Newest Member to the Atlas Shaper club

[Powder Keg]

~~ME~~

The last week or  so I have been cleaning/rearranging things in my shop for a new arrival. On Friday my wife and I drove to Provo, Utah to visit my friend Birk. Recently he had acquired a couple of Atlas shapers. One was complete and the other was parts. The complete machine was in pristine condition. It quickly replaced his old shaper. Birk had a friend that was restoring a old shaper. The parts machine had nearly every part the fellow needed. How lucky for him.

This left Birk with a "extra" shaper\o/ He told me he would like to trade me something for it. Something small and unique. I had an old clock that he was interested in and a deal was made\o/ My wife and I Left On Friday morning, for Provo. It's quite a ways. It took 3.5 hours to get there. We had a great day visiting with Birk and his wife. The shaper was loaded onto my motorcycle rack and strapped down. We hit Rush hour traffic in Salt Lake City and the return trip took 4.5 hours.

Yesterday I put a stand that I bought together. I wasn't happy with the bolts supplied so I went to the bolt store and got some stronger ones. Put everything back together and started cutting out some straps to make cross braces so the stand would be a little stronger. I drilled holes in the ends and rounded them so they would look nice.
 
Forgot to square things up. Loosened the bolts and racked everything back to square. Luckily the straps were too long and there was enough metal to work with. Got that all straightened out and started on the wood top. I cut and router'd all the edges and screwed the top to the table. I wanted the top shelf to be closed in. I tried a couple Ideas but weren't happy with how they looked. So I gave up on that idea for now. I cut out some Angle iron and drilled the legs to make another shelf 4" off the floor. I still have to get some wood for that.

Here is the shaper all loaded up.



A friend came over and we slid it down a ramp onto my little cart. Birk and I loaded it the same way.



Yesterday afternoon I hoisted it onto my table after moving some more stuff. I didn't get any pictures of that I was tired and I didn't want to get my camera dirty. Today I'll get some more pictures. I need to make a wrench to run everything and mount a vice.

Birk assured me that this shaper was already trained and knew how to do everything. He had owned it for 40 years he said. I feel very fortunate to be able to take care of it now.


More later....

[Powder Keg]

I forgot to add. i already have a couple of jobs lined up. The pedal end caps, for my Penny Farthing, have a "D" shaped hole in them. I'm planing on making this in my new shaper. I need to make a neat table extension to hold my dividing head. That new shaper that Birk has came with a pretty nice table extension. I snapped a few pictures

[Powder Keg]

I spent today cleaning in my shop. Man what a job!!! I did manage to make some progress though. I completely cleaned out several toolbox drawers. And rearranged a couple more items in the shop. I was looking for some tool holders that I remembered having. Here is what I found.



There were 2 left hand toolholders a straight and a parting blade holder. I managed to find the two wrenches that I needed and a small handle. The square drive in the handle is too big, but I can fix that.  I still need to come up with a vice, make some T-nuts, and make a table extension. I also oiled and greased everything I cold find that needed it. It should be making chips pretty soon


Later,

[Brass_Machine]

Great find Wes! Wish I had the room for a shaper (and a grinder). We need some pictures of the now clean shop!

Is that the Birk I think he is?

Eric

[Powder Keg]

This is him http://birkpetersens.blogspot.com/ I feel great full to be his friend. He is a very talented and creative guy.

Wes

[Bernd]

Hey Wes,

"Tool Envy" 

Bernd

P.S. Eric, if you ever find a shaper like this I'll be glad to store it in my 2300ft sq. basement untill you get room for it. 

[Brass_Machine]

Yup, that's the guy. He easily fits in the elite ranks (quite a few here do too!) of master builders. Would love to go hang out with him for an evening.

Bernd... I will keep that in mind, though it is a far drive for me to go use it when I need to! 

Eric

[Powder Keg]

We were there for 6-7 hours and I still want to go back and look. I imagine he only has about half the stuff he built on the web. There is some really neat stuff there. We payed special attention to the organ and a couple other items. I wish I lived next door to him He is super friendly and has people over all the time. He gave me plans for another project that he designed and built it is a can crusher. My wife played with it for nearly ten minutes. I'll start gathering materials up to build one. Mostly a welding project. With a little machining thrown in for fun

[Bernd]

Bernd... I will keep that in mind, though it is a far drive for me to go use it when I need to! 

Eric

It'll give you a chance to think the job through while drive here.

BTW, room and board will be provided while your here making your part. 

Bernd

[Powder Keg]

I made a washer to go behind the tool today. I found some dimensions on the internet.



I also found a smaller square hole to weld into my little wrench.



Getting closer

[Dean W]

Oh, THAT Birk!  He's shown some wonderful things on the other forum.  Very talented fellow!

Glad you got your membership to the shaper club, Wes.  It looks like a nice one!  I'm going to work my way into that
club someday, too.  Hope I'm not too old to shuffle around the shop by then.  ; )

Congrats, Wes!  Now you can have even more fun it the shop.
Hey, I don't remember seeing it.. Did you get that post drill all rigged and setup yet?

Dean

[Powder Keg]

I started fishing this summer and most of the shop activities stopped. There are only so many hours in a day. Fishing is slowing down and I'm leaning towards more shop related activities. Like the post drill, my belt driven grinder, and that old walker turner wood lathe. I had to move my electric grinder out to the shed so as the weather becomes cooler I'm sure that will be more important

Thanks for noticing me, Wes

[Darren]

Very nice Wes, I'm sure we are going to see some great things materialize from your new toy 

Nice truck, where's the plate?  Don't think we'd get away driving with such a load over here, you guys are so lucky ... yep I'm green, big trucks to play with .... 

[Powder Keg]

Thanks Darren. The truck is a 1989 Chevy Blazer. It's in pretty good shape but needs a little work. Around here if you can see  one of the plates they usually don't say anything.

[Powder Keg]

I'm thinking that a Downfeed stop would be handy for my little Atlas shaper? The dial is pretty small, and with things moving hard to see. There is a fellow selling such a creature on Ebay. I think I can make one similar or better. He has a picture of the stop, but doesn't show it installed on the shaper. So there will be a little figuring out to be done The only real trouble that I see is the depth rod might get in the way of the downfeed handle? but I think I can work around that. Anyone have any pictures of one installed on their shaper? Stay tuned

[Powder Keg]

I just found a great copy of the manual that came with these shapers. http://www.shinyobjectdesign.com/staff/paul/atlas7b/

[Powder Keg]

I've been looking at vices. I ran across this one that someone had on their shaper. It looks like it would be fairly easy to make one similar. I think I'm going to give it a go.



I like how the jaw swivels. I have to see what I have to make it out of. I think I want to incorporate replaceable jaws on mine. We'll see

[Powder Keg]

Here is a similar vice. It looks fairly straight forward to make. We'll see

[Powder Keg]

One of my first projects will need a table extension so I can mount a dividing head to my little shaper. Here is what I'm working on. Today I cut out my plates and ground the edges to size, drilled the holes and made sure everything is going to fit. I'm going to soak the pieces in vinegar over night to remove the mill scale.





I'll try and get out and TIG weld the parts up tomorrow.

By

[Powder Keg]

I didn't get around to soaking my parts last night. I didn't feel like going to the store To get the vinegar. I found a website that has some pretty good information on shaper use. It's Dons Machine tool Web page. He shows how to cut gears and internal splines on his Atlas 7B shaper.  (This would have helped when I made a little gear for my LeBlond lathe! I ended up broaching and filing the internal spline.)

I also found these plans for a shaper tool on the Yahoo shaper board.





I'm going to make a similar tool. I want to make it one piece though. I'm going to make the roundy end on the shaper with my dividing head and new table extension\o/


A small note... A friend gave me a 1/4" square broach a couple years ago. I'll be able to use it on the toolholder\o/


Later

[John Hill]

I've been looking at vices. I ran across this one that someone had on their shaper. It looks like it would be fairly easy to make one similar. I think I'm going to give it a go.



I like how the jaw swivels. I have to see what I have to make it out of. I think I want to incorporate replaceable jaws on mine. We'll see

That vice, and the Adept shaper, and those bricks all look very familiar!

[Powder Keg]

I thought they were yours. Hope you don't mind me borrowing your piccy?

Today I finally got the parts for my shaper table extension soaking in vinegar. Tomorrow, I should be able to clean them all up and start welding them together\o/. I'm pretty excited now. It won't be much longer and I'll be making chips\o/

[John Hill]

I thought they were yours. Hope you don't mind me borrowing your piccy?

No problem!   Bear in mind though that vice is actually very small.

Today I finally got the parts for my shaper table extension soaking in vinegar. Tomorrow, I should be able to clean them all up and start welding them together\o/. I'm pretty excited now. It won't be much longer and I'll be making chips\o/

Great!  Dont forget the pictures!

[Powder Keg]

Oh Yeah, I keep forgetting you guys like pictures I'll be right back



I set the parts in an old cooler and put some wires between them so the vinegar can get in there and do its stuff. Those other parts are for a 1920's wood lathe that I'm fixing up for fun. After a half hour little bubbles have formed over everything


Wes

[Powder Keg]

Been too busy to get much done the last few days. I cleaned up my shaper parts and welded them together. The fit is good. I have to tap it a couple times to get it on and off. I masked it all off for paint and went to the store for some light blue to match the machine. Turns out that I have a bad can. Grrrr only about a spot the size of the lid would come out. So you'll have to  wait till Monday for pictures.

[Powder Keg]

Well, Today I managed to get my table extension painted and installed\o/ It turned out pretty nice. But I forgot to take a picture, so you'll have to wait for that.

I also turned up a tool holder to hold a piece of 5/16" round HSS. (an old center drill) It has a flange on the back to keep it from going through the clapper on the shaper. Then the washer that I made and a 1" - 14 TPI jam nut tightens it onto the clapper. I need to mill a couple of flats on the nose so I can tighten it and drill 3-4 set screw holes to hold the tool in. I also need to grind up a couple of tool bits. I wish I had my surface grinder fixed....




I'll get some pictures of the painted extension soon