Hey everyone,
This will be my first post of any significance. I just plunked down $365 for the set of castings to make the "Strong Arm" hand shaper.
I can't say why, but I've always been attracted to shapers, (we have a big 16" shaper at work which is rarely used) and recently started searching for a 7" bench model to add to My brother in laws gunsmithing shop I'm helping him set up. Probably part of my attraction is that while not as fast as milling, with a shaper you are pretty much 'tooling independent", honestly who doesn't have a bigger pile of high speed and carbide lathe cutters than they'll ever use? Of course if making money were my objective then a shaper wouldn't be my first choice. But my real job as a tool and die maker supports me quite well, so I can afford to be a little whimsical in my hobby machining.
Well in my searching I naturally found the lathes.uk site, and looked to see what variety might be available. Imagine my surprise to find that there were a number of (mostly British) companies who made small hand powered shapers. When I saw them I instantly knew I wanted one. Unfortunatly they are quite rare, and few made it to the states. Thats when I stumbled onto Martin Models and their castings kit for a 4 inch hand powered shaper. some web searching turned up a few finished specimens, and they are just too cute.
I actually considered making one from scratch, but I think there is a real advantage to having cast iron surfaces that move against one another, and while it will require care and precision, there really won't be all that much material to remove to finish the castings. At least not as compared to making them from solid pieces of steel. I intend for this project to be a real working machine, not a toy. Of course I'll be limited size, and my willingness to crank the head back and forth. It looks like the lever could be mounted on either side, so If my right arm starts looking disproportionately large I'll switch to the other side.
www.martinmodel.com is where I ordered from, and there is a nice picture of a finished model at http://www.assra.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1270484536/15
I'll try and do some updates after I get started. Also I'm not sure if I embedded those URL's right, but we'll see.
Have a great day.
Levi
This will be my first post of any significance. I just plunked down $365 for the set of castings to make the "Strong Arm" hand shaper.
I can't say why, but I've always been attracted to shapers, (we have a big 16" shaper at work which is rarely used) and recently started searching for a 7" bench model to add to My brother in laws gunsmithing shop I'm helping him set up. Probably part of my attraction is that while not as fast as milling, with a shaper you are pretty much 'tooling independent", honestly who doesn't have a bigger pile of high speed and carbide lathe cutters than they'll ever use? Of course if making money were my objective then a shaper wouldn't be my first choice. But my real job as a tool and die maker supports me quite well, so I can afford to be a little whimsical in my hobby machining.
Well in my searching I naturally found the lathes.uk site, and looked to see what variety might be available. Imagine my surprise to find that there were a number of (mostly British) companies who made small hand powered shapers. When I saw them I instantly knew I wanted one. Unfortunatly they are quite rare, and few made it to the states. Thats when I stumbled onto Martin Models and their castings kit for a 4 inch hand powered shaper. some web searching turned up a few finished specimens, and they are just too cute.
I actually considered making one from scratch, but I think there is a real advantage to having cast iron surfaces that move against one another, and while it will require care and precision, there really won't be all that much material to remove to finish the castings. At least not as compared to making them from solid pieces of steel. I intend for this project to be a real working machine, not a toy. Of course I'll be limited size, and my willingness to crank the head back and forth. It looks like the lever could be mounted on either side, so If my right arm starts looking disproportionately large I'll switch to the other side.
www.martinmodel.com is where I ordered from, and there is a nice picture of a finished model at http://www.assra.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1270484536/15
I'll try and do some updates after I get started. Also I'm not sure if I embedded those URL's right, but we'll see.
Have a great day.
Levi