Adept No.2 Shaper

Hi Paul

- if the Hoover motor is 0.25hp, 1425rpm, painted blue, as well as the shaper, then this sounds like the machine I sold through a Tyneside machine tool dealer earlier in 2012. If so, you can send me a PM or use this thread and I will try to help.

Dave

hello Dave

no its not the one but thanks anyway

here are some pics

one thing I did notice is as well as a good clean it will need its gibbs adjusting does anybody know how to do the cross slide ones without having to strip half of the machine down!

Hi Paul

Yes, adjusting the traverse slide gib on the powered model is a most frustrating and fiddly process, which might explain why the several I have seen all needed attention. Access on the original hand operated model is much easier, the motorised version just has all these extra bits added on, which naturally results in something of a compromise.

It will probably be easier to at least partly dismantle the drive gear at the rear which will improve access, also the traverse feed screw, so that the body can be moved by hand as adjustments are made. Mine was stripped down so I replaced the much-mangled and too short grubscrews with longer socket head grubscrews, and allocated a shortened ring spanner and allen key to the machine. Subsequent adjustments were quite easy. The ram gib also received new socket grubscrews.

Your machine has a few interesting modifications - the downfeed handle I personally think is an improvement on the original wheel, and it looks as if there is a graduated collar? If not, I can recommend this as a most useful addition. I made a new larger wheel with a graduated collar for mine, which was transferred to a friend’s machine when mine was sold. The traverse mechanism drive arm looks to be a substantial replacement, I wonder what happened to the original.

The replacement traverse wheel is big enough to get a proper grip with oily fingers for hand feed, and the auto feed ratchet drum looks to have a friction spring added - when worn the ratchet mechanism can be hit and miss, which can alter the surface finish by varying the traverse feed rate. Mine was friction loaded with a rubber band cut from an inner tube…

Two other alterations worth considering are a dowel to hold the vertical feed gib in place, and either a lock screw with short lever, or one longer gib screw, which can be tightened to hold the down feed slide in position, as it can “creep” during use, which does not improve finish, work piece, tool or temper.

Dave

thankyou for your response Dave

I will certainly bear those tips in mind when I eventually get round to using it

regards

Paul

For info.

There is an Adept No.2 on ebay

MichaelG.

John, because they are small. Even the smallest powered shaper takes a fair amount of space. Some people work indoors, small, quiet tools are worth paying extra for. I got rid of my fly press and fly cutter, I now use one of those electric tennis racquets, it works just as well and I don't have to catch the things first.

How does One get the correct surface speed when running one of these shapers? : I have a Rhoades and like it very much.

The rate is quite slow Mark (think of rowing a boat) and also try to take longer strokes, as this will also slow you down and help to get a uniform speed as you pass over the work. It's something I'm still training myself to do and does require a bit of hand co-ordination as well (small advance on the feed with the left hand as you push back with the right (e.g. feed on return stroke).

I imagine a metronome would be useful (or maybe singing some form of Sea Shanty?)

And Dave B - you are right to say that they are good 'inside' machines, just the click of the clapper when working them and they don't need too much space either. Not sure this justifies the price but none of these machines are made any more, so if someone wants one, then it's build it or pay whatever the going rate is....

Just been unloading a McMaster Power Hacksaw from the boot (where it's been sat for a few days!). I say unloading, I really mean dismantling, as it was far too heavy to lift out in one piece on my own. The baseplate was just about possible to lift into my wheelbarrow. I paid what I felt was a very reasonable price for it and although it clearly needs work, the nearest Chinese equivalent would have cost me around £400 and won't be as solid as this beastie is. You wouldn't be able to buy the main casting for what I paid for it - so maybe we are not thinking about the "price" of these machines in quite the right way, especially in relationship to the cost/quality of modern alternatives or indeed the cost of just the raw materials to build one.

Regards,

IanT

Edited By IanT on 15/01/2014 16:33:14

Two weekends ago I needed two flats on an alloy collar. 5 minutes on the mill but because of this thread I thought I'd have a go on the hand shaper.

