Here's the gap under the bed at the back.
It gets worse, here's my yesterday version of a fitted stud I could live with. The committee were quite right. I chopped the old studs of with a cold chisel, mounted the shaper on the two front studs and bolted it down and then used a transfer punch to put the revised centres on the plate. Then drilled and tapped them and fitted two new studs.
No problem fitting the shaper back on the studs, it just dropped on so I tightened the nuts down. That's a lot better, how it should have been in the first place. It won't be reproaching me every time I use it now....
This was the next little problem that needed sorting out. The holder for the cutters is made to be a snug fit on 3/8" square HSS stock and all mine is 10MM. Not much different but quite enough to stop a fit so I eased the aperture with a file until 10mm stock is a snug fit
The next matter that needed attention was the fact that the securing bolts on the tee nuts were too high and anything longer then the vice fouls on them before it's flat on the bed of the vice. No messing about, off with the washer, out with the angle grinder and I ground it down until it was below the level of the vice.
I'd honed the cutting edge of the 3/8" tool and found a piece of box section alloy that won't get used for anything, I decided to start my shaper education on something soft and easy!
It was a doddle... the tool cuts well, the motion is easy, the full stroke is 6" (This workpiece is 5") and the finish with a less than ideal tool is OK. A very satisfying morning. My next move is to cut some section for tee nuts in mild steel.....
, you could not have lived with them !. I liked the photo Kev took too, you look quite content with the shed in that photo now you have the last item on your whish list in place.
