping of paint.

The sliding blocks on mine have two thin lines of original scraping and the wear is very minimal. I was thinking that if I scraped either side parallel and plated them back to size that I could use them to judge the wear characteristics of said plating for use in building up ways. I'm not really sure how it would hold up as a bearing surface.
 








 
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