Corrugated heads on a shaper questions...

[Mike Kees]

I recently purchased a new to me shaper. In the deal I received a very big pile of tooling,including a 2'',4'' and 6'' high corrugated heads. I have never used these before,so I need some advice. My questions are ;what do you clean these with ? I am thinking laquer thinner,good or bad ? Installing knives,does one use a dial indicator to insure the heights are the same ? Next how tight do you make the set screws on the gibs ? Also my 4'' head and 6'' head have four slots for knives the six is a 12/20 degree,I know this is for hardwood/softwood . My question is what to do with the unused slots ? The 4'' is an FS tools that has four slots same angle. Here I would be running with only two knives instead of all four,again what to do with empty slots ? Do you install blanks ? Any help from experienced shaper operators would be appreciated,thanks,Mike. P.S. shaper is a Minimax T 50 ,5h.p.

[Mel Fulks]

The 4 slot two cut angle heads can distort with just 2 knives and make it impossible to remove the head from spindle or put head on spindle. The blanks in two slots obviate that possibility. That's a start, dinner time !!

[brent stanley]

I recently purchased a new to me shaper. In the deal I received a very big pile of tooling,including a 2'',4'' and 6'' high corrugated heads. I have never used these before,so I need some advice. My questions are ;what do you clean these with ? I am thinking laquer thinner,good or bad ? Installing knives,does one use a dial indicator to insure the heights are the same ? Next how tight do you make the set screws on the gibs ? Also my 4'' head and 6'' head have four slots for knives the six is a 12/20 degree,I know this is for hardwood/softwood . My question is what to do with the unused slots ? The 4'' is an FS tools that has four slots same angle. Here I would be running with only two knives instead of all four,again what to do with empty slots ? Do you install blanks ? Any help from experienced shaper operators would be appreciated,thanks,Mike. P.S. shaper is a Minimax T 50 ,5h.p.

Hi Mike, if you think you'll do this a lot, look into getting a setting stand for verifying the position of the knives. I use my profile grinder as a way to approximate one for now.

My corrugated have tabs on the bottom to locate the knife up and down, and if ground anticipating that, then the up and down should be good, but you need to check.

Like Mel said, the unused slots need to be filled with a slug and tightened down else the block can deform. I would ask the manufacturer about torque suggestions for their block. FS Tool will give you that I'm sure, my blocks came with torque suggestions in the documentation.

Corrugated is great, but I only use it if the projection demands it.

B

[Mel Fulks]

The most I do on cleaning the corgs is use a soft bristle brass brush. On aligning the knives in head, most of the time I can just use the machine top as a bottom stop ,but you have to make sure you use the right end of the knives. That's
because sometimes one knife is longer than the other even though they are exactly the same weight; avoiding buying the
lousy cheapest steel usually makes for pairs that are same weight and same length. With the low quality steel one knife can be an 1/8 inch longer ! Knives are ground "left hand " or "right hand", according to use, and must be set accordingly .

[Joe Calhoon]

We get our corrugated ground Axial Constant and set the knives as Mel suggests. Makes it easy to set the height. I also put a mark on the corrugated knife for depth position. I have a simple setting stand but the flat surface method is easier if the knives are ground for this.
No experience with the Dual slot heads but would think you need fillers. We use short fillers when the knives are shorter than the heads. See picture.

For cleaning I have some blue colored solution from Germany. I forget the name. It is nasty to work with though and usually just use mineral spirits and a stiff or brass brush.
999D153D-19FF-4B84-B061-AA5A243340E7.jpg

[Mike Kees]

Thanks for the advice. It helps me to verify some of what I was thinking. Do you clean the actual knives with brass brushes as well ?

[Mike Kees]

Talking about the profile ,not corgs..

[Mel Fulks]

Oh! When there is conifer pitch on the knives I do clean them before putting them away. Have used "pitch solvent "dip
or just a shot of compressed air for hardwood .

[Jeff Duncan]

I use a cheap dial caliper on a magnetic base to set my knives on the machine. I used to just set them by bottoming out, but your depending on the shop that ground them to get it perfect and your depending on nothing shifting as it tightens. Normally it works fine, but I have had a couple times when the cut wasn't quite perfect. So now I use the caliper and set them with the head mounted on the machine, usually going off some projection of the profile and not the top of the knife. Just one guys way to do it and it works for me.

I tighten the screws so they're nice and snug, don't try and kill the thing. You shouldn't need any cheater bars or anything, just snug them all hand tight and your good to go. As far as cleaning goes.... I don't clean the heads. I mean if it's got some surface rust then a maroon scotch-brite pad will do the trick, otherwise they don't need to be clean or pretty, just have to work

good luck,
JeffD