Delta 43-340 Shaper Upgrade

[Eduardo Rodriguez]

Hi, this is my first post!

Recently I buyed an vintage Delta Milwaukee 43-340 Shaper, very cheap, in order to use it for pattern shaping. I ordered an spiral cutter head from Amana, and realized that the original spindle was too small, so I make a new spindle with a friend machinist, using the original bearing cartridge from the shaper, but replacing the bearings with others (bigger bore, same O.D).

I had read many post against doing this, claiming that the shaper was originally conceived to work with 1/2 and 3/4" spindles, but the shaper is very heavy, comparing it with others like the Taiwanese ones.

The new spindle is 25mm in diameter!!

Today I started the machine and worked great!!!

Hope this can help someone...

[Travis Porter]

Nice upgrade!

[Mike Cutler]

Eduardo

First, welcome. Pleased to meet you.

You should be okay with that Amana head. It has a low weight and is only 3" in diameter. ( I've been looking at that same head for my Delta Shaper.)

[Joe Jensen]

I would have no worries just don't run large diameter or heavy cutter sets. Some can be as much as 20lbs or more, those of course require a very heavy duty machine.

[David Kumm]

As Joe said, the diameter and weight of the cutter, and depth of cut are bigger factors than the diameter of the spindle. Swapping the bearings probably slightly reduced the radial load of those bearings due to the larger bore but that should be insignificant. I would never get so aggressive that the motor tends to work hard as that also means you are stressing the quill. You have strengthened the spindle but not the quill. Nice work on the spindle. Dave

[Eduardo Rodriguez]

Yes, I´m aware of using big cutter heads, the Amana is ligth but tall...I put tree bearings in the spindle to minimize the axial forces. I will use the shaper only for pattern copy!!!