Building an Aligator

[f350ca]

Thanks Ken, it gets used to its limits every now and then. Turned about 27 inches on the one end, that was in 4 diameters though so the longest cut was about 10 inches. No appreciable taper in that length. Ran it 250 rpm with TNMG inserts, and .0085 feed. Faster would have been nice but was afraid I'd get the shaft whipping. Only one 3 inch keyway where the bull gear goes on. Think I'll use pins to lock the paddles, if they pick up something in the water they might shear and save a huge repair.
I need to bore out the bull gear to fit the shaft, lots of meat in the hub so that won't be a problem, but haven't figured out yet how to cut that keyway. The gear is probably cast iron, haven't checked yet. BUT its 32 inches diameter, even if I had a broach, which I don't it wouldn't in fit the arbour press, its probably a couple of hundred pounds so heavy to try and mount on the front of the shaper. Guess I could grind a cutter and slowly eat it away stroking the spindle on the mill. If I went that route how do you lock the spindle from turning on a Bridgeport clone?