Shaper rings

[schor]

I am making some shaper rings. They are 3/4" thick,  6.5" OD, will get turned down to 5.950. The inner dia on some will be 4-5" so that's a lot of boring and swarf.

What's the best way to do this? Can I cut out the ID close to required on the rotary table on the mill, then finish it up on the lathe? That way I still get a usable piece of aluminum that gets cut out of the middle.

Thanks.

[PixMan]

If you already have round plates to start with, I'd trepan on the lathe this way:

Face one side clean. Using a trepanning tool, plunge a face groove to 1/2 the depth of the thickness. Be exact about how far in you actually go. Flip the part in the chuck, clean the other face. Measure thickness, then plunge a trepan tool to within .005" to .010" of the face groove on the back. Do NOT break through with the lathe spinning as you don't want a kg of sharp edged aluminum disk shooting at you.

Remove from chuck, give the center section a good whack with a soft face hammer being careful t catch it with a leather of other protective glove. Now you have a usable slug.

[f350ca]

Or a hole saw in the tailstock.

[PixMan]

A hole saw that size would be troublesome, methinks. It would take a LOT of power and I think it would just stall a machine. In that size you can barely cut a decent wood.

[f350ca]

Use them all the time Ken, in aluminum that Ken's using I wouldn't even bother with coolant, just a shot of WD40. A hole drilled on the periphery of the circle to clear chips helps speed up the cut.

[stevec]

I wouldn't hesitate to use a hole saw 4-5" dia. in either of my lathes, heck If I can use it in a 1/2 electric drill.
I do recommend Greg's suggestion of a hole or 2 on the periphery for chip control.

[PixMan]

I've used large hole saws a few times too and know they can work if you just take it easy. The difference between using one and trepanning is night & day though. Trepanning leaves you with a blank that has no hole in the middle, and it just plain works so easy.

[Sunset Machine]

I wanna know what a shaper ring is.

[DaveH]

(12-13-2014, 10:02 AM)Sunset Machine Wrote: I wanna know what a shaper ring is.

And me

DaveH

[Highpower]

Ditto.