Airbus,
A very nicely done job and a major project. The drawings look very well done. You really should write that up for one of the hobby magazines and make a few bucks for your efforts.
Allan,
I bought the Gingery shaper book, It's ok, Maybe a bit dated with small and not very clear pictures. Airbus's plans are done far better too. This is only my personal opinion, But I'm not a real fan of using aluminum on a machine tools critical components. Extra weight in a machine tool always helps also. With some care selecting materials and preventing steel on steel slideing surfaces I think a steel shaper would be far better. Even if you had to pay for a profesional to do the welding it would be worth the cost. No doubt Airbus could advise you far better, But given the time involved to build one then you may as well make it as durable as possible. If your equipment can handle the sizes and lower rpms needed for the larger bores then I'd personaly go with the steel construction. And use the same sizes with steel as Gingery uses with aluminum. Metals are sold by the pound so that drives the cost up, But if you value your time at all then material costs are only a small part of a project like this. Again it's just my opinion and your thoughts may be different.
Pete
