Macson 18" shaper

[Pete O]

I managed to steal a few hours in the shed this afternoon and had a brainwave about the keyways I wanted to cut on the shaper. I had a few bushes for the horizontal milling arbor that needed slotting and I realised I was asking a lot of both the tool and the vice to make a 1/4" wide cut in steel. I roughed them out with 3 different tools- a V-form to take out the centre of the slot, then a left hand and a right hand tool bit to remove material from the sides, before making the final cut with the full-width slotting tool. Worked a treat and once I had the tools ground, it was reasonably quick process- with the workpiece in the vice, I centered the slotting tool between the jaws then just swapped the toolbits without changing the setup. I'm sure it would be no problem to cut a keyway in aluminium in one setup but the roughing passes were necessary in the 4140 I was working on. Did the cutting with the toolbit upwards so the clapper stayed closed.
I even got brave and put the shaper  in second gear, seeing I had the stroke set at 2". Nothing like living in the fast lane.

I was able to explain to my wife that I was now using both the lathe and the shaper to make parts for the mill.