Rockwell Invicta RS-15 shaper

[Curtis Horswill]

I purchased a Rockwell RS-15 shaper and Forest City power feeder at an auction this weekend. The shaper is a 1982 model, 5 hp single phase. With the shaper I got the 3/4" spindle and 1 1/4" spindle. I am in the process of cleaning it up and possibly replacing the bearings. The problem I have right now is that the spindle seems to be stuck in the shaper and won't release from the taper. I am able to turn the large nut that holds the spindle to the cartridge about 1/2 turn and it won't budge after that. I have sprayed it with Kroil and am going to wait a few days, but am wondering if anyone has any other ideas.

I only had to pay $165 for the shaper, feeder, and a bunch of cutterheads, so I can afford to put a few dollars into this machine :).

[Mike Kees]

Curtiss ,I just bought the same machine. Mine is 1990 vintage 7.5 hp three phase. Mine only has the 1 1/4" spindle. I have not tried to remove the spindle on mine yet. I remember reading somewhere that there is a bit of a knack required to get these spindles installed and removed. Congratulations on a great deal.

[Bill Dufour]

Any chance it could be a left hand thread? try to tighten it and see if that helps. I would wire brush it and soak it in peneetrating oil as best and as long as possible. I would leave it outdoors under a tarp to warm up some but we are barley getting to 100 degrees these days as fall is coming. I would wave a propane torch around to warm things up to cookie temeprature or below. Have an extinguisher handy in case the sawdust catches on fire.
Since you can rotate the nut you should rock it back and forth, lock to lock, to allow the oil to creep into the threads. Do that 20-40 times twice a day. Any chance a toothed washer is causing problems or a roll pin.
If the bearing are being replaced anyway I would pull the quill and turn it upside down so the oil can soak in with gravity.
Bil lD
Bill D

[Mel Fulks]

I've used that model and seen the same thing. When you remove a spindle the threaded collar- nut is turned by the pipe like
"wrench" . That breaks free the taper fit. Then you remove the wrench and unscrew the spindle by hand. Before putting a
spindle back in you unscrew that now too high collar and then wind it up to where the o ring just starts to get a little harder to
turn. Then you put in the new spindle ,turning it until it starts to tighten. Then you tighten with the "wrench".
Someone changed to different spindle and turned the collar tight as possible by hand,allowing the spindle taper to be
pushed in too far and too tight. We had to get a machinist to explain ,and fix.

[Mel Fulks]

Curtis, I hope you are not going to wait for a them to send you an instruction manual. We had one and read it . That's
how we got in that fix and why we could not get out. And there is nothing in there that will help. The writing is terrible.
And there is nothing about getting a spindle unstuck.

[Curtis Horswill]

Curtis, I hope you are not going to wait for a them to send you an instruction manual. We had one and read it . That's
how we got in that fix and why we could not get out. And there is nothing in there that will help. The writing is terrible.
And there is nothing about getting a spindle unstuck.

Mel,

Thanks for the explanation and reply. I wasn't expecting the manual to be of much help, they usually never are. I think I understand how the spindle is supposed to come out now. I was hoping that someone had experience with these shapers before I did any damage to the spindle or quill. I will give the Kroil a few days and try again, but might just end up removing the whole quill and working on removing the stuck spindle. The bearings probably need to be cleaned and greased or replaced anyway. I have rebuilt and worked on many machines already, but each one is different. I will post pictures as I go along, hopefully it will help someone in the future.

[Mel Fulks]

Curtis, good luck to you. Let us know how it goes. The critical thing is getting that threaded collar-nut no higher than
where it is just braked a little by the O ring.

[Curtis Horswill]

I was able to remove the spindle last night. It ended up using a hammer and hitting the spanner wrench a few times to break the taper loose, after that it threaded out just fine. I was surprised to find no rust on the spindle or quill.

[Mike Kees]

Curtiss could you possibly post pictures of the spindle change process ?

[Curtis Horswill]

Yes, I can post some pictures of the spindles, retaining nut and special wrench. It might take me a day or two to get out to the shop, but I will get some photos for you.

[Bill Dufour]

Not sure what happened but this thread has split into two separate threads of the same name?
Bil lD

[Curtis Horswill]

Bill, it has not split, just two similar thread titles.

[Jared Sankovich]

Here is a recent thread from over on owwm discussing the same issue (stuck spindles) on a Bäuerle shaper. Also discussed is that the rs15 spindle has the same taper but different threading.

http://www.owwm.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=216732&p=1544786