Each side took 1000 strokes. Downfeed about 1/16 x 1/10 on the dial-less tool slide, x 1/18 x 1/10 on the auto feed. I didn't like to take a deep cut for fear of moving the workpiece on the clunk as it starts each cut. Lubrication - cup of tea between sides. Strokerate 60 per min. (queue his Lordship to say Oxford stroke at 120 per min) .

I tried to go faster but there is a rythm due to body mas, lengths, breathing rate etc that is hard to break.

Zero stress felt to arm then or the next day. Actually my right foot felt more stress owing to pad posture balancing over workshop 'stuff' which I couldn't be bothered to move away.

Edited By Bazyle on 15/01/2014 19:11:23

Hi Guys Was a my model club which is based is Cape Town last night and was given a Adept no2 powered shaper. Its pulleys are missing. Could somebody give me the pulley sizes. It will save a lot of trial and error on my side

Motor pulley as small a possible, shaft pulley 8in picador. However a bigger pulley wouldn't hurt as that is still fairly fast even with the gearing as well probably faster than 1 per second.

.

... Sounds like an ideal application for Poly-Vee belts.

MichaelG.

There's a rather unusual Adept conversion on a well known site at the moment. Item number 251453082410

It looks to me to be a Cowells Hand Shaper motorised in a most ingenious way, including the use of a Myford clutch!

Some serious thought has gone into this one.

Gordon

.

It certainly does look very tidy !!

MichaelG.

Well this is my latest idea. I have a 8-1 reduction gearbox which I am thinking of connecting between the motor and the shaper. This would reduce a motor with a speed of 1450 rpm to about 180 rpm. It taken 4 turns of the feed shaft to complete 1 stroke on the shaper. This would then give me a speed of 45 strokes per min. Would this be acceptable for mild steel

Kenneth,

Mild steel is cut at between 40-70 foot/minute.

The actual cutting 'speed' on a shaper is a function of several things. Most 'crank' shapers move the ram more slowly on the forward (cutting) stroke, compared to the faster 'return' stroke. I'm not clear if your 'stroke' is linear or not. Cutting speed is also function of the length of the stroke (for the same number of strokes/minute). So a very short stroke would be cutting more slowly than a longer stroke (assuming the same strokes/minute) - in other words the tool is travelling further in the same time on the longer stroke, so cutting speed must be faster.

Your 45 strokes/min sounds like it might be in the right area but you might want to think about the various things that effect the actual cutting speed of the tool in your design to get to a "foot/minute" number. This is what you need to know.

Regards,

IanT

Thanks Ian You have given me a lot to think about. I am going to put on a pulley with at least 3 steps so that I can have a selection of speed. The Adept seems to have the same speed for both the forward and back stoke, which is not the same as the bigger machines which do have a quicker back stoke. Yes the length of stoke will affect the speed so I will also have to remember this.

Regards Ken

It's very useful to be able to vary the speed of a Shaper Kenneth.

I have a simple spread sheet that I use to work out my pulley ratios vs. cutting speeds. If you know your motor speed, length of cut and can estimate the percentage of time that one full 'crank' rotation is actually cutting - then you can work out the best pulley ratios given the foot/min required. I'll paste my ft/min table below. Use it as a rough guide to get going. You will soon find a speed that seems to suit particular materials on your machine.

Regards, IanT

I have been looking at small shapers like the Adept on Fleabay recently but preferred a powered unit. I found a Corbetts 7" XL powered shaper which is nicely made and has a small footprint. It has had the motor drive modified slightly from original but if I can find a suitable motor I am tempted to change back to original as it will make the machine a few inches shorter. I have put a picture below. The www.lathes.co.uk has pictures of an original layout Corbetts shaper. Just need to source/make suitable vice and tooling now.

I can see how people say they are quite calming to watch.

Have fun with your Adept.

Regards,

Colin