Bringing a Shaper into the 21st Century

[f350ca]

After solving the worlds problems over the phone with SteveC we discussed the merits and possibilities of cutting the racks for my future cnc plasma table. Steve says it can be done on the shaper (he's done it), good enough for me.
A DRO would make the task much simpler and more accurate, so I just ordered two scales with remote readouts to equip probably the worlds first shaper with a DRO.
Will have one on the table feed to index the teeth and a second on the down feed to get the tooth depth right and not have to rebuild the incredibly small indexing scales on the machine.
Pictures to follow.

[DaveH]

Greg,
This will be very interesting

DaveH

[Mayhem]

I agree - interesting indeed.

[sasquatch]

Waiting to see the pics, sounds interesting!!

[big job]

        Hi Greg, I mounted a digi calip. on mine works good. Gears & racks
we commonly do on a shaper without all the math. Most jobs are
chipped broken missing teeth. After properly grinding a form tool to
match rack we simply sandwich a good section of a broken rack to
a new blank, set up the cutting tool in the sample manually, then start
a down feed on the blank until down to the root of the sample. Same
proceedure with gears. And cutting tapers also. Also the dig. calp. isnt shown just a dial ind. to set a taper.

[f350ca]

So I won't have the only Shaper with a DRO. You ruined my only hope for a claim to fame.
When your cutting rack how do you clamp it to the table? I picked up some 3/4 x 2 flat bar, was going to bolt a section to the table then pin the rack to it (for indexing) then clamp another piece on the back side.
Thanks
Greg

[big job]

(10-27-2012, 08:48 AM)f350ca Wrote: So I won't have the only Shaper with a DRO. You ruined my only hope for a claim to fame.
When your cutting rack how do you clamp it to the table? I picked up some 3/4 x 2 flat bar, was going to bolt a section to the table then pin the rack to it (for indexing) then clamp another piece on the back side.
Thanks

Greg, no you can claim it I wont tell. As far as a rack it is sandwiched
in the shaper vise supported by parallels. The root will be real close to
the vise so > we also use a little oil and when the tool just swipes the
oil off, the root of the sample, you are there. It doesnt matter how long
of a rack; we cut as far as the table travel alows then they are C- clamped and advanced for the next section. Although time consuming
and maybe a DRO could help, but manually placing the tool in the next
exact sample tooth this method is more fail safe and no math or
measurements cause I hate math. Again the only biggie is grinding
the correct tooth form . If in doubt just try it with a piece of wood.
If you do not have a piece of rack (the sample) then I guess thats
where the DRO comes in. Once did a job where they had the gear but
no rack so we inked the gear rolled that on paper then scribed those
to the blank. Lot of standing there but its fun & gettin paid. Hope this
helps a little.

[f350ca]

Guess we'll be honest and settle for the second shaper with a DRO, never was good with fame and glory anyway.
No I don't have a piece of rack for a pattern hence the scales, for spacing and depth.
I only have a small vice for the shaper, so thought I'd build the clamp to hold the work right on the table.
The scales are ordered but haven't arrived via snail mail yet.
Thanks
Greg

[Rickabilly]

For cutting racks in the shaper and getting the tooth spacing right there is no substitute for using gear tooth verniers, simply grind a pointed tool with a small flat on the tip, use either 14.5 or 22 degrees depending on the pressure angle required, set a depth stop on the down feed to ensure you don't cut too deep, advance the rack to the approximate centre of the next groove, plunge to depth and then measure the tooth thickness at halfway deep and slowly back cut until the tooth is the correct thickness for the pitchline, then cut forwards until the groove is the right size. The math for gears is much easier than you think, On a rack and at the pitchline the width of the tooth and gap should be equal and exactly half of the pitch measurement.
As a Math example, for a ten tooth 10dp gear the pitch circle diameter is exactly one inch and the tooth width at the pitch line is so close to (pi x 1inch / 10)/2 and it's exactly the same calc to find the tooth thickness on the matching rack. Pi is a part of the calcs for rack teeth as a rack is effectively a spur gear of infinite diameter, and Pi is a ratio of the circumference:diameter of a circle and as dp stands for diametral pitch.
The metric module system works on a similar system but all the formulae and the measuring system is completely different
So as you can see there's no reason to be scared of the math it's all simple add, subtract, multiply and divide stuff, no calculus required. Of course I have simplified this a bit but it is fine for any hobby use and the values have no allowance for clearance, once again for hobby use no problem just make the teeth a few thou less than the exact numbers that the formulae churn out.

Oh and discaimer time, I just pulled this out of my memory so if you are going to use it check it first or let me know and I will double check / proof read your calcs.

Regard Rick

[f350ca]

Got a little time today to get back at this project. Funny I don't think the people designing these machines planned ahead for the day someone would want to install a scale on them.
Had to tear the table off and machine a flat, parallel to the table surface on the saddle.



Made up an angle iron bracket to support the scale, still need to make another bracket to fix the reader to the table.