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Ammco 6" Metal shaper

T

TonyK

Member
In 2012 I picked this Ammco Metal Shaper up from a friend that I had worked with at Ontario Hydro. I had also purchased a 6"Myford lathe, his 11" 5L Harrison lathe and a Cincinnati Number 2 tool grinder. The shaper appears to be an early model with a 6" name plate. The knee or Z axis is from below and the ram has only single oil cups on each side. The machine is not complete as it is missing he linkage for the X travel, I will make one. I suspect that this machine was driven from a common line shaft as the previous owner made up a motor base from wood and 4X4 posts. Currently I have taken the machine apart, cleaned it and sand blasted the metal parts.

There was a lot of paint on the machine. Two different colours of grey and then green which I think was the original colour. I will be painting it green again in the restoration. All of the ways and bearing surfaces were tapped over with industrial masking tape then I used contact cement to bond CorePerene to protect from the sand blasting process.

If anyone can offer any opinion about this machine, year and why it is green rather than grey, comments most welcome.

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.

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Canadium said:
Don't have any answers for you. Presumably you already checked out VintageMachinery.org? All I can say is that I have one too and mine is blue. Pictured in post #6 at following link ...
Canadium

Post in thread 'Bring out your shapers'

TorontoBuilder said:
did I see this gem on facebook?
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Ya! If it wasn't for your post it wouldn't be here!

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From what I have been researching that is a very early machine with the cable advance for the X axis. Thank you for sharing.

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.
 
Part of the process when I was taking the machine apart was to clean each part, remove rust and examine each part should it need repair. I find it disturbing that the table was beaten with a hammer. Okay, it is an old machine, the table is stuck and needs some force to break it free, but a hammer? What about a soft face hammer? What about a block of wood or aluminum?

Today is a snow day here in Grimsby so I thought I would work out in the shop and coat the back sides of all of the major parts with orange Tremclad from a spray can. Very thin paint that takes several coats and takes days to dry. Years ago I restored a 1953 John Deere Model 40 Crawler. The inside of the transmission is coated with a paint and it's purpose is to seal the porosity of the casting from weeping oil. I suppose it is the same with these old machines. Stop the rust from cracking the casting from within over time. I will let it sit for a few days as my shop is kind of heated and 60 degrees is what I shoot for. Paint drys slowly.

On another note when I first obtained the machine I saw pictures of a cabinet that was made from Maple and was factory ordered. My dad retired at the time, built this cabinet from maple (2012) but we made it a bit deeper to allow storage of other tools in the cabinet below. Finally it may see it's intended purpose. ( Dad was 85 at the time, currently 97 in a nursing home.)

The person I purchased the shaper from ( Tom Robertson ) died in 2015, I wish I would have asked him more about where he purchased the shaper. Tom was a bit crusty and crude with his work, his basement full of tools and materials and lived on the Hamilton Mountain. Here is a picture of the motor and reduction he built. Not to my standard. I will reuse the reversible motor and build the rest of the drive for the machine.

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.

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Moving along I decided to look at cleaning the Clapper Box as it was dirty and a bit of rust in a few spots. Also this machine is put together with taper pins of many different sizes. When I worked at Nanticoke a lot of the old British machines used taper pins but that was 1975 and I have not really seen it in current machines. The clapper is held by a 1/4" taper pin and once cleaned up a bit it showed cracking at the pin bosses. I started cleaning the clapper box and it appears that at some time there must have been a crash and it was repaired with brass filler rod. At this point do I remake the box or try and repair it. I decided to repair it with 316 stainless steel filler rod and my TIG welder. I used an .045" cut off wheel to grind through crack and to keep the shape and centre of the hole I turned a copper button to .285" as the copper will not allow the filler rod to attach to it and maintain the hole centre. Once welded I turned the button down to .235" and did the same for the other hole in the clapper box. The way the metal flowed out with the filler rod makes me think that the clapper box is cast iron. I may have to make a new one if the repair does not hold. I had to order a 1/4" taper pin reamer to finish the repair.

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.

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TonyK said:
Was it required? I am kind of a low profile kind of guy.

Thanks for the kind comments on the project.


TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.
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There is a special forum just for it, but I dont think it is required... you just get more attention that way. Another good way to garner attention is to post lots of big pics. You got that covered
 
Hi @TonyK Looks like you are making good progress. What are you going to do in the way of tooling and a vice? Hopefully your machine came with something. It took me a long time to find a holder and a slow speed motor.
Here is a couple pictures of my 10” Alba part with through restoration.
 

