# Early Version Atlas 7 inch Shaper Rebuild



## Earl Wong (Oct 18, 2017)

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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## Dabbler (Oct 18, 2017)

nice!!


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## Earl Wong (Oct 18, 2017)

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.



 



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.




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.


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## Earl Wong (Oct 18, 2017)

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.



 



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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## PeterT (Oct 18, 2017)

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.


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## PeterT (Oct 18, 2017)

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


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## Dabbler (Oct 19, 2017)

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!


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## Janger (Oct 22, 2017)

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.



Laser Welding - that's pretty cool. What's going on in that box when Dan presses the button? This:


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## Earl Wong (Oct 23, 2017)

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
> ...


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## PeterT (Oct 23, 2017)

_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?


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## Tom O (Oct 23, 2017)

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.


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## Earl Wong (Oct 23, 2017)

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.


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## John Conroy (Oct 24, 2017)

A friend of mine bought a 12" X 18" X 3" surface plate from Busy Bee and we checked it for flatness with a straight edge and  .001'" feeler blade. It is dead flat. Less than $50 right now on sale.

https://www.busybeetools.com/products/surface-plate-12in-x-18in-x-3in.html


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## Tom O (Oct 24, 2017)

If I remember right they can order in bigger ones too.


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## Earl Wong (Nov 28, 2017)

Shaper Rebuild Update.
I wanted to tackle the most challenging part to make, which was the table feed gear ratchet housing.




Casting the part was not an option, so I broke down the part into two main bodies that I needed to machine



 



I used my Atlas horizontal mill with a rotary table to machine for most of the radius features




I tig welded the two bodies together




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.



 


 


 


 



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.



 


 


 



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.



 


 



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.




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.


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## PeterT (Nov 28, 2017)

Very impressive!
Did you end up trying the Biax or stuck with Anderson hand scraper?
So those mapped numbers are thousandths?


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## Earl Wong (Nov 28, 2017)

PeterT said:


> Very impressive!
> Did you end up trying the Biax or stuck with Anderson hand scraper?
> So those mapped numbers are thousandths?



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


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## Dabbler (Nov 28, 2017)

Earl,  your project is very impressive


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## Tom O (Nov 29, 2017)

nice work!


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## Earl Wong (Apr 5, 2018)

Shaper Rebuild Update 2
After 17,000 hours of scraping and measuring, the Shaper is starting to take shape:





The finished ratchet feed gear cover




Milling a .040 deep pocket to remove the galling on the left ram slideway using my Atlas Horizontal Mill 







Diamant Moglice to fill in the milled pocket







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. 














The Ram slideways had significant galling and scoring, I machined on the Horizontal, then made a new block.













Reassembling the base, new shafts machined, fabricated a switch plate as close to original as possible, also fabricated Atlas machine tag







Hand scraped the cross feed slideways and table







Modified new gears for the Ram position feed screw.


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## PeterT (Apr 5, 2018)

Very nice Earl! Thought we lost you in the scraping Twilight zone LOL.

That Moglice looks like very useful stuff for certain applications. Did you happen to see Rob Renz episode where he tweaked up a (new) offshore tool & cutter (Deckel clone)?

I'm curious, you say you scraped the epoxy itself too after it was cast against granite?


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## Earl Wong (Apr 5, 2018)

Thanks Peter, yes, I did scrape the moglice, since it was applied to the gib side it was recommended to me by Devitt Machinery that one side be smooth and the other scraped for oil control, the moglice scraped well, I was still able to see the ink pattern on the scrape marks.
It also ensured the moglice was flat.


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## Earl Wong (Oct 10, 2018)

Shaper Restoration completed!
Finally completed the restoration of my 1937 Atlas 7 inch Shaper. This is not a 7B model, it is an early version. Had to make several components, was a fun project and have already used it to make an internal keyway for an arbor. Here are some before and after pics and during the build. It is absolutely complete with the exception of the large belt guard. I don't want to purchase a plastic replica, will hold off until I find an original aluminum one. I rebuilt it to use it and have some fun with it.


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## PeterT (Oct 10, 2018)

Nice work Earl. It looks great. What did you select for paint & prepping process on this restoration? 

btw - just to put 1937 in historical context
http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1937.html


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## Earl Wong (Oct 10, 2018)

Ha peter, I just wanted a grey color that was pleasing to me , tried 2 different products, chose Rustoleum Machinery Grey, 3 coats on a primer.
Of course everything was cleaned down to bare cast iron.


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## Tom O (Oct 11, 2018)

Very nice work!
Where was the most wear on it?


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## Earl Wong (Oct 11, 2018)

Thanks tom. The right side of the Ram slideway had significant galling, I repaired it by milling it out and using Diamant Moglice to fill in the milled pocket. (pic 1)
The other significant wear was on the crank arm block, I milled the internal surface of the crank arm and made a new block. (pic 2 & 3)


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## kevin.decelles (Oct 11, 2018)

Very good posts on this project. Very nice final product




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## PeterT (Oct 12, 2018)

Sorry if I asked you this before but
- does the Moglice require its own proprietary releasing agent on the opposing side so it breaks free cleanly when cured? (Sorry I'm a composites geek so just have to ask). I've seen all kinds of releasing chemistry & if you use the wrong one it can give bad results, anywhere from sticking to adversely affecting the cure itself like with oils or certain waxes
- on the part that gets the Moglice, do they recommend to pre-roughen the surface lightly? Or as long as its completely oil free etc. it will stick?


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## Earl Wong (Oct 15, 2018)

There is a special release agent supplied by them that I sprayed onto my granite surface plate. The cast has to be completely oil free, they also supplied a cleaner that extracts oils


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## Michael (Oct 24, 2018)

Amazing work. id love to have that machine collection.


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## Everett (Oct 24, 2018)

That is definitely a cool machine.  Very nice work.


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## kevin.decelles (Oct 25, 2018)

Earl, can you describe your paint process in more detail? Ie: preparation steps, spray vs brush , type of brush, type of paint.....

My painting always looks like amateur night , looking for tips 


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## claymore850 (Mar 8, 2022)

Nice Job!!!  this machine looks brand new.

I just bought a 7B shaper that was used has parts donor for another restoration.  I need a lot of parts to build it.

Earl, did you have a basic drawing of feed ratchet cover that you build?  I will love to have a way to replicate it..

regards

Rodolfo


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## Earl Wong (Mar 8, 2022)

claymore850 said:


> Nice Job!!!  this machine looks brand new.
> 
> I just bought a 7B shaper that was used has parts donor for another restoration.  I need a lot of parts to build it.
> 
> ...


Sorry Rodolfo, did not make a drawing, just took the dimensions from the original part


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## claymore850 (Mar 8, 2022)

Thanks..I just request the drawing from Clausing.

did you have some spares or leftovers from your restoration that want to sell?  even non working or worn parts?  mine its not complete, so with a used part I can replicate.

regards

Rodolfo


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## Mcgyver (Mar 8, 2022)

Earl Wong said:


> Finally completed the restoration of my 1937 Atlas 7 inch Shaper. This is not a 7B model, it is an early version.



Old thread I know, but if you hadn't figured it out, its a 7a.  Most visible difference imo is the that 7B has the table support and pad.

Nice job on the scraping...only 17,000 hours?


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