The B/port slotting (not shaping) heads are vertical stroke. No
clapper, fixed tool. Used for internal splines, keyways etc, not
terribly rigid.

A shaper has a horiz travel ram with clapper box so the tool can
lift/drag slightly on the return stroke.

I have a 7" stroke slotter and a 20" stroke shaper. The slotter has a
fixed base (no knee) with 3 axis movement - X, Y and rotary table, all
with independent power feed. Ram can be repositioned to adjust start
height of cut, also length of stroke can be varied as per shaper.

The shaper outweighs my B/port. Useful but I get a lot more use out of
the slotter. Try cutting a 3/8" internal keyway 4" long with an arbour
press and set of keyway broaches. I mill a lot of my own gears and
doing the keyways is trivial now.

PDW

"Robert Swinney" wrote in message ...
As I said, I'm shaper-dumb! The pix were good but I couldn't tell if the
shaper head strokes vertically or horizontally.

Bob Swinney
"Karl Townsend" wrote in message
news
I'm just about totally ignorant re. shapers. I would kind of like to
see
if
a shaper attachment is available for my mill. Can someone tell me what
I
should look for? I have a Comet mill with a 10 x 54 table and an
extendable
ram that swings around to bring an attachment on the rear to the front,
and
vs. It occurs to me this might be an economical way to get a shaper.
Comments, please.


I'm sure my bridgy slotter would fit on your mill with maybe a minor
adaptor. Unfortunately, they seem to be in demand and more expensive than
buying an entire shaper. Of course, then you don't have a vise and rotary
table that fit.

Here's the link to my purchase:


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...ME:B:EOAB:US:6


Karl