Sally Shaper is not well!

[John Hill]

Poor Sally, apart from a few minor things like a missing pin in the cross feed mechanism Sally has a bigger problem, hardly suprising I suppose that time has not entirely passed her by.



Here is a picture from her family album which clearly shows the square headed bolt which is used to clamp the head which otherwise can rotate about a horizontal axis.  This pivot has got a bit slack, in fact one could say that Sally has gone a bit loose in the head.

This slackness no doubt contributes to the chattering problems I have when running her, so what to do?

Well, take it apart obviously, first step one would think.  But my Bodger Brain is thinking that maybe if I just force thick grease in the bolt hole something magical might cause the problem to go away or become less.  Maybe Modders know of something better than grease?

[bogstandard]

Thick grease will not cure it. Otherwise the whole machine world would be running packed out with thick grease.

It has to come apart and get measured up to see the amount of damage. Only then can a repair scheme be thought about.

But prepare yourself for some four jaw and boring work.

Bogs

[John Hill]

What time of the day is it over there Mr Standard?  Surely you should be still tucked up in bed instead of reading wistful thinking from the antipodes?

I wont be getting the boring bar out just yet though,  apart from a couple of round nuts for my compound slide my turning careed has been pretty much limited to a yet unfinished gyroscope!

[bogstandard]

John,

I sleep when I need to, and don't when I don't need to.
Usually a few small power naps in a 24 hour cycle. I have a very sedentary lifestyle, plus I don't need my beauty sleep any more.

I know it can be very difficult if you don't have the relevent tools and experience. But at times it has to be done, and that is when the gents on here can help you cure those headaches.

John

[John Hill]

Well Mr Bogs my lifestyle is still fairly active which is something I blame on the current economic situation!

Whatever, your mention of boring bars might be what done it or it might have been a miracle but when I pulled the head off and laid the bits out on the bench everything seemed OK, no sign of damage anywhere.

So I put it all back together with a bit of oil on the surfaces and now no amount of pulling or wriggling will get the play back.   

So I set her going and she faced off a small block of mild steel and hummed while she was at it, even cutting a decent recess into the steel and no sign of the chattering tantrums of yesterday.

However, trying to cut a slot sets the chattering going again but as she cuts so nicely with a rounded end tool I will have to pay attention to the shape of the slotting tool,  some of the references say slotting is the hardest to do.  (Now why would that be?  Would it be because slotting is probably the most useful function of a little shaper? )

Time for bed now, no time this evening for the gyroscope project!

[Darren]

Hi John Hill,

Sounds like some bits where not done up tight enough. Bogs is of course correct, no amount of play will be tolerable, chatter being the most obvious result.

My shaper works very well, but it also chatters when being asked to cut slots.
It's probably a small machine issue.

Darren

[bogstandard]

Try a bit of this, it seems to cure most problems.




Bogs

[John Hill]

Hi John Hill,

It's probably a small machine issue.

Darren

Well she is certainly a 'small machine' Darren, as I said small enough to be picked up and carried to the vehicle!

Does yours work better on cast iron or the more plastic mild steel?  I have only been playing with scraps of mild, in fact I dont think I have any cast scrap in pieces I could get into the shaper.

[websterz]

Try a bit of this, it seems to cure most problems.




Bogs

Is there a U.S. supplier? I will buy it by the case!!

[Darren]

Well I don't think you could carry mine to the car 

I believe it's like any machine, the more surface the tool is in contact with the higher the chance of chattering. Even my lathe chatters when chamfering too wide.

I've used alloy, mild steel and a hard rolled plate on mine. They all gave a good finish. very good indeed.

In fact, with the rolled plate I couldn't drill it even with a carbide drill bit. Nor could I touch it with a milling tool. But the shaper didn't bat an eye, took the hard crust right off.

[bogstandard]

My shaper works very well, but it also chatters when being asked to cut slots.

Gents, it is all down to experience. I only had short times operating a shaper and run into the same problems you are doing, but the lads who did it all the time never had any troubles at all. It might sound a bit cavalier, but they wouldn't allow the machine to chatter, it cost them money. They just did a little tweak and away it would go totally chatter free. That little tweak took years of experience.

For the amount you will be using the machine, don't ever expect to get every cut perfect, you will never have enough experience. Just do the best you can in your allotted span.

Bogs

[John Hill]

Thank you John but I have only a limited number of years to devote to this but the magic solution must be out there!

[sbwhart]

Hi John

Not a lot of experience on shapers grinding was my speciality, but from what i can remember of watching my mates on the shapers they use to run them with lots of top rake on the tools, we were on piecework in them days so time was money, they didn't mess around as John said, they would take some big cuts 1/8" was a small cut.

Hope this gets you going in the right direction.

Cheers
 
Stew

[John Hill]

Now way is Sally Shaper ever going to be able to take 1/8" cuts off anything, 'cept maybe a block of stale cheddar.

[Darren]

Off the top off my head I seem to remember that mine could cope with about 1mm ok. Prob more, but I'd have to try it to make sure.

[sbwhart]

John said, they would take some big cuts 1/8" was a small cut.

These were big heavy powerful machines for commercial use. They could chew at least 1/8" off New Zealand cheddar or 2" off nice crumbly Cheshire Cheese. 


Stew

[SPiN Racing]

Try a bit of this, it seems to cure most problems.




Bogs

I Love that!!

Oh BTW..  Mythbusters here in the states discovered last week that yes.. YOU CAN Polish a turd. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBj6PonX14A

[ja2on]

  I love mythbusters it's about the only thing I watch on tv