Making gears with a shaper

[Mooselake]

A neighbor who's moving sold (really pretty much gave, way too good to turn down) me a Delta 7" shaper (also sold as an Ammco) made in 1950 that was completely rebuilt/restored before he bought and lightly used it.  It has the original vise, but not a rotary table or dividing head.  I have to store it (well oiled down) in a neighbor's garage/shop until the 8 foot high snowbank melts and the interrupted (had a now mostly recovered from medical event with poor timing last fall) new shop project gets further along.

At one time I understand people regularly made gears on these.  Does anybody here know how?  I don't have any immediate need (well, there's that worn 120 tooth #40 chain sprocket on the windrower, but it's kinda big) but want to give it a try.

My thoughts are to grind a cutter using either a printed G2 gear as a guide, or trying to resurrect G1 and it's grind a cutter option, trying to wing it and hold the blank in the vise (maybe using a printed template or 3D printed gear for positioning, and if that works out maybe using it as an excuse to get a dividing head.  Or is there a more sensible way?

Kirk

[ArtF]

Hi Kirk:

Never saw one of those, had to look it up to see what it looked like. Nice machine.
Looks to me like your idea woudl work. If you had a cnc A axis one could even automate the
operation I suspect and simply use the shaving algorithim.

  Nice machine, congratz.
Art

[Mooselake]

This is the first one I've seen in person.  Shapers have been largely replaced by mills afaik but have a mostly hobby and old-timer machinst following.  They use HSS cutters like a lathe (if we ignore lathe carbide...), and I use a mental example of a lathe for flat metal.  It's another tool on my wish list.  So are dividing heads :)

Hmm, a CNC A axis is an interesting idea.  It has an automatic feed on the X axis, a ratcheting mechanism that's triggered by the ram's return.  The ram is the Y, and cycles continuously as long as the machine has power, might be able to add a sensor (or even a microswitch) there if the position change is quick enough.  Z is a hand crank, it would be hard to automate it without modifying the machine which with it's age and condition I'm not really willing to do yet, so manually trigger the A after cranking the cutter above the work.

If using a template works for a test I'll give some real serious thought to a manual dividing head or an electronically controlled (probably DIY) rotary table.  I need to find out how well it'll handle the side force from cutting first.  Unless somebody comes along that actually knows something about them, that is.

Worst case it'll still be fun!  Best part of being (almost) retired

Kirk