Drummond Shaper

Hi, can anyone help me please, I am stripping down a "Drummond" Hand shaper. How do I get the top of the table off? it won't lift off because of the dovetails it has to slide of but the captive nut is in the way how do I remove that any suggestions/ideas would be very welcome.

Thanks Chris Smith

Hi Chris, I can't help with details of how to do it but you should try asking on the Drummond lathes Yahoo group, there are quite a few folk on there who either have, have had or have got knowledge about the shapers and can give you the info that you need.

Keith

I restored mine a couple of years ago, as far as I remember once the gib strip was removed I just tilted it to clear the dovetails.

Thanks guys i'll try yahoo group, when I tried tilting the top minus gib it didn't want to know even her indoors said it wouldn't come off what do I know thanks.

Hi. Chris. I've had a look at mine and I think you could take off the feed drive gear and just wind the table off using the lead screw.

Hi, Mick. the lead screw wound out great but the captive nut is attached to the table so it hits the end of slideway and as it lift off I'm a bit buggered.

Hi, I don't have one of these so can't help directly, but I do have some experience of shapers. Looking at the pictures on lathes.co, it seems to me that there must be some way of getting the captive nut off the table. Sometimes the captive nut has a round part that just pushes into a hole in the table. Of course such a hole may or may not go right through to the top of the table, you would have to take a look. If it does not, then you would have to get the nut to come out from underneath, which seems a bit tricky, as would be the assembly in the first place.

Maybe if you have a dentists mirror you could have a peer underneath.

John

Yes, I can tell you exactly how to do this! The captive leadscrew nut is attached to the underside of the table by two screws. If you wind the table along to the extreme end of the slideways you can access and remove one screw from below through a hole underneath the casting. Then wind the table along to the other end of the slideways in order to remove the second screw through another hole in the base of the casting. That's the leadscrew free and you can now slide the table right off.

I hope that this helps. I have recently carried out a complete restoration of my Drummond J-type shaper so I might be able to offer more help if you should need it.

Chris

Hi John, My Shaper has been modified at sometime to power operation and has had alterations to the bottom casting, which may have had existing holes blocked of to accomodate the changes which may involve the removal of the base casting before I can remove the top! we will have to waIt and see. Thanks Chris.

If I can mention here I also had a Private message from a chap called CHRIS WOODCOCK so if by any chance you read this I have been unable to get back to you so many thanks for your input please join up to the forum properly so I/we can talk. Chris

Hi, Guys. my problem is solved there are 2 holes in the bottom of the bottom casting one either end. mine were blocked of as part of an attempt to motorise the machine so all that was needed was to remove the plugs from each one and unscrew the captive nut easy when you know how. thanks everybody for all the help much appreciated.

Chris.