As Ady1 said, but then looking at even the smallest design, they are very rigid cast iron. To reduce cost, consider concrete for the bed? roller bearings for the sliding head etc.
BobH

I don't see how the Gingery Shaper could be made for £500. The motor and pulleys would consume the first £100 and the castings for the ram, head, table etc another £200 even before you start machining.
These students must think "Outside the Box" for a novel idea.
BobH

If you go the cast Iron route make the patterns from blocks of polystyrene glued together. OK it gets destroyed when burnt out of the sand but it costs nothing using recycled packaging. I used this method when I made a new cross slide for my lathe. Any foundries in Nottingham to talk to ?

Hello Ryan, good morning.

I started to make a shaper machine by following partially, Gingery's plans, without castings.
Following a fire in the garage / workshop I stopped the construction that I will someday resume.
If you are interested, you can see photos ***here*** and a small movie of it ***here***.

Regards
Dias Costa

Have a look at Joseph Noci 1 ,s albums and his posts on the restoration of his shaper it is well worth looking at to give you ideas what can be done with a shaper.

David

Posted by
Davey J 11/10/2017 07:53:04

Might be worth checking the "Gingery shaper". The majority of which could be easily
constructed from sheet materials instead of castings That's where I am looking at the
moment. Book still available from various suppliers.

I would agree with this ,the Gingery book would be a good starting place for
any would be constructors of a home built shaper.
My own version of this follows a similar construction to the Gingery machine
but uses steel plate and cast iron block.Seen here all of this was made in 2013
and has sat in the corner of the shop ever since,runs at the moment on an old
washing machine motor .Designed from the start to be part cnc and manual
machine is an easier job then retro fitting an existing machine.
I may even finish it at some time.

John

Give me credit, my first suggestion was a planer using linear bearings!

Neil

I would be very focused on rigidity and inertia. The transient loads in the frame (all the way from the tool through the movement and back through the table to the work) are going to be critical to avoiding distortion and chatter. And the inertia that is inherent in most shaper designs (the mass of the ram itself plus the equivalent mass of the geared up moments of inertia of the bull wheel, drive gears and motor) surely plays a significant part in their operation.

My understanding is that a planer has a travelling table (and work), so the inertia is also going to be pretty significant.

I'm not convinced that a lightweight tool post driven by a relatively elastic drive belt is going to work in a satisfactory way. Besides, as the cost of motors and associated drive electronics will be a significant fraction of the total, I'd consider keeping the motor speeds high, where a decent power output will be possible. That would also allow you to maximise the effects of the moment of inertia of the drive train. Perhaps a geared motor and ballscrew might be a workable compromise?

Murray

+1 on emphasizing importance of rigidity in machine tool design. If you want a planer or shaper to make flat surfaces to reasonable accuracy and with good finish, it must be rigid and must have sturdy guiding elements with miminal clearances. Drive elements should also be rigid members rather than belts.

Linear guides and belts are fine for things like plotters and 3D printers where there is little or no force on the "tool head" during working, but they will not be robust enough for a shaper or planer.

For shapers and planers think inches thick of cast iron for frame and guides, V gibs or L gibs for the guides, and heavy steel or iron gears and bars for drives. Lots of well oiled bronze too, at wear points. (Like they did in the 1800's onward, for same reasons as mentioned). If made well this type of construction will give reliable long lasting accurate machine tools. If built too lightly there will be all sorts of accuracy issues and harmonics issues with machine tools.

Couple of video links below, in first one, skip to minute 1.00. This is a big Cincinatti shaper. Second one is a smaller Elliot. Both are great examples of good shapers.

Edited By Jeff Dayman on 12/10/2017 13:45:18

A video below with some coverage of the internals of a working Steptoe shaper. Lots of well lubed good heavy CI and steel there. Many brands of shaper had the mechanism made exactly this way. Again, skip the first minute of shaky crap video to get to the worthwhile stuff.

"It would be brilliant if we could see some metal planers and shapers in action; "

You are about 20 years too late to see that easily – and they were getting thin on the ground then

"but remain in use in industry."

Barely. This one is currently for sale local to me. **LINK**

This is one of the last I know of – 2 of the 3 the others I used to have work done on have been scrapped over the last 10 years or so & I would not be suprised if it failed to find a buyer & was scrapped also. Even assuming it got a bid at the start price, it would most likely cost at least as much again to get it dismantled, moved, a foundation put in & re-installed. The Waldrich linked to was actually the smaller of the two planers at that company, so I guess that the larger Craven has already been scrapped. I dismantled a Swift Summerskill planer for scrap where I work now about 5 years ago – it was worth more as scrap than it would have sold for intact. There was nothing wrong with it & I felt guitly about having to kill it, but we needed the space for another machine that would make money. Planer tables fitted with legs & used as marking out or assembly tables come up in auctions quite regularly – every one a dead machine. At one time they were sent out to India , but that market largely disappeared when the indian Goverment put large import tariffs on used machinery to encourage Indian industry to invest in new machines rather than buying obsolete used ones.

I wonder why the lecturer set this task, as universities have been teaching that planers & shapers are obsolete for at least 25 years – I had to work with a placement year engineering student over the acceptance of a rebuilt machine that long ago & he brought in one of his course books on machine tool technology that dismissed planers in half a page, with a line drawing & one paragraph. Maybe beacuse the students would be unlikely to come across one in real life & have to work out how they worked from scratch ?

Nigel B

Edited By Nigel B on 12/10/2017 20:08:25