7" AMMCO metal shaper

[ndnchf]

Last week I picked a great little 7" AMMCO metal shaper to add to my small home machine shop. Its a neat tool, in very good condition with little wear except for the paint. I made the table top and chip pan, and added it to an old tool stand I already had. I still need to get the switch wired up, but I test ran it last night. I ran great - smooth and quiet. I'm guessing it is from the 1940s.

 

[LXCam]

Well that looks cool as heck, but how does it work?

Never mind I looked up some **** tubes vids, hey that's very cool!. I could see how that would come in handy for some projects. Congrats and your new toy!.

 

[ndnchf]

Here's a video of someone else's AMMCO in action. It cuts like a lathe, but in a flat plane.

 

[gungatim]

cool. I tried to buy one of those last year at an auction but it went for crazy money...I believe the head strokes back and forth to mill parts. not a lathe, more of a mill or broach kinda...

 

[ndnchf]

I say it cuts like a lathe, meaning the same type of tool does the cutting. But it horizontally similar to a mill. They were very common in machine shops up into the 1950s. They've mostly been replaced by various types of milling machines in modern commercial machine shops. I've got a lathe, mill, surface grinder, various drill presses etc. This just gives me a little more capability. With Father's Day coming up, I deserved a new toy!

 

[sasquatch12]

The nice part about a homeshop shaper is , you don't have to have hundreds of dollars of milling machine cutters. Shapers use a simple square of HSS that you grind to shape, and are easily resharpened, and cost only 2-3 bucks.

 

[wyo george]

Very cool toy. I've been a machinist for quite a while and I've never seen one of these!

 

[ndnchf]

They are old school machines. As mentioned they are inexpensive to operate because they use a simple HSS bit. Back in their day, they were often used for cutting keyways on shafts and inside gears. Also they were great for cutting gear teeth as well as all kinds of odd shaped pieces.