"jon_banquer" wrote in message
...
On Saturday, December 20, 2014 4:31:07 PM UTC-8, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"Terry Coombs" wrote in message
...
Gunner Asch wrote:
Terry....why dont you simply BUY a good used shaper?

I know its fun to build one...but there are hundreds of them out
there
for very very little money.

Gunner

I want to build a shaper for the same reason a dog licks his
balls
. Because I can . I have the materials . I have the equipment . I
have the time . I wiill be paying for the propane I use to melt
my
aluminum , but that'll be the only out of pocket cost - and I'd
be
very surprised if I use over 20 bucks worth .
--
Snag
But I don't have a lot of money ... and
around here a thousand is "real money" .

My overly ambitious beginner project was a milling vise for a small
lathe. I learned many valuable lessons about cutting and measuring
accurate dovetail slides, such as not to try it again without
better
milling and measurement equipment.
-jsw

I can and have built a quality milling vise with nothing but a dial
caliper, gauge pins and wasted, used up, knee mill. So have many
others who take machining in adult education or in trade school.


Notice I wrote for a LATHE. The vise part of it came out well enough.
The problem was smoothing the milled vertical slide dovetails without
degrading their accuracy.
-jsw