Shaper - depth of cut

[RWL]

I'm a new South Bend 7" shaper owner. In mild steel, what's the usual depth of cut and feed rate?

[Bob Ford]

I have a 8 inch Shape rite. It is slightly heaver built. On mild steel I have taken .150 depth of cut with a .20 feed. Used this setting to square a 6x6 block. Shapers can take a surprising cut if the tool is sharpened right and all is set properly.
Bob

[Tel]

I usually limit my Douglas to an 0.060" cut, but it could take more with ease. Rarely more than 0.015" side feed - I'm never in that much of a hurry.

[oldtiffie]

+1 for my 11" (Australian-made) "Douglas" shaper.

I make a point of never hurrying or getting stressed either before I go into my shop or while I am in it.

Same with most other things too - although it can be hard to do with some people - but I manage which stresses them and not me.

[The Artful Bodger]

I find my little Adept 2 shaper will remove much more material when in a horizontal feed than a vertical feed.

[dp]

I find my little Adept 2 shaper will remove much more material when in a horizontal feed than a vertical feed.

That's interesting - do you suppose it is tool form factor?? My 16" Whipp shaper didn't seem to have any known limits of what it could cut in one pass. If it didn't outright stop (which it did often ) then it would finish the cut. My smaller Atlas shaper can't do that, but it short strokes really fast and gets the job done in about the same time because of rep rate. Another difference is my Whipp would spin off smoking blue curls but the Atlas does not.

I once ground a cutter for my whipp that looked like a shingle splitter. I figured it would break off but the darn thing would actually cause the ram to stall and the belts to slip (the slippage capability was by design) if the cut was too deep or the ram advance too slow. I'd seen a vid on YouTube with a similar shape and had to try it on some 1018. It spits off the curls with a PING!

[metalmagpie]

My old Atlas 7" shaper was only good for about .025" per cut.

[RWL]

I once ground a cutter for my whipp that looked like a shingle splitter. I figured it would break off but the darn thing would actually cause the ram to stall and the belts to slip (the slippage capability was by design) if the cut was too deep or the ram advance too slow.

Although this is only a little 7" South Bend, not a 16" shaper like the Whipp you're talking about, I've already stalled it, which concerned me because the bull gear is some sort of pressed fibre, not metal. In the case of my SB, the ram clamping handle allowed the ram to slip. I'm not sure if that's the built in safety in South Bends / crank shapers in general or not, but I'm sure glad it did slip.

[The Artful Bodger]

That's interesting - do you suppose it is tool form factor?? My 16" Whipp shaper didn't seem to have any known limits of what it could cut in one pass. If it didn't outright stop (which it did often ) then it would finish the cut. My smaller Atlas shaper can't do that, but it short strokes really fast and gets the job done in about the same time because of rep rate. Another difference is my Whipp would spin off smoking blue curls but the Atlas does not.

I once ground a cutter for my whipp that looked like a shingle splitter. I figured it would break off but the darn thing would actually cause the ram to stall and the belts to slip (the slippage capability was by design) if the cut was too deep or the ram advance too slow. I'd seen a vid on YouTube with a similar shape and had to try it on some 1018. It spits off the curls with a PING!

The problem with this little shaper on vertical cuts is that too much feed, or too wide a tool, causes chatter which I presume is due to the rigidity (or lack of) of this little machine, maybe the clearance in the ram slide and the cross slides are allowing the ram to lift. On a horizonal cut the table is much stiffer and the ram slide and the horizontal slide are not being lifted.

Thats my theory anyway.

[quasi]

Razor sharp tooling really makes a difference, as well as using a rougher geometry cutter for max. removal rates. My current shaper is an Elliot 14M, 3 hp.