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Early Version Atlas 7 inch Shaper Rebuild

Earl Wong

Earl Wong

Active Member
I've been in search for an atlas Shaper for awhile to complete my collection of Atlas machines I've already rebuilt (can be found on my other posts) and finally came across this one from Ontario. It's an early version of the 7B Shaper that most people have, almost a prototype as I keep running across several differences between this version (according to Clausing built in 1937 according to serial number) and the latest versions.

I have completely disassembled it already, stripped and cleaned to assess what parts need to be made and repaired. There is surface scraping planned, parts built, and rebuilt. Stay tuned for the build progress and I welcome any comments that may help me in the build, especially if you have experience with these shapers.

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With all the components disassembled I discovered this old shaper had 3 different shades of green painted on over the last 80 years. The next order of business was assessing the damage and wear. I started with the main body of the shaper and can see that all the slideway surfaces will require scraping.
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I ordered an Anderson scraper from A&W Precision along with some other scraping supplies. I decided not to build a hand scraper until I can see how a commercially purchased scraper behaves. I may still order a Biax hand scraper.
I've been reading the book "Machine Tool Reconditioning" by Edward Connelly, its over 500 pages and has valuable information on the subject. You can view the entire book online for free.
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I converted a Drill Doctor into a carbide blade sharpener. I never liked the way it sharpened drill bits but knew it would come in handy one day. Its perfect to sharpen carbide because of its diamond wheel. I made a tool rest that has adjustable pivots so I can create different arcs for the carbide blades and provide a 5 degree rake angle.
Stay tuned for further scraping documentation.
 
Some of the first parts I needed to make are some wiper covers for the slide ways. This early version wasn't equipped with them but the 7B's were. So I decided to fabricate them as close to the original ones as possible.
Its just made from sheet aluminum, formed and polished.
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The next part I wanted to tackle is the feed ratchet gear cover. It appears to have been repaired at least twice, once with brass brazing and once with silver solder. It is the cast iron version, compared to the 7B Zamak version.
The shaft holes are worn out and their is a twist in the part. After much self debate I decided on making a new one using 1018 cold rolled steel material, rather than trying to repair this.
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Looking good so far. That looks like a challenging part. Too bad the days of the foundry down the street are long gone. Not sure if you have seen this video series but he shows how sub assemblies can be tacked together & brazed for a casting like end result. I'm guessing your shop doesn't have the same exotic equipment, but maybe some of the ideas are transferrable.

 
I'll be watching your scraping journey closely. What was your logic to start with the Anderson over the Biax hand scraper? I don't know much about either other than the websites & people seem to use one or the other.

ps - Holy muther of crap, is this really what Biax power scrapers go for? 3200 $U No wonder used ones get snapped up.
http://www.moglice.com/Dapra/BIAXPriceList.pdf
 
I'm following your rebuild with avid interest. I've wanted a Shaper for some years now, but have not followed up on any I have found. 'Bravo' on doing this project!
 
PeterT said:
Looking good so far. That looks like a challenging part. Too bad the days of the foundry down the street are long gone. Not sure if you have seen this video series but he shows how sub assemblies can be tacked together & brazed for a casting like end result. I'm guessing your shop doesn't have the same exotic equipment, but maybe some of the ideas are transferrable.

Click to expand...

Laser Welding - that's pretty cool. What's going on in that box when Dan presses the button? This:
 
PeterT said:
I'll be watching your scraping journey closely. What was your logic to start with the Anderson over the Biax hand scraper? I don't know much about either other than the websites & people seem to use one or the other.

ps - Holy muther of crap, is this really what Biax power scrapers go for? 3200 $U No wonder used ones get snapped up.
http://www.moglice.com/Dapra/BIAXPriceList.pdf[/QUOTE

Thanks Peter for sharing the video - very interesting! I didn't realize back in the day a foundry could be found down the street, that would be really handy.
I chose the Anderson scraper because of its popularity, mostly due to the price point I'm sure, It's a very simply scraper, a little too rigid I think, very unimpressive. I will order a Biax hand scraper to try, mostly because I can order carbide blanks from MSC Industrial and I like the clamping for the carbide. And yeah, power scrapers are out of the question because of the price.

