Shaper on previous site

I was replying to the guy who had just bought a shaper when the site vanished.Two things ,be careful you don't site the shaper too near a wall at the rear, I remember somebody doing that once and on full stroke the rear of the ram punched a neat hole in the wall of the foreman's office !
Another thing, at one place I worked we had a really obnoxious, know -all electrician who was getting on everybody's nerves, when we moved a shaper (24" Butler) he had the job of re-wiring it. he had obviously never seen a shaper in action because he fastened the isolator onto the ram!!!! We let him carry on running the conduit down to the isolator and waited until he'd completely finished the job before putting the shaper on a short stroke and switching the machine on, his face watching the ram dragging the conduit back and forth was a picture !
Regards Tyrone.

Hello Tyrone, I think I'm the guy. Good point about distances from the wall..... I wanted to get it as close as I could but without any wall punching ability so I set the machine at max stroke length and ran it all the way to the back before deciding exactly where its new home was going to be. I did the electrical hookup myself, and just finished it this afternoon, but I forgot to hook up any of the wires to the ram I think I'm going to keep a close eye on whether the machine decides to do any walking by itself. Now to make up a front table support.

Cheers, al.

Maybe a shaper would "like" to be in a corner of the shop, set a 45 deg. ? Or, would this be considered to be too restrictive of workpiece length?

I once saw a big 24" stroke Potter & Johnston Universal ex-lineshaft shaper which had a Drive-All on the back with a 3 HP cast iron open frame motor behind that. Never thought of it much, but maybe there really wasn't a space penalty for hanging all that stuff on the back because surely the ram could go back almost as far if not farther.

Don't forget that the chips of a shaper can "fly". A friend who's a retired tool & die man says that in his shop, they had a folding plywood shield that they'd set up in front of the shaper to deflect the chips!

John Ruth

I think I'm going to keep a close eye on whether the machine decides to do any walking by itself

Click to expand...

When I was in school ('78) a guy started a shaper up at just about max speed and stroke.
While he was yelling "whoa, stop, and other things- but doing nothing- it ripped it's own conduit off the wall.

Sort of an e-stop

Speaking of flying chips. Last time I ran a planer was a 6' wide table model, and IIRC, I was roughing at 1/2" depth of cut and 1/8" feed per stroke. The workpiece was something along the lines of 12 or 15 feet long. Chips coming off like truck coil springs! We used plywood shields also...when a chip hit the shield, it just about sounded like someone had taken a swing at the shield with a baseball bat. The shop V.P. told me a story about how a guy he was working with many years before had got one of those chips right in the face...it went all the way through his cheek, he had basically another mouth put in his face by the chip. I was suitably disgusted/mortified.

Nice shaper you've got there Al, looks to be in tip top condition( not sure about the white levers and handles though ). I don't know how much experience in shaper work you have but be careful, they have several ways of biting you!
Regards Tyrone.

Thanks Tyrone, zip for shaper experience here. I've looked at everything I can find on some shaper websites, and catch tidbits here and there about exercising caution. I can see they are very powerful and require huge amounts of respect, as does most machinery. If you have any other words of wisdom, please fire away..... if you told me 10 things and I already knew 9 of them I'm still ahead!

Cheers, al.

Hi, Al,

When the previous "General" section becomes available again use the Search function and seek four "chapters" I wrote on setup and safety for shapers - this was in January of 2006. You may find a few tips of interest.

Search term is: Shapers:

Be sure to include the colon.

Meanwhile - have FUN (but be careful!)

Stan Db

I've got copies of those articles saved here at home that I can send you if it is going to be a while before the General forum is restored.

cheers,
Michael

www.eurospares.com/shapers.htm has alot of really good info on it....

Andy Pullen

It's a year or two since I used a shaper, one place I worked at had a beauty, a 36" 'Ormerod', it was a big beast. I could hide behind it , it was that tall. The threads the guy's are referring are well worth reading Al, they're written by people who have used shapers all their lives and are vastly experienced in what to do ( and more importantly what not to do ). Just one bit of advice, I may be in the minority here but I personally would never run a shaper that wasn't bolted to the floor, in fact I can't think of many machines I'd like to run unsecured, I like 'em to know their place. Have fun. Regards Tyrone.
P.S. One story about the big shaper , it came brand new with a "T" shaped slotted brace bracket on the front, on the first day they let an apprentice loose on it !!!!!!!!!! He put the automatic up feed on without loosening the brace, result - the cast iron brace bracket in about 5 pieces, and no doubt the feed mechanism strained more than it should have been ! Beware !

Stan, I did download your 4 part article when I first got the shaper bug..... and had the info in front of me when starting on levelling the machine. Thanks for your time in writing this wealthy article for everyone.

Andy, I've been watching Michael's new shaper site and have printed out some of the good stuff found there. Of particular value to me are the drawings/info on sharpening angles for cutter bits. There are some great photos of some cutting projects, dovetails etc. Now to practice up so I can get some surface finishes like those shown.

Tyrone, it didn't take me more than a couple of strokes in a couple of speed ranges to realize I'll most likely never use the top 2 speed ranges, and possibly the top 3. Re: bolting it to the floor.... I'm really glad I made a detailed shop floor drawing of exactly where the hot water tubing is located! I've already tried to raise the locked table with vertical power feed -- thank goodness it's driven through a clutch. My butt is still sore from the kicking I gave myself! Beware indeed.

Cheers, al.