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Original sales advert in a |
Adept No. 1 hand-shaper |
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last revised 21/12/07
Though not necessarily a
horological machine
tool, this small Adept No. 1 hand-shaper is a nice addition
to a
workshop. In fact, shapers have been in use in the horological
industries since at least the 18th century. They were used there mainly
for shaping wheel teeth before the milling machine came into general
use. Dividing engraving machines, whether circular or straight, contain
the main elements of the shaper: the tools slide and the hinged
'clapper' box tool holder. In general engeneering shapers (where the
tool moves) and planers (where the work piece moves) were used to
produce flat surfaces, slide ways, key ways and so forth. Today, the
have largely been superseded by milling machines, but they still have
the advantage that their tools are cheap, simple lathe type
single-point tools.
My specimen was received
in a somewhat scruffy but
completely unadulterated condition. The paintwork was in its original
condition. Hence, I only gave it a
thorough cleaning. Compared to nicely finished Swiss and German
machines destined for the professional market, these Adept shapers that
aimed for the amateur market are of rather rustic appearance. The Adept No. 1 also does not have an automatic table feed.
So far I have resisted
to make improvements,
such as zeroing dials on the screw feeds or stops for the slides, which
would be useful for graduating and similar work. Though,
these improvements could probably be made without interfering seriously with the
original substance of the machine. Being more accustomed to working in
metric measures I find the imperial ACME screws on the slides somewhat
awkward to work with.
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Original sales advert in a |
Adept No. 1 hand-shaper |
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The (hand-)shaper actually is a very versatile
tool for shaping items that cannot be turned on the lathe. With an
appropriate tool holder and tool it can also be used for cutting
internal key ways, which is out of the way for a milling machine. It
then can be used for graduating both, round and flat scales, and
for precision knurling. With a properly shaped tool and a
dividing head, a shaper further can be used to cut wheels. There are
examples for this kind of work on the shipmodelling pages.
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| Hand-shaper made by the Wotan-Werke, Germany | Manual
(l.) and automatic (r.) dividing head
for shaping round or multi-facetted items, Wotan-Werke, Germany |
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