Thats a good idea Steve, will give it a try, if I'm deep or shallow anywhere the gantry would move sideways, probably less than the resolution of a torch cut but can't hurt to check. The finish is partly the shiny camera at work, its good but to as shiny as the photo shows, cut it with a two insert indexable end mill.
The cutter is holding up really well Dave, I cut most of these teeth with only a couple of light dressings with a fine diamond hone. I'd cut a few teeth with a 1/4 cutter in a tool holder but was getting horrible chatter and the resulting digging in. The DRO works great, the scales on the Logan are useless, scribed on about a 1 inch cylinder. Just hope the error in these Chinese wonders is good enough, but I'm guessing as good as the accuracy I'd get from Chinese made racks. Now I need to CNC the shaper and let it do the repudiative work.
The vice gives good support Mayhem, but more important indexes the racks. I drilled and reamed the holes in the racks with a jig on the mill to give 8.000 inch spacing, must be close as I can flip one of the parts and still get the dowel pins through all three parts. The plates on the table have reamed holes 8.000 apart, after i've cut 8 inches of teeth I can index the racks on the dowels, move the table back 8.000 inches and rezero the DRO