Perfecto Shaper

I've just acquired a Perfecto Shaper I think its a no 3 the 5" stroke model, its complete except for the tool holder and drive belt and the motor needs mounting and wiring up and the drive pulley needs re-bushing, but all sortable issues.

I've emailed lathes.co for information/manual.

But has any one got any info on it, particularly regarding the size of V belt

Her's a few pictures of it hot off the press.

Cheers

Stew

Stewart,

I bought a similar Perfecto shaper last year. It was already mounted on a home-brew bench, which is pretty sturdy.

The Vee-belt mine uses is shown below, your length requirement may be different, of course, depending on the motor mounting position.

The table tee slots were woefully out of alignment with the rest of the machine, but were cleaned up and milled a little larger. More shots in my album, if interested.

You may also already have found this site:

**LINK**

Have fun.

John

Mick,

Mine takes 3/8" square hss tool stock as standard. However, I've made a new clapper box and lantern toolholder to take 10 mm tools as I'm metric in the workshop and have a supply of hss that size. It looks like Stewart has the more traditional style of tool holder attachment. Or he would have, if it wasn't missing. I'll post a picture later, if I get the chance.

John

John/Mick

Thanks for your replies.

John:- I've taken note of the belt code, but could I trouble you for the motor HP and speed just to check that its the correct one.

Mick:- I'll measure the tool holder up and will post a drawing when I've showered and shaved. a picture of your other tool holders would be useful.

I used a shaper when I was an apprentice a lot of years ago so I've got a bit of a learning curve to climb, so could any one recommend a book.

Thanks Again

Stew

Edited By Stewart Hart on 26/03/2018 08:22:16

Hello Stewart,

South Bend produced a useful little book some years ago entiltled ' How to run a Shaper and Drill Press' and reprinted by Lindsay Publications ISBN1-55918-213-X

I imagine it is easy enough to find

Regards

Brian

Hi Stewart,

I have most of the published material on Shapers and in my view the 'Unit course in Shaper Work' - also known as 'Delmar' is the best and most comprehensive set of instructions for shaper use that you will find. There are several sources where you can download it for free - and one of them is here;

http://neme-s.org/Shaper%20Books/Shaper%20Work/

Regards,

IanT

IanT,

That's an excellent text ... Thanks for the link.

21 pdf files duly downloaded to the iPad

MichaelG.

Stewart,

Here, as promised, is a picture of the new clapper box I made to take 10mm square HSS tooling.

The motor is a single-phase 220v, 50Hz one, rated at 0.33HP and 1420 rpm. Seems to be adequate for the sort of rate of metal removal I anticipate achieving, although some means of varying the speed would be nice. Can't justify a VFD and change to 3-phase.

+1 for the Delmar book, by the way.

John

I have one also - very handy little machine. The only problem with mine is the auto X axis feed which needs me to put some friction on the handwheel to keep the feed going.

rgds

Bill

Bill,

The Drummond has a spring loaded friction device which bears against the lead screw. An O-ring looped around a screw might be sufficient friction. Likely other solutions....

Hi Mick

I think its the lantern type holder as you showed on you photo.

Thanks for the offer

Stew

Stewart,

If it is any use to you, when I made the new clapper box, I drew it up in QCAD. A jpeg export is shown below. There might be some degradation in the quality. If you would like a copy, PM me with your email address and I'll send you a copy.

Just one thing to note if you make it to fit the existing carrier. The width of the is shown as 25mm. Instead use 1" square BMS for a better fit.

Regards,

John

Thanks for the book links chaps I've down loaded some usefull information

Stew

+2 on the Delmar book - nothing better available anywhere.

NDIY - thank you. May well have something suitable in the 'might come in handy some day' box!

rgds

Bill

Looking at the drawing I see a 6.8mm hole drawn for the pivot pin. Unless the Perfecto is made differently for ease of manufacture for a hobby machine then this pivot is normally a taper pin which means clapper boxes cannot be made interchangeable. The taper is 1:48 and the hole through the lot has to be reamed together.

You might see if you club has a set of ME covering 2013 when there was a series about small shapers by Mick Knights where he mentions this.

Yes I remember Mick Knights article and the taper pin I know Mick had problems finding a source for them. On my Perfecto the pin is parallel by the look of it that's how it came out of the factory the pin is nicely blued and doesn't look home made, they must have decided that a taper pin wasn't necessary in this small shaper.

Any way I've got it fixed to the bench and I've had it running I've made a few test pieces and it cuts nice a square and parallel this is what I had to do to get it running:-

Base is a kitchen work top off cut

New tool Holder

Checked that the knee and T slots were square to the Ram

Then I squired the edges of the Knee to the base to aid set ups and drilled them so that I could use it as a clamp for larger flat plates.

Had problems getting the correct size V Belt the profile was the A type profile my pully's must be different to Johns Z Profile any way got one eventually that fits.

Made a bed plate for the motor and fitted it to the base.

The feed ratchet kept missing so stripped it down and found that the pawls were badly worn so I reprofiled them and after a bit of fiddling about got it working correctly

I've bought a nice machine vice to go on it, now I just need to use it a bit and find out how to get the best use out of it.

Stew

Bayzle,

The pivot pin is ¼" Ø and parallel on my shaper, too. When I drew up the new clapper box arrangement, I rounded it to 6.8mm as I'm a metric measurer and happen to have a drill that size. The size is immaterial, within reason, just so long as the holes all line up and there is no slop in the fit. As a temporary measure, because we were in the middle of a house move at the time, I just made the clapper with a ¼" Ø hole, to fit the existing clapper box. I suspect this "temporary" arrangement will last a while until I've got my new [to me] workshop/garage organised.

John