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How a Shaper Works


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A while back it was brought up on this Forum that a Shaper was used in the making of a Thompson, but at the time, no good Videos could be found to show what they did. I think I finally found one. Taken from Facebook. I am a real sucker for metal work and wood working.



https://www.facebook.com/909415262465318/videos/1897993560274145/?t=45

Edited by Paladin601
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as an old time tool and die maker with over 50 years in the trade. only thing i could think of a shaper being used in manufacture of thompson receiver would be possibly having the shaper arm push a broach thru to cut the square extractor slot. evan then it would not be too efficent.. when i was a kid old machinist told me he worked at taft pierce co. making tooling, fixtures and inspection gages for auto ordnance co

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The outside profile could be done. A shaper removes a lot of metal quick. Set up time for it is usually longer than a CNC ,but if you are running many PCs the shaper is effective. I have ran one making stamping dies back in the 80s.
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Maybe I shouldn't admit to this, but I used a shaper in High School metal shop (1972). I was a bit ahead of the other guys, I already knew how to run a metal lathe and milling machine, and could both gas and stick weld.

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Maybe I shouldn't admit to this, but I used a shaper in High School metal shop (1972). I was a bit ahead of the other guys, I already knew how to run a metal lathe and milling machine, and could both gas and stick weld.

We had a couple of shapers in my College lab class that were donated by the US Navy, both had the same part broken and did not work. Still, nobody knew how they worked.

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When using this tool, does grain structure in the metal play a significant role in how this machine is used? Especially in the direction or plane in the area being machined?

I'd have to say no, just like any other machine tool, if the tooled metal is selected for it's machinability

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I still have a shaper in my shop at home but it rarely gets used. My Bridgeport sees most of the use.

 

Grain structure of metal-no it doesn't matter how it's machined other than if you are milling you want to "climb mill" or "conventional mill" and that comes into play with milling and how your running your tool paths

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Gone or going of the days when you could work on a project with your hands in a grade school type. I too was outside that norm working on my own projects without the adult watching over my shoulder when using a machine.

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Back in the day shapers were the backbone of milling. It took a while for rotary

milling to catch up. If you look at some of the older guns - the m1914 Hitchkiss

comes to mind - the gun was mostly made with shapers - you can get inside the receiver

with angled tools and machine slots and places you'd never be able to get to with

a milling machine. Plus the cutting tool for a shaper is formed and sharpened by hand

so you could make your own cutters. Not possible with an endmill.

Back in the 1970's as a young man I scoured the used machinery dealers in

Philadelphia looking for cheap machines for my shop. These warehouses were

huge old industrial buildings of yesteryear and they all had an area with dozens

of shapers - sometimes stacked on each other - which even back then were white

elephants that nobody wanted.

The scraping to cut and curl the chip was big. I remember seeing a device that

attached to a Bridgeport that had a tiny spoon shaped cutter. By means of dials

and power feed the spoon would arc down and run along for a distance curling up

a chip as it went and then

arc up and out again. I figured for making molds. As odd as the device seems it

was popular enough that they were sold as a standard accessory.

 

Bob

Edited by reconbob
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I am guessing as I only vaguely recall a picture of a shaper that was used in the AO or even Colt factory to cut the blish lock slots. Perfect tool for the job. But the pic might have been a dedicated tool, not a fixture on a shaper. I know Doug sells cutters for end mills that do the same work now.

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I remember all the machines that had in College, people would come in trying to buy them, because there were something that the old machines did better. Since we were close to the Naval Shipyard all of the machine came off ships. They were non standard sizes narrower, shorter, lighter and easy to move. This was back in the 80's and the got their first CNC verticle mill thru a trade with Laguna Machine tools for one of the non working shapers.

People like the old tools for their restoration project, I hear, because they leave the proper tooling marks on their projects.

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There is a list of the machining operations used to make the Thompson in Hill's The Ultimate Thompson Book. I'll give it a look later.

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Shapers were used in the toolroom, we cut long slots, created the cross hatching see on vise jaws, we even cut pockets for clearance first drilling a hole at each end, the shaper stroke was set to length of slot.

 

I still have one in my shop, its used to face plates with fine feed and does a nice job, better than the mill and leaves no swirl on the finish like mills do, the other thing I use it for is keyway slots thro pulleys, I have also angled the top slide and cut dovetails

 

the only down side of a shaper is the chips will fly quite a distance

Edited by laurencen
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Well, I scoured the operations lists and the shaper isn't specifically mentioned. Various milling operations, such as straddle, end, cross, and drop milling, are though.

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