MetalworkingFun Forum

If this doesn't make you want a shaper in your shop nothing will ?. The surface finish you get with a sharp bit is amazing. 

Shawn

So that wasted ten minutes of my day. I think I became mesmerized and fell sleep watching it.

What type of metal was that you were cutting Shawn?

Ed

I have heard the argument that a shaper might be slow but once you get a cut going you can do something else!! I have never done anything but stand and stare at the shaper working, doesn't save me anytime whatsoever?. I'm not sure what sort of steel that was, based on limited experience I would say it was cold rolled mild steel. Came out if my scrap bin, I'm making a backing plate so I can hold 1/2 bits directly in the tool holder on the shaper.

Shawn

Tom, the video was only two and a half minutes long but being an old shaper hand your well familiar with the fact that time does in fact slow down and can cause spatial disorientation for the operator?

Shawn, is the retract stroke the same speed as the cutting stroke? I couldn't tell. Is that a carbide insert cutting tool? If so,tsk. tsk.

The shaper runs faster on the back stroke but with a short stroke like is set up it's hard to see the difference. The tool is HSS, the only carbide in my shop is an unused set of boring bars. I'm not really geared up for carbide but I do have two lifetimes worth of Momax tool steel I got for a real bargain on eBay.

Very cool. Need to do some work on mine to get it quieter.

(09-30-2014, 03:47 PM)Shawn Wrote: [ -> ]Tom, the video was only two and a half minutes long but being an old shaper hand your well familiar with the fact that time does in fact slow down and can cause spatial disorientation for the operator?

Yeah, I think I dozed off after the first minute.

Shapers are slow, which is why they are extinct. If you look up the metal removal rates for various machines, you'll find that the rate for shapers is less than half of milling machines. They are fun to use though.

Tom

Love it!

Ive been known to cut steel with the shaper for no reason other than to watch the damn thing work...... they do make a mess though....