My Shaper - Atlas 7B

[July 31, 2019]

Nameplate for my Atlas 7B shaper, serial number 010232.

Here is the shaper on the day I bought it (July 31, 2019) - unloaded it from my trailer with my shop crane and hoisted onto my workbench for cleaning and some minor repairs. I paid $650 for it - that included the original motor, vise, wrench and crank, and two new tool holders. The seller noted that the power cord was cracking and needed to be replaced.

Addendum [Feb. 2020]

Having recently acquired a 3D printer, I made a replacement switch plate for an online acquaintance who had a shaper with a missing plate. The size and shape are as close to the original as I could get, but I made a couple of small changes otherwise: I moved the ON position to the up position, and I countersunk the holes for the mounting screws so that either flat head or oval head screws can be used.

The 3D print files for printing this switch plate can be found here:

https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/20563-toggle-switch-plate-atlas-7b-shaper

As for the belts, I have decided that the existing belts are good enough for now, but I will replace them once I have identified the proper sizes.

Vise jaws and vise support pillar

The vise jaws will be replaced once I have acquired the proper material for this.

The vise support pillar was locked in place by the pillar lock sleeves (BD3-44, BD3-45 in the manual), even with the lock screw completely removed. However, with the application of penetrating oil and the careful use of a crescent wrench, I was able to work the post down far enough so that I could tap out the lock sleeves with a wooden dowel.

To the left is the pillar locking assembly after removal. I suspect that someone had over-tightened the lock sleeves at some point, causing them to mushroom slightly which resulted in them being jammed in place. The lock sleeves are cast material which has been machined on one corner to fit the post. The lock sleeves are only nominally cylindrical - I measured variations in diameter of up to 0.005".

Although they should slide easily into the hole in the knee, I couldn't get one of them to go back in at all.

The repair for this was easy: I mounted each lock sleeve in the lathe and turned them down by a few thou, and then polished them with abrasive cloth.

Once that was done, both lock sleeves slid easily into place. When the lock bolt is loosened, the post moves easily. Locking the post in place only requires about a 1/4 turn of the bolt. I am considering replacing the hex bolt with a knurled knob screwto allow for hand tightening in order to prevent over-tightening.

Replacing Vise Jaw Face Plates

When I purchased my shaper, I was told the vise was original to the machine. As it looks identical to the "S7-91X Vise Assembly" shown in the manual, I believe this to be the case. In the vise parts list the jaw face plates are referred to as "jaw lining". Although the vise is original, I have no way of knowing if the face plates were replaced or not at some time; however, for the purposes of replacement I am going to assume they are original and use them as models for making new ones.

Here is a drawing of the vise jaw face plates showing relevant measurements: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1l1WQMY3AUObVCpB4OvUToAARQKqAY_EO

A few comments on the drawing and face plates:

• The drawing is what I would consider the "minimal size" for the plates; I intend to make my replacements slightly oversize.

• The catalog drawing shows the plates as being even with the vise jaws on all sides; on my vise this was not the case, with the plates being slightly oversize on the ends.

• I made my replacement plates from steel plate I had on hand - not hardened. I do not believe the "originals" were hardened either; I tested the originals with a set of hardness testing files and found them to be less than HRC40 in hardness.

Here is the vise with the original face plates. As can be seen, they have been chewed up a bit (along with the movable vise jaw), presumably by a cutting tool mishap. It can't be seen from the photo, but with the jaws closed the ends of the face plates are not aligned with each other. A close inspection of the ends of the plates shows what I believe are manufacturing tool marks where they finished to length.

To make replacement face plates I cut two rough blanks from a piece of steel plate. I then milled all sides flat and square to final dimensions (which I intentionally made slightly oversize).

Before drilling the mounting holes, I milled a chamfer on one long edge of each plate. This chamfer goes on the bottom inside corner of each plate and allows it to seat firmly against the inside corner of the vise jaw.

The ultimate location of the chamfer has to be kept in mind when drilling and counter-boring the mounting holes. In addition, since the plates are also oversize in length, the final plate orientation must be kept in mind when locating the holes along the length.

As a final step, I surface ground both sides of both plates, both to remove some pitting from rust, as well as to make the sides flat and parallel.

The pitting turned out to be a bit deeper than I expected, and I ended up taking about 0.010" of of one side to get it cleaned up. Not a big deal since the plates were also oversize in thickness (and I had made the counter-bore an extra 0.010" deep in anticipation of the grinding).

In retrospect, I should have cleaned up the faces with a fly cutter before drilling and counter-boring. This would likely have been adequate even without surface grinding, but since I do have a surface grinder it's nice to be able to out it to use.

A final word on the plate mounting screws. The original screws are #10-24 x 3/8" fillister head screws. The original screws were a bit dinged up; in addition, as they have a slotted head getting at them with a screwdriver is not very convenient.

Consequently, I replaced the original screws with button head socket cap screws. Since the button heads are too large in diameter to fit the counter-bore, I turned them down in the lathe to 0.300" diameter. In the photo to the left, you can see the four original screws, with the modified button head screw top right. Also visible in the upper left corner of the picture are the two original face plates.

Before the final leveling of the jaw face plates, I used an indicator to make sure the bed of the vise was parallel to the ram travel. I cobbled together an indicator holder (shown in picture) from some parts I had on hand, although I needed to make an adapter bushing to fit my indicator stem. This indicator holder for the shaper will be a useful addition.

Measurement showed that one side of the vise was 0.001" higher than the other - a fairly significant deviation for 4" of travel.This was easily corrected by inserting a brass shim under one side of the vise, which brought the vise to well under 0.001" of deviation from side to side (note that this is side to side with reference to the vise jaws, in the picture with the vise oriented as shown this is front to back).

Tool Slide Cleaning

[December 2019]

The dial on the tool slide was badly tarnished and difficult to read, so I decided to remove it so I could clean it properly. While I was at it, I took the time to measure and make drawings of some of the parts, since I may replace the dial with a larger version sometime in the future.

For a downloadable PDF of the drawings, looking under References/Manuals and Drawings below.

In order to dis-assemble the slide, I had to use a small puller to remove the handle from the screw, as it was on very tightly and it appeared that the woodruff key had been damaged. The threads were also in poor shape, and the top threaded section appeared to have a very small bend in it.

I cleaned up the 3/8" x 24 threads on the screw with a die, and the matching threads on the two nuts, and replaced the woodruff key with a new one. I did not attempt to straighten the screw because I did not want to risk further damage. There is a very large amount of backlash in the screw assembly, so making some replacement parts might be a future project.

I mounted the dial on an expanding mandrel and chucked it up in my lathe, then polished out the tarnish with ultra-fine scotch brite. I tried to make the dial markings more legible by using cold blue on the dial, and then polishing again, but this gave only a slight improvement as the dial engraving is not very deep.

However, the cleaning did improve the legibility somewhat, so it was worth the effort.

Disc & Gear and T-nut

[Jan. 2020]

I removed these parts (Disc & Gear S7-68A in the manual, and S7-30 nut) from my shaper for inspection (as well as to measure for 3D CAD). I was a bit surprised to find that the nut was hardened, and also that it had burrs on the sliding parts. I was not particularly surprised about the burrs, because I found the part very difficult to slide when making adjustments. Since the part was hardened, I used a diamond grit file to smooth out the burrs.

The burrs on the nut had chewed up the T-slot a bit, so I used a fine, thin file to clean out the T-slot. I observed that the "wings" of the T fit rather loosely in the slot, but the top part of the nut (in the picture at left), fits firmly in the wide slot.

After cleaning up both pieces I got a much better sliding fit. The large central slot actually shows considerable wear; the central width of the slot is about 0.616", while the slot width at the ends (where the R and L are in the photo) is about 0.625".

By the way, the "disc & gear" component is all one cast piece (probably zamak or a similar alloy).

One final note here: There are several sintered bushings associated with this piece. So far,all of the sintered bushings on the shaper that I have examined appear badly worn, so I will be looking for replacements.

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Moving it to the shop

[Aug. 9, 2019]

My "new" shaper did not come with a stand, so I built a support table for it.

For the move, I removed both belt guards, the vise, and the clapper assembly.

For the move, I used my shop crane to lift it onto my heavy equipment moving cart. Note that the lifting straps for the crane are under the corners of the main casting (NOT under the oil pan, NOT under the ram assembly).

My shaper did not come with a stand, so I built a sturdy table for it out of 2x4s, with an added shelf and drawer.

To make it a bit easier to set it up in my shop, I drilled the mounting holes and did a test fit in my garage.№te that I intentionally designed the table so that the motor would overhang in the back. I also made the table width narrow enough that the crank handle for the lift has clearance; in addition the shaper is mounted farther to the right (as you face the shaper) for the same reason.

Here is the hole pattern for my shaper; I'm guessing this is the same for all Atlas 7 model shapers, but I cannot guarantee this.

Moving the shaper into the shop and lifting it (again, with the shop crane) into place was fairly straightforward. I had already drilled the mounting holes into the support table while everything was still in my garage, so I could do a test fit. Once everything was moved to the shop it was a simple matter to get it into position and bolt it down.

At this point I still need to:

• • • • • • • • • clean up the vise (and eventually install new jaws)

                • clean up and re-install the clapper assembly