Is this a Shaper tool or Lathe tool?

[itsme_Bernie]

Hey Home Machinists

I have seen a lot of lantern style lathe and shaper tools, but this tool is confusing me.

It is about 10 inches long and a little over 3/4 inch wide. It has a 1/2 inch square hole and channel, presumably for an HSS tool bit. It feels very nicely made, and the swinging clamp on top and the rotating head feel to be moving with precision.
It has a head that rotates to five positions, 45º apart. It loosens with the large nut on the bottom, and locates with a pin in the five holes (see pics). Of course when the head is rotated to any setting except perfectly straight, any 1/2 inch tool bit longer than the rotating head would no longer align with the 1/2 inch channel on the length of the top of the body of the tool.
There is a bolt on top that swings up, but the bolt would not tighten on the center about it's swing, so it would appear that it would just swing away when tightened onto the 1/2 inch tool bit. I don't know if this is missing a part?

Does this look familiar to anyone?

 

[mmcmdl]

Either ! Looks like it holds a HSS tool . What's the width of the groove ? Oh , never mind 1/2" . Most likely made for a shaper but could be used in a large lathe .

 

[itsme_Bernie]

I can't imagine why the clamp down bolt would be behind the center of the swinging part.. instead of just straight down? There has gotta be some reason, because it is so much more complicated with this part.
HMMMMmmm

 

[mmcmdl]

Can't see why either , it makes no sense ! I thought it may be put together bass ackwards and somehow used a cam to tighten down a blank .

 

[itsme_Bernie]

In case anyone doesn't understand my cockamamie explanation:

The actual clamp down bolt is offset about 7/8 inch from the center of the swinging part on the left in "A".
There must be some reason for the tilting hold-down-bolt-part to be behind the fulcrum?

Otherwise I would have expected the bolt to just go straight down like in "B" (which I photoshopped)

 

[pontiac428]

Nothing is manufactured with features that don't serve a purpose. Like the channel on "top" looks like a feed path for some kind of stock, maybe something that needs tension or preload. But why then would the head rotate with an index pin? Hmmm. Methinks not a tool holder, but part of a more sophisticated machine, like you might see in a packing plant or a printing press, maybe a linotype machine. Something generations obsolete.

 

[tobnpr]

Maybe I'm missing something but I see now way for that free-swinging hinged screw to lock/hold an HSS cutter... it just flops in the breeze.

 

[pontiac428]

The rounded end is meant to key into something and allow movement axially or radially. I think it's a feeder or counter, 'cause I'm hung up on the chute on top. Maybe it feeds banding around crates of peanut brittle. Or feeds wire into a machine that turns it into guitar strings. Maybe it feeds flat band into a forming machine that makes those fiddly clasps on ladies' undergarments.

 

[Jake M]

That's a shaper tool. Shaper tools are not very different from lathe tools, and as such they (almost) always can be interchanged, but there's not really any reason for that on a lathe. Although you surely could.

I'm not positive on the locking mechanism there, but I believe (take that at face value), I believe that if one were to load that with the correct HSS blank, the screw would push down on said blank, and rotate the "block" that it threads through. It's semi-squared rounded edge would push down on a different point on the HSS blank, making a two point contact, possibly with a higher force at that point than the one under the screw.

I further suspect that if one were to operate it at the "sideward angles" it allows for, it would (most practically" take "normal" HSS cutting tools, although there is no real limit. In the "straight ahead" position, I suspect one could load a longer HSS blank, and essentially sharpen it forever without having to start over.

 

[itsme_Bernie]

Nothing is manufactured with features that don't serve a purpose. Like the channel on "top" looks like a feed path for some kind of stock, maybe something that needs tension or preload. But why then would the head rotate with an index pin? Hmmm. Methinks not a tool holder, but part of a more sophisticated machine, like you might see in a packing plant or a printing press, maybe a linotype machine. Something generations obsolete.

Ahhhh.. INNnnterestinnng
hmmm