Facinating Bob. I was surprised there was a shaper as part of the equipment as they have been seen as obsolete by most. Is it possible to give an overview of some of the projects you made? I have no reference at all what you would make for a ship.
Thanks, Yes the shaper was rare, it was the only ship in my whole career that had one. it was part of a composite machine An all in one. A lathe, I forget the exact dimensions but around 14" x 36" with gap which increased the swing to about 20" from about 6" from the face plate, but very useful and all the usual extras, including a very good tool post grinder. I was very strict about using it.
Mounted outboard of the headstock was a combination mill, horizontal spindle with overarm support, we could remove the spindle and support and crank out a vertical spindle head. The table was mounted on a knee, which could be cranked right down low and open a cover and out came a shaper ram. the mill was only of modest size and the shaper quite small, but none the less very useful. It saved a lot of filing. the shaper was mainly only used for internal keyways and a few other similar jobs. The mill was also used for keyways and splines, gear repairs, which were a lot of fun because we didn't have divider head or anything similar.
We also did a lot of repair work on pump shafts and impellers. we had dozens of pumps most of them centrifugal and ranging from about 5HP up to 100HP. These larger ones would just fit onto the lathe and sopin in the gap, normally would have them mounted on their own shaft and run between centers so they were running true without complex setup. The main job here was to machine off the worn out wear rings and fit new ones. Many other jobs, including repair damaged bolts big cylinder head studs 90mm dia.
Also make new special tools, As I had originally trained as a tool maker I often saw that I could make a special tool that would make our life easier.
I think the most challenging job I ever had was to make a new spool for a hydraulic spool valve. The valve was mounted out on deck an was used to control a deck crane. the sea water had got to it and caused the chrome to peel off the spool which made it useless. I said I would make a new one, the other engineers fell about laughing knowing that it had to be finished to a tolerance of about 2 tenths of a thou. perfectly round and parallel for its length. The spool was 80mm in dia. and about 700mm long. They said it couldn't be done had to be chrome plated and precision ground. I agreed that would be ideal, but we can't do that, I also said to them that quite clearly they didn't think they could do it. But don't think for a minute that I can't. (me and my big mouth) I now had to do it and prove to them that I could I did it. It took a while. I used a piece of an old head bolt that was damaged beyond repair, they were a special high tensile steel the at machined beautifully. I spun it between centers. Taking it down slowly and getting any taper out of the setup, at about 0.02to finish I changed the tool to HSS and slowed the lathe down to just under 100RPM. From about 0.0005 oversize I took it down with fine emery cloth. I'd had a couple of other guys dismount the valve body and bring it down to the workshop, so I could trial fit it, eventually got it to just fit and we reassembled it back on deck. It worked perfectly. The other guys weren't happy, I had showed them up I just told them as long as they think they can't do something they'll never learn to be any better. I think two of them got it but the other two never did.
BTW shapers are not obsolete, they are very useful try making an internal keyway or spline on a mill. People who have never used one just don't appreciate how useful they are.
Thanks for asking.