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The first equation of making the replacement gear cover is complete

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After stripping/cleaning and verifying measurements on the ram slide ways, this is the first component to scrape as I will use it as the master reference for scraping the main body. You can see there is severe galling on the vertical surface of the slide way and there is significant wear. My plan is to mill a 2mm deep pocket into that surface and filling it with Daiamant Moglice 628 that I ordered from Deviitt Machinery in Pennselvania, A 100 gram kit costs $47.00 U.S. and a can of release agent is $29.50
I will show that process in later updates
Click to expand...
 
I didn't realize back in the day a foundry could be found down the street, that would be really handy.
^^ my sic joke. In year 1910 maybe :) I'm now waiting for the next monumental shift, the CNC guy down the street ha-ha

Coincidentally I was inquiring about granite plate from local place today to avert freight shipping. What size is yours?
I keep hearing buy big & the price difference isn't that much but a 12x18x3" weighs 110 lbs, ugh. If I get a 12x12" will I regret it?
 
It would depend, I'd rather go for the biggest I could afford but it really depends on what you expect to use it for, what size layouts do you use it for or if it will be used for scraping where bigger is better.
 
I have 2 now, I started with a 10X12, found it to be too small to be able to use a surface gage or a height gage to verify surfaces on the shaper, so I recently purchased a 12X18X3 and its a perfect, I would go bigger if I had the room.
I can now use the larger surface plate for verifying my scraping. When it comes to surface plates I believe in now to go as big as your shop and budget permit.
 
Shaper Rebuild Update.
I wanted to tackle the most challenging part to make, which was the table feed gear ratchet housing.
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Casting the part was not an option, so I broke down the part into two main bodies that I needed to machine
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I used my Atlas horizontal mill with a rotary table to machine for most of the radius features
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I tig welded the two bodies together
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The final operation is to bore the rear face of the welded assembly to accommodate the gear for the table feed, again using my horizontal mill.
You can see the main body for the shaper I'm rebuilding in the background.
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Had to break away from the project to fill an order to make 60 knobs out of 6061 aluminum for a tire machine supplier to replace the original plastic version.
First time I got to use my Repton ball turning tool. It worked great. Not too bad for a home hobby machine shop. But I digress.
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I started scraping the bottom surface of the shaper ram, my goal was to achieve at least 20 points per inch covering 50% of the surface.
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The picture on the left shows the pivot point when I hinged the part after the first scraping, the middle picture shows where the pivot point is after about 19 to 764 scrapings (I lost track) I was able to achieve 33% distance for the pivot points which was my goal. The closer I got to flat the more the part would almost ring onto the surface plate, just like two gauge blocks. Scraping is incredible.
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Now that the bottom surface is flat, I am mapping out the top surface so I have some guideline on for step scraping out the high sections.
I will also make a tool to measure parallelism.
 
Very impressive!
Did you end up trying the Biax or stuck with Anderson hand scraper?
So those mapped numbers are thousandths?
 
PeterT said:
Very impressive!
Did you end up trying the Biax or stuck with Anderson hand scraper?
So those mapped numbers are thousandths?
Click to expand...

Thanks Peter, I just stuck with the Anderson scraper, I finally figured out I could just extend the blade that was supplied with the scraper to give me enough flex when scraping. I did order a Biax hand scraper just because I like the way the carbide blanks are clamped onto the scraper and the carbide blanks give you more material. Those mapped numbers are in ten thousandths.
On the next update I will show how I deal with the vertical slide surfaces (which are gouged) by milling a 1 mm pocket and using Diamant Moglice
 
Shaper Rebuild Update 2
After 17,000 hours of scraping and measuring, the Shaper is starting to take shape:

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The finished ratchet feed gear cover
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Milling a .040 deep pocket to remove the galling on the left ram slideway using my Atlas Horizontal Mill
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Diamant Moglice to fill in the milled pocket
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The Moglice was poured into the milled slot, then covered with a piece of granite, and hand scraped after curing. I was very happy with the result.

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The Ram slideways had significant galling and scoring, I machined on the Horizontal, then made a new block.
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Reassembling the base, new shafts machined, fabricated a switch plate as close to original as possible, also fabricated Atlas machine tag
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Hand scraped the cross feed slideways and table
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Modified new gears for the Ram position feed screw.
 
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