Shapers (obsolete or not)

Just a curious question really Is there much point to having a shaper these days I've got a Tom Senior universal mill with a slotting head attachment so my way of thinking is that a shaper would just take up space, that is unless someone can enlighten me.

Regards Jon

Shapers are brilliant at holding a section of floor down until you can find a more useful machine.

John S.

Not at all! My Douglas gets almost as much use as either of the mills, and for some jobs is streets ahead of 'em.

The real question is, if you already have a decent mill is it worth spending any more money and why?

Do you still have one then John ?

To answer the OP yes they are worth having and not just to stop the floor flying away

• Cutting dovetails with lumps of cheap tool steel & not expensive dovetail cutters
• Seeing how far you can make the chips fly down the workshop
• Producing lovely flat surfaces using more lumps of cheap tooling
• The theraputic aspect just watching the thing work implacably away

I am a little biased tho I have five in total so I guess my floor is safe

Paul

I could buy an aweful lots of "expensive" dovetail cutters with one shaper and even more with five

Not obsolete, but instead of picking up another shaper (had one but sold it when moving 1/2 way around the world) I got a CNC mill instead.

I'd love another shaper, but know that the mills will get the use.

I picked up a Worden cutter grinder to re-sharpen my end mills, and to accurately sharpen flycutter and lathe toolbits (for when carbide is not required)

So, in this case JohnS agrees with JohnS!

Another JohnS.

So if one isn't armed with the equipment & or ability to sharpen say for arguments sake a very expensive dovetail cutter what do you do with it?

Hi There

Sharpen it up freehand and use it as a shaper tool?

regards david

I know a nice small commercial outfit which will sharpen them as and when required for a very reasonable sum.

So assuming our hypothetical dovetail cutter hasn't any chipped teeth and is suitable to sharpen what might that cost for say a 1" 60 degree item including carriage to mainland UK?

Around £10 I would guess (now) + post, but then I usually drop them in along with other work and they are then sent back by post. New ones are £35

£10 does sound a very fair price for sharpening something with that many flights.

My cheapest (bought working) shaper is an Alba 1A cost me £70, include say £5 worth tool steel = £75

Your Dovetail cutter £35 and allow say around 2 sharpens? before it's done = £55

My math favours the Shaper

But I do not want a shaper in any shape or form, the workshop floor is concrete so that stays put on its own.

On the 8th day the lord made the shaper and saw that it was good.

There is no finer machine to produce a completely flat surface and with a swan necked shearing tool taking off no more than 0.005'' it gets pretty close to surface grinding, with the advantage of staying completely flat when released from the vice, which is not always the case when the magnetic chuck is realeased!!!!

If anybody has a small bench shaper in need of a good home please let me know

I had almost forgotten about the floor surely it's better to have a good weighty British Shaper holding it down rather than some lightweight import mill?

(Apologies to the OP for the hijack BTW)

OP

It's not all rosy in Shaper Land tho the old saying is "You can make anything on a Shaper except Money" it's probably true as setups certainly need more consideration and can be harder to achieve than the average mill if you see what I mean.

See if you can get someone to show you one working and perhaps even have a go yourself I am sure you will enjoy.

Regards

Paul

Good for oiling practice, for a start... and stress relief. And yeah, you can do most stuff on a mill and slotting attachment if you want - but having tried it both ways recently, I'd far rather cut dovetails on the shaper.

Hi
I love my little Drummond hand shaper & I fit a grinding head on it for light grinding &Brilliant for slotting keyways in gears

Regards Nobby

.

Pray tell how you manage that ? Not seen my floor in 15 years.

Seriously everyone and his dog [ and next doors cat ] harps on about doing dovetails.

I have used shapers in industry and at home, had three over a period of time and never had need to do a dovetail on one in all that time.

It's only infernal dovetails anyway that's hard and needs a cutter, the external ones can be done on a horizontal mill with a 60 degree cutter usually in one pass and belt a big stick off at a time.

Owned a vertical slotter until a month or so ago then sold it on. Takes up too much floor space when a slotting head on the back of the bridgy wil do the same job and take up no extra room.

I recently made some "Aloris" type toolholders for the AXA toolpost on my old Boxford and had to do some "infernal" dovetails.

In fact nearly all the facets of these were cut on an Elloitt 10M.

Paul