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Dabbler said:
@TonyK This is the 'bestest' introduction post you could have done!

Really great work on the shaper. You are going to be able to look at it with pride when it is done.
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One of the reasons I jointed this form is because it is mostly Canadian and a lot of locations I know where they are. The quotes for dollar values are CND and I don't have to convert. I am hoping that the restoration is functional, whether or not I find the OEM parts that are missing and at a reasonable price, well that it to be seen. In 2013 I restored my TOS FN20 that I purchased from the original machine shop that purchased new in 1977. A 600 Volt 3 phase mill and I built a 240 Volt to 600 volt rotary phase converter to power it. Back then CNC or even NC, was not in the picture for small shops and the machine came with a 5" vise and dividing head. It all worked but was grundgy and I took it all apart, sand blasted and then converted it to CNC, with manual control if needed into the build, Mach3 Software and used CamBam cad programing. I will not digress any further.

My hope is that possibly someone that has been tripping over an old Ammco does a search and finds this form and post and my possibly have some parts for sale, here's to hoping. So the restoration is to make a functional machine and as I put it together I can see some stuff that is not right and will have to deal with it. More on that I progress.

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada

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MashingMetal said:
Hi @TonyK Looks like you are making good progress. What are you going to do in the way of tooling and a vice? Hopefully your machine came with something. It took me a long time to find a holder and a slow speed motor.
Here is a couple pictures of my 10” Alba part with through restoration.
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I plead total ignorance and was not aware of Alba 10" shapers or Alba at all, I had to google search the make. Impressive.

Mashing Metal you bring up some good questions. As for tooling I picked up a zero degree tool holder on ebay fo $25 takes 1/4" HSS stock or insert tools. Sadley shaper did not come with a vise only a home made angle plate. So I purchased a 4" vise internet purchase and it is massive and a I cannot use it. I found this 3 1/4" vise on ebay and it shows some promise. I may never find an OEM vise, but for now I need something. Now you raise a good question about an electric motor. First off, I am an tradesman ( Electrician) and started my apprenticeship with Ontario Hydro at the Nanticoke Generating Station, now gone. As part of our training we learned to weld, machine with a lathe and milling machine and our base trade. That is where my interest came from. Most single phase motors are either 2 pole 3600 RPm or 4 pole 1800 RPM, that is the syncroness speed of the motor, slip gives a lesser value like 3450 or 1740 rpm's. The shaper came with a 1740 1/3 HP motor that has forward and reverse. What RPM does the shaper require? Two pole motors are normally used for pumps and I would expect the 4 pole is the norm, but I was not able to find anything that stated the RPM value of the motor required. If you would be so kind to share that information please. I suppose I could always purchase a small VFD ( Variable Frequencey Drive ) and change to a lower speed if required.

Thanks.

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada

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TorontoBuilder said:
There is a special forum just for it, but I dont think it is required... you just get more attention that way. Another good way to garner attention is to post lots of big pics. You got that covered
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The layout of this website is the same as the Fiat X1/9 site ( XWeb ) that I belong to, so posting is the same except different content and group of guys interested with actually making stuff and repairing stuff. Of course if you drive a Fiat ( 1979 and 1987 ) repairing and making parts and tools is part of the glory of OWNING and Italian Sports Car. Please stop laughing now.

All the best to you.

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.
 
@TonyK , The motor mine came with was an 1725rpm 1/2hp, I was lucky to find a good Leeson 1140 3/4hp which was closer to the factory motor, you can only go so small on the motor pulley and you can change the other part of the workings of the shaper. I know I could have gone down the VFD route, maybe one day.
I know it’s a bit tricky dialing in tooling.
I have on the list to make a Shaper Tee. Made famous by this guy.

I was lucky to pickup one of these holders

They are a fun little machine. I will be using it next for an internal keyway for an L1 lathe faceplate. The previous owner made a bar that fits into the clapper.

Thanks for all the details on your machine re build.

Regards Mark
 

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TonyK said:
The layout of this website is the same as the Fiat X1/9 site ( XWeb ) that I belong to, so posting is the same except different content and group of guys interested with actually making stuff and repairing stuff. Of course if you drive a Fiat ( 1979 and 1987 ) repairing and making parts and tools is part of the glory of OWNING and Italian Sports Car. Please stop laughing now.

All the best to you.

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.
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Jeez, I was actually laughing. Sorry.
If you don't know Rustinox on YT he is a big fan of shapers and has some good content on them. Thoroughly enjoyable chap.
 
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