>> Has anybody seen a shaper in a shop, lately?
>
> 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
>
I started my professional life as an apprentice fitter/turner
(millwright/machinist, as we would say in the US) in a paper mill in the UK.
Our shop consisted of many lathes (paper machines are made up of a large
number of rolls of various diameters and of various materials), a couple of
vertical mills, a horizontal mill, two shapers and a very scary metal
planer, which was kind of like a shaper but the table moved rather than the
tool. This was pretty big and the table drive was off a lineshaft with
"fast and loose" pulleys and a mechanical reversing mechanism. The table
was about 4 ft by 8 ft, as I recall, and we could put large castings up on
it to machine mating faces. Occasionally, the machinists would use it to
make bar stock out of flat plate by cutting of strips of the plate with a
parting-off tool in the tool holder. I always kept well clear of this beast
when it was operating - I was always afraid that the table, which could move
quite fast on the return stroke, would fly right of the bed and smush
whomever was standing close. The line from Robert Blake's famous poem
(Jerusalem) referring to England's "dark satanic mills" ran through my head
every time they ran it.
I have graphic memories of the day one of the machinists was trying to cut a
1/4 inch thick brass plate into two smaller strips on the planer. Those of
you that have experience of metalworking know that, when cutting brass, you
should use a tool with minimal or negative rake. Well, this guy couldn't be
bothered to change the tool, which had previously been used to cut mild
steel (i.e. it had positive rake). Of course, the tool dug in on the first
cutting stroke, the back end of the sheet came out of the clamps and the
whole 4 X 8 sheet of brass folded neatly in half. After we changed our
underwear, we spent the rest of the day reflecting on the power required to
do that...
That was followed by my shaper episode, and since then I have always paid
attention to clamping the work and using the right tool for the job.
Michael Marr
1960 TR3A
Naperville, IL
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