Follow on Shaper Gloat...

[Eric DeSilva]

I found a great deal on a 3HP Jet shaper a little while ago and posted about it. The advice from SMC was "get a power feeder and get some shaper books." Well, I read a few books and the advice there was "get a power feeder." So, I casually looked at the things. Kind of expensive, so I resigned myself to addressing that some other time.

Well, I fired up CL last night and, lo and behold, a Grizzly 220V power feeder--never used--for $300. Its a G4179, and its kind of a monster, but I decided to heed the signs around me. Picked it up today. Now, anyone wanna advise me on how much of a pain its going to be to drill four large holes for mounting this puppy in the cast iron table of my shaper?

No pics, no gloat, so here's a quickie:

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[William Addison]

Drilling the holes isn't hard at all. You do need to be careful not to drill into one of the webs under the table. Most people tap the table, I decided to use nuts on the mounting bolts but if I were doing it again, I'd tap the holes because it's so much less trouble.

[Cary Falk]

Drilling holes in cast iron is not nearly as hard as bring yourself to drill into the nice shiney top.

[Gregory Stahl]

There are clamps available so you do not have to drill into the shaper table. I don't know how strong they are, but they are not expensive. Grizzly has one on p79 of their catalog. It will probably work just fine with your shaper. Part number G4175, $32.95.

Best,
Greg

[Eric DeSilva]

That bracket looks kind of interesting... Got to admit, I'm not really super high on drilling holes in the cast iron. Think I've got some taps somewhere, but don't know if I've got a size that would even work... Since I don't think I'm going to tax the holding power of the power feeder for a bit, that appears to be an excellent solution.

Wonder if it would fit on my Unisaw as well...

[Doug Jones from Oregon]

Eric. As others have said, easy to drill the holes, and very cool if you can tap them...I always just used bolts and nuts. I never did trust the clamps....these things are heavy and can put a lot of pressure on the hold down...

Yes, it will work on your uni...have fun moving it. Probably wind up like me with a power feed for both and then a uni dedicated to a power feed and one for everything else!

It never ends.

Doug

[Peter Quinn]

Congrats on that feeder. Once you use it you'll be glad you got it. Its safer by far, but also important the work comes out better than a hand feed every time.

I am in the tap the table school. I have a griz 1HP 3 Wheel feeder that lives on the shaper and takes the occasional trip via mobile cart to the TS, which is also tapped. Takes about 5 minutes to move it over, not to difficult, never try to dead lift it alone.

Tapping the table is pretty straight forward with the right gear and a good paper template. If you don't have experience tapping cast iron I can lay out the basics for you if you want to go that way.

Good luck and enjoy.

[Eric DeSilva]

Well, for $32, the clamp seems like a decent interim solution. Maybe I'll try that and at least get comfortable on where I want to drill the holes. Given my luck, I'd drill four holes in the shiny top and then figure out I put them in the wrong place.

In terms of drilling the top, my tentative plan would have been to look on the underside for the webbing, mask off where the webbing is on the top, move the mounting plate around so it doesn't intersect with the webbing, permanent fine tip magic marker where the holes line up, scribe the centers with a straight edge, center punch the centers, and then spend a whole lot of time with the corded drill... If my old lessons on tapping a hole are remembered correctly, use lots of cutting fluid and back off the tap often... Seem like the right plan?

[Kyle Kraft]

Eric,
I know there will be some dissention on this, but cast iron can be drilled and tapped dry, according to the machining guidelines published by cutting tool manufacturers. The reason is because the free carbon in cast iron privides lubricity and also cast iron produces discontinuous chips, not the stringy ones created when tapping steel and other metals. Kerosene or air blast can be used, or your can pour a gallon of your favorite cutting oil on it.....you'll just have a bigger mess to clean up afterwards.

Usually flood coolant is used in production machining operations to control the dust produced from the cutting action.

I'm away from my desk, but I'll try to find chapter and verse from the machinists handbook for your reference.

Take care to make sure your holes are drilled and tapped perpendicular to the table top for best results.