Back to the thing again tonight

Time for a sitting at the shaper now. I do like using the shaper, so relaxing compared to other tools. Can even go and make a cuppa whilst it's going as mine has auto stops fitted.
Using my lathe index tool here, the finish is more to my liking than the mill gives...

Checking it's all square, yep looks good enough to me

Now then, another clue as to what it may be. I needed to cut some 60 degree dovetails. I don't have a milling cutter for this job so I'm going to use the shaper. After all, it was designed to shape things

I needed a cutting tool, the index was no good as it's angle was over 60deg. I guess normally Iyou'd grind up a HSS blank to the shape required. But this metal is hard, too hard for HSS. It was destroying carbide tips at a rate of knots.
I found this, it stated 18%, I presume that meant HSS with 18% cobalt?
18% is a high ratio, my other ones are 5%. Maybe it would last the course, only one way to find out....

I used a threading tool gauge to determine the 60deg angle. Anything less than would be ample, this turned out to be 55deg.

I set the top slide over to 60deg on the shaper and started cutting

A little while later, like an hr later.....and we have this

Turn it over and machine the other face

Shaping finished and now off back to the miller, drilled another hole and tidied the edges up with a chamfer tool..

Right then, have you guessed what it's to be yet. You should have by now

A quick clean up and it's looking rather good...

Incidently, I dropped it on the floor. Took a chunk out of the concrete, and I though oh no !!!
Picked it up, wiped the concrete dust off it to look for the damage......not a mark on it....
I was going to make two of these, but making just this one has been a task. The metal is simply too hard, it's destroyed tooling, not one but about five carbide tips and one carbide milling cutter, two hacksaw blades, a bandsaw blade and my scribe !!!!!
Well ok I can sharpen the scribe....

I think I'll leave the rest of this bar for something else, something much simple.......like a rusty bar or sumut....
