Shapers

[greasemonkey]

Hi All
Whats the advantage of having a shaper in the workshop? When is it better to have a shaper than a milling machine
thanks

Andy

[ChrisCrosskey]

One obvious advantage is you can easily make your own cutters/resharpen etc as they are pretty much the same as lathe tools.... They're also very good at slotting

chrisc

[alanstepney]

Wonderful machines and very much under valued.

Tooling is cheap, as Chrisc said.
They produce flat, really flat, surfaces. With sharp tools, one can get two surfaces that fit so well that one can "wring" them the same as gauge blocks.

Splines, keyways etc are easy to make, as are gears.


On the other hand, they are slower than a mill, and less versatile in some respects.

Best solution is to have both!!

[Peter W.]

As it happens, my mill/drill is manual, but my
shaper cuts automatically ! Well, for one pass ..

The real reason though, as Alan says, is to get
a flat surface. Also, I can get a far superior
surface finish on the shaper, though my tools are
obviously not as sharp as Alan's !

I've not been following prices, but shapers
were MUCH cheaper than vertical mills, so
mine was in addition to a mill.

The tools are more or less the same shapes as
on a lathe, but I find they need more clearance,

All the best,
Peter

[Tel]

Internal gears, splines, keyways, the list is endless. Wouldn't be without mine