I picked up a Niagra mechanical shear at an auction the other day,
14ga x 6 ft.

This appears to be a later model since it is constructed of 3/8 sheet
metal weldments, instead of the cast iron frames of other Niagra
shears I have seen and it has a covered foot switch as an operating
control.

Does anyone know anything about these shears? Adjustment procedures?
I've found a couple of places that will regrind the knives when I need
that, but nothing else. The shear itself doesn't have any adjustment
information.

Anything special about regrinding the knives (other than needing a 6
ft grinder, that is)? If it's not too specialized, there are a couple
of places locally that could probably do that as long as I know what
to ask for.

Anyone know any history on Niagra? I found a reference that they were
bought by some holding company out of the UK, but details were skimpy.

I assume the 14ga is for mild steel, what would be reasonable for
stainless, galvanized or aluminum?

Does anyone know what that semicircular depression is for in the
middle of
the bed? That's been on every Niagra shear that I've seen.

There's no power where it's going yet, so for a while it will be
running off of a VFD fed by a 5kw generator. That should be an
interesting experiment.

TIA

Paul

the depression is so you can move your piece of metal, you stick your hand in
it. if it cut 16ga steel it will cut 20ga stainless and 12ga aluminum. if you
send me a picture i can give you more info. sharpening the blades can be
tricky, depending on the blade, some are easy just grind flat others have an
angle.

Paul, some shears have blades that are reversible,
you might check to see if your is
Good luck!
tt

(Asp3211968) wrote in message ...
the depression is so you can move your piece of metal, you stick your hand in
it. if it cut 16ga steel it will cut 20ga stainless and 12ga aluminum. if you
send me a picture i can give you more info. sharpening the blades can be
tricky, depending on the blade, some are easy just grind flat others have an
angle.

Thanks, I'll get that out in a day or so. I don't think this thing
weighs more than 1200 pounds or so; it hardly dropped the bed on the
truck when it was loaded.

There was at least one repair - the front blade guard was replaced
with a piece of C channel (I could tell it wasn't original from the
crappy welds). If I can get a pic of a similar model, I'll probably
want to fab something more like the original.

The bottom blade might be reversible, I haven't been able to get a
good look at the top blade yet. By eyeball, it looks like a square
grind. I'll have to see if I can get a little square in there to
check. If it's something like a 1 degree bevel though, I wouldn't be
able to tell without taking the blade off entirely and unless it has
real problems, that won't happen for a while.

Some twit walked off with the front table extensions before I picked
it up. Not a big deal, but annoying.

Is there a rule of thumb for the blade clearance? Should it be
something like .002-.003 inch?

Paul

Paul Amaranth wrote:

(Asp3211968) wrote in message ...
the depression is so you can move your piece of metal, you stick your hand in
it. if it cut 16ga steel it will cut 20ga stainless and 12ga aluminum. if you
send me a picture i can give you more info. sharpening the blades can be
tricky, depending on the blade, some are easy just grind flat others have an
angle.

Thanks, I'll get that out in a day or so. I don't think this thing
weighs more than 1200 pounds or so; it hardly dropped the bed on the
truck when it was loaded.

There was at least one repair - the front blade guard was replaced
with a piece of C channel (I could tell it wasn't original from the
crappy welds). If I can get a pic of a similar model, I'll probably
want to fab something more like the original.

The bottom blade might be reversible, I haven't been able to get a
good look at the top blade yet. By eyeball, it looks like a square
grind. I'll have to see if I can get a little square in there to
check. If it's something like a 1 degree bevel though, I wouldn't be
able to tell without taking the blade off entirely and unless it has
real problems, that won't happen for a while.

Some twit walked off with the front table extensions before I picked
it up. Not a big deal, but annoying.

Is there a rule of thumb for the blade clearance? Should it be
something like .002-.003 inch?

Paul

Blade clearances. I've heard 10% of thickness of the material being cut
as a good place to start.

On one of the shears at work, the blade is a rectangle cross section
and can provide 4 edges by flipping it over or end to end.

The other one has only a single edge.

Cheers
Trevor Jones

i usually set these machines up so they will cut paper, make sure the gib
adjustment are thight so it does not tear you softer metals.