> Perhaps a better question would be how many people know what a shaper is ?
> The woodworking folk have an entirely different idea ... think a shaper is
> a
> kind of upside down router.
>
> But judging by the articles in Home Shop Machinist, there is still some
> interest in shapers. It's not entirely vertical mills these days. I've
> even got a set of plans to build my own, but it's not clear if I'll ever
> do
> it.
>
> Randall
>
Well, what I meant to say in my last note, before I got to reminiscing, is
that shapers can be very useful for machining flat surfaces quickly and
accurately. We also used to cut internal keyways in gears, using an
extended tool holder that looked somewhat like a boring bar, and we even cut
blind keyways in shafts by drilling a blind hole in the shaft at the end of
the keyway and then running the shaper tool into the hole to cut the keyway.
The primary use in our shop, however, was to cut large tapered keys for the
many gears and couplings that are used on a paper machine. A typical key
for this duty might be 2 inches deep by 3 inches wide by 8 to 10 inches
long. We would machine it to nominal size, blue it, fit it in the keyway
and then scrape the top and bottom to ensure a good fit on the taper
throughout the keyway.
Those were the days...
Michael Marr
1960 TR3A
Naperville, IL
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