Douglas 10 1/2" Shaper

[Mayhem]

Last week I saw an ad for a Douglas shaper for sale in Albany, some 430km (267mi) South of me. So I did a little reading about them and sent several questions to the seller and decided to drive down and take a look yesterday. Ten hours and fifteen minutes later, I had it back home Big Grin

I had sat in the corner of this guys shop unused for several years, so there was no plug on it and it was covered in dust. It had been used exclusively for cutting keyways in pulleys. Whilst he had never used the auto feed, he was confident that it worked. Turning the drive pulley cycled the ram and the ratchet clicked forward but didn't seem to disengage and actual pulled the ratchet back - effectively rocking the table.

After getting it home, I unloaded it, put on a plug, oiled the ways and hit the green button. The ram actually travels faster than I expected and really hits hard on the return stroke. The motor is a new one, so it may actually be too fast. Alternatively, I may have screwed something up when I removed the ram to clean the old oil from the ways. What are the possible causes for the ram hammering home?

The ratchet mechanism and the gear it drives is covered in years of dust and I will give it a good clean and hopefully see what is happening. In reality, I need to do some reading and looking at YouTube to learn how to adjust and use one properly.

Here is the link to the lathes.co.uk page on these shapers.

OK the pics:

[vtsteam]

This should be a fine read -- you did a great job Mischief restoring that lathe!!

Definitely following this one.

I probably sound like a broken record about David Gingery's books, but I bet his book on building a shaper from scratch would really be of interest to you -- inexpensive little paperback -- and certainly will give in depth and practical treatment of all of the parts, how they work together, tuning, the history of shapers, etc. That would be my first resource. Well I own it and an Atlas shaper partially assembled, so not just "would be." Is.

[awemawson]

Sort out any backlash on the cross feed screw/nut and I'll bet that the ratchet will work fine. Mine was just the same until I took up the play.

[unc1esteve]

I have two shapers.
I do not understand what 'hammering home' means.

[Mayhem]

Thanks Steve.  I have a copy of How to Run a Metal Working Shaper - South Bend (1966) but that wasn't all that helpful in terms of troubleshooting.  I managed to find a copy of Shapers - Stieri (1942) which has a lot more info in it.

Thanks awemawson, your advice fixed the problem.  As soon as I read your reply it made perfect sense.

Thanks unc1esteve.  What I meant was that on the return stroke there was a loud thump at the end of the stroke and the force was enough to actually push the shaper back.  Reducing the stroke adjustment solved this.  I have since tried different stroke lengths and it seems to be fine.

Now I just need to make a tool holder and make some chips!

[NickG]

Snap! I've just got a boxford 8" on thursday but need to change motor for a single phase. Will be watching with interest as it might help me out too. You can, on mine, crank over by hand to make sure nothing is colliding in a way you don't want - there's a sq drive and a crank handle on the end of the final drive pulley.

[mattinker]

Hi,

you might be interested in the yahoo shaper group. There are some interesting tool holders amongst other things in the files section.

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Metal_Shapers/?yguid=183173907

Some interesting shaper reading.

http://www.neme-s.org/shapers/shaper_columns.html

Regards, Matthew

[Mayhem]

Thanks for the links Matthew - I will check them out.

Well I welded up a quick and dirty tool holder out of some scrap.  Fashioned a tool out of a broken HSS tap and let loose on a lump of aluminium scrap.

[vtsteam]

Cool!!

Yer makin me want to get mine going.....

 

[awemawson]

  Looking good !

Yep - I've an 18" stroke one sitting next to the Bar Feeder I'm working on - it's tempting to set it going just to hear that lovely  'shaper rhythem'

[Mayhem]

Thanks guys.

[tom osselton]

I have a 7 " atlas  I'm starting to get to know, one thing to watch is if the cutter travels to far past the work as it hits on the return stroke it bounces with more force coming down marking your workpiece somewhere in the middle making you scratch your head. 

Tom

[Mayhem]

Thanks Tom - I had noticed that and still need to get a handle on adjusting the position and length of the stroke to get it where it needs to be.

I have to do some beating on the belt guard, as I think the PO made it and having never used the ratchet, I have found that it catches.  Also it is a little cumbersome in how it fits.  I'm hoping to give it a clean on the weekend.

[AdeV]

Looking good !

Yep - I've an 18" stroke one sitting next to the Bar Feeder I'm working on - it's tempting to set it going just to hear that lovely  'shaper rhythem'

Aha! Finally I have a bigger machine than you  My 22" stroke Edgwick machine; it works, I just need to figure out how & when to use it...

[Mayhem]

Fantastic - my thread has turned into a big stroke competition 

[awemawson]

Hey Adev - this isn't a competition - anyway I've got very small machines as well 

[unc1esteve]

You will have less problems and a better finish
if you use a lower RPM.

[AdeV]

Hey Adev - this isn't a competition - anyway I've got very small machines as well 

I should hope not - you would win hands down!

I have a lathe that is, in total, about 10" long, stands about 4" high... it would be fully working if it had a toolpost...