JohnWa

[Johnwa]

I've been a member for some time but haven't introduced myself.
I'm a retired electrical engineer. I have a southbend lathe and a machinetoolswarehouse milling machine that are both operable. I have a fair number of non operating machines, another southbend lathe, a minimill (tore down for CNC conversion), southbend shaper, and a largish unknown shaper are the main ones.
I have a small aluminum casting furnace and have built the gingery shaper.
This summer's project is landscaper oriented so I haven't had much shop time, maybe this winter.

John
Ps moved this to where it belongs

 

[Janger]

Hey John. Welcome. Good to hear about your equipment. Can you casting furnace manage round blanks to make sheaves and pulleys?

 

[Johnwa]

My crucible handles about 5 lbs of aluminum. Minus sprue and gates that leaves something in excess of 4 lbs for the casting. Here's a picture of a pulley I made for the gingery shaper. It's just over 8" OD, just fits on my lathe. There is a flaw in one arm but it came out pretty good.

 

[Janger]

Wow. I keep thinking about buying a wood band saw and making a big pulley to slow it down. Might need two pulleys to go from 1700sfm to 100sfm.

 

[PeterT]

Re bandsaw, I had a similar plan: buy a wood version (so I could ideally do both woodworking & metal by reducing speed). I did a bunch of reading. There are some successful hybrid conversions, but they have some pro's & cons. Depending on the pulley diameters & motor, it may actually require higher reduction & require an inter-stage of sheaves making belt swapping & tensioning kind of a pain between wood/metal mode or even by metal type. Maybe a motor with VFD? (spendy though). I cant recall the other issue but it had to do with the bearings. Maybe it was a light duty bandsaw or brand specific. For thinner sheet, probably no issue. Another consideration is blade size, whats available for metal cutting & typically longer wood blade sizes can cost more.

One feature of the typical hobbysist metal bandsaws is they have a chopsaw mode for lopping off materials &integral vise. Some have drop rate controlled by pneumatic cylinder. And most of these same units also swivel erect, you attach a table & then its more like a conventional bandsaw.
This guy uses a nice compact unit for metal, but I haven't seen one like it in N-Am
http://homepage2.nifty.com/modelicengine/shopeqpmnt.htm
My friend bough this one for metalworking & he said its not bad.
https://www.kmstools.com/king-canada-metal-cutting-bandsaw-18329

 

[Tom O]

I have the 7 x12" craftex saw it comes with the plate just 2 screws to attach it works well.

 

[PeterT]

Welcome John. I don't know a lot about the Gingery shaper other than longingly gazing at pics. That is quite the undertaking & very cool, not to mention casting it yourself. How long did it take you to complete? Would like to see some pics of your accomplishment & the casting furnace when you find time. Hope the landscaping gets done ahead of schedule so you get can get back to the shop!

 

[Jwest7788]

Hey Johnwa, What kind of casting furnace do you have setup? Have any pics lying around?

JW

 

[Johnwa]

Hey Johnwa, What kind of casting furnace do you have setup? Have any pics lying around?

JW

Here's a pic of my furnace and crucible. I used a mix of perlite and furnace cement for the refractory. I wouldn't recommend it, but that was what I could source at the time. One advantage is that it is light enough to pick up with one hand.
To be honest my Gingery shaper didn't turn out that well and it's likely going to be re melted into something else. The learning experience was worth the build though, so I'm happy.