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Old Pexto shear - help me get it going again

Maxim

Stainless
Joined
Apr 29, 2005
Location
Colorful Colorado
Some successful craiglisting today :cheers:

Got this for a nice price, I'd like a bigger one (but don't we all?) but this should fit nicely in the hideout.

shear1-2.jpg


shear2-nameplate.jpg


shear3-2.jpg


First off the important question - is it pre war? And if so which one? :D

Action seems a