Shaper table support

[Evan]

Following the advice of some of the members here I built a table support for my Whipp shaper. I have been noticing vibration in the table when taking heavy cuts and even some on light cuts.

At first I thought attaching it to the machine base would be a problem but I did notice that the machine has a couple of flat pads cast in and machined where it would be convenient to bolt on a support. I thought that the bolt holes might only be provided along with a support which may have been optional. There were dimples in the pads that looked like the right place to drill holes for bolts.

I pulled out the drill and started to drill a pilot hole, To my surprise the drill went through as though it were cheese. As it turns out the holes were already drilled and tapped but had filled with the dried and hardened crud of over 75 years. They had then been painted over and looked like the rest of the iron.

So far, so good. I had a look around on the net at pics of table supports and then came up with my own design.

Here is proof that one cannot have too many clamps. Fitted up and ready for welding.



I've been getting some nice welds from the Miller.



And, here it is installed. I haven't decided whether to paint it or not. It will be drenched in oil so there is no chance of rust, which doesn't happen here anyway.



I have been getting some pretty decent finishes from the machine. I will be interested to see if the support improves it. Here is a recently finished part before the support was added.

[J Tiers]

Not sure the finish will improve for a light cut.

The major reason is that a heavy cut will stay on dimension, and not be influenced by the table "nodding" down. Chatter is usually a ram issue, as it has less "effective mass" than the table + work + vise.

But a finish improvement is not impossible.

[Alistair Hosie]

Nice job Evan nice welding too regards.Alistair

[jkilroy]

Speeds and feeds

Evan,

Could you share some info on the feed and speed you used to make that finish? What type of tool grind did you use? Thats a nice surface.

[Evan]

Could you share some info on the feed and speed you used to make that finish? What type of tool grind did you use?

The speed was slow, about 8 inch stroke at 20 strokes per minute. Feed was very fine, I haven't calculated or measured it yet. I made a custom index wheel for the machine that allows for the finest possible indexing it is capable of. It has provision for different index wheels but only came with one. I found an old gear of the same OD and bored and keyed it to it the shaft. It has about twice the steps (teeth) and can index at half the rate.

Tool is ground with a very wide nose radius and a 30 degree side rake cutting on the right side and the bottom as seen from the front.

[Alistair Hosie]

dinky little bench grinder Evan where did you get it ?Alistair

[Alistair Hosie]

dinky little bench grinder Evan where did you get it ?Alistair

[Evan]

Bench grinder? Do you mean the little cutoff saw? It's very handy for cutting tool steel and HSS lathe bits or similar. I am testing a new super thin ceramic zip cut wheel on it for my wife. It cuts extremely cool, cool enough that you can handle the cut end of a part right after cutting. The wheel is 0.041" thick.

Oh yeah, I bought it at Canadian Tire for about $50.

[jkilroy]

Thanks

Thanks, I use a grind very similar to that as well. My biggest issue with my big shaper is I can't get a feed less than .010 per stroke. So I have to put a monster radius on the tool bit. On my little Southbend I can get a tiny feed and get great finishes with just about any grind you care to use.

[quasi]

Evan, that is FANTASTIC looking welding for flux core wire. That is a cool little chop saw, chinese made I imagine?

[John Stevenson]

Evan,
You can get those ceramic wheels down to 30 thou now.
I recently cut a loose boss from a stainless heater tank by chopping a square out of the stainless tank, welding the nut to the sheet on the inside and welding the plate back into the tank.

All that you saw was a neat [ for me ] welded plate with a narrow seam.

.