Bench for an Atlas (Acorn) Shaper

I have purchased a 7in Atlas Bench shaper, I now need to construct a suitable bench. Most shapers that I have used , Elliot, Alba etc have had their own pedestal. Apart from the obvious need to support the heavy weight, will this bench have to contend with any other reactions?

Lucky you, they were twice as expensive as a good modellors lathe when they came out

It's a self contained unit so no external forces apart from gravity and you yanking on the workpiece

The balance midpoint changes as a shaper works, so a sturdy bench is all you need

Lucky you. I'm jealous

I believe shapers have a reputation for "walking" around the workshop unless secured somehow.

There was a story a while back about an amateur machinist getting his hands on a nice big old shaper, spending weeks stripping down, cleaning and refurbishing it, getting it installed and set up and excitedly switching it on, whereupon it proceeded to lazily march backwards through the wall of the workshop, collapsing the roof and so on.

Fact or myth, my take-home from this story was that a shaper stand (like any other machine stand) should ideally be strong, massive, rigid and firmly attached to something structural...

On a slight tangent, I was recently talking to my other half's grandfather who was an Engineer at BA his whole career. I felt a little queasy when he told me how as a teenager, he and the other apprentices would sit atop the ram of the big shaper and see how long they could hold on, rather like those "bucking bronco" rides at the fair. Surprisingly, he's still got all his limbs.

Adam

Ah, the myth of the walking shaper again. Nonsense.

For a small shaper a sturdy bench with cross-bracing and rubber feet is all that is required. There is little rocking reaction anyway, since the stroke is short and the ram mass is small, and usually speeds are low.

On big industrial shapers their weight (often several tons) is usually plenty to keep them in place. At my first job we had a very old 36 inch Cincinatti shaper. The ram weighed 2 tons. The base weighed 10 tons. We found this out when they were removed by crane to make room for CNC mills.

JD

On my first day in the Apprentices Basic Training Workshop, I was allocated to the team on the one shaper in the shop. In those days of plentiful apprentice positions, we had to share machines and, as the new boy, I was put with a couple of right rascals. A favourite trick was to keep increasing the depth of cut until the ram appeared to be capable of only just dragging itself back. That was when the machine really did appear to start heading for the nearby exit door! Things had to be hastily restored to 'sensible' before the ears of the nearest instructor picked up the familiar sounds of the machine in distress.

Happy days

Geoff

I'm with Jeff on this one. I have four shapers, three operational and none of them have ever shown any tendency to walk. None of them are bolted down at all. The two pedestal machines just sit on hte concrete floor. The 18 inch Alba has done some pretty heavy cuts at times, and has also been operated quite fast on shorter strokes. It must weigh about a ton. The ten inch Alba also has a pedestal, and of course is a bit lighter, maybe half a ton.

My six inch Ammco sits on a wooden cabinet with angle iron legs. Being an old cabinet, it is real wood, but not of really heavy construction. It would be about 3/4 inch thick. Perfectly good for a machine like that. If I had to rebuild it I would probably look for plywood that thick. The cupboard underneath is handy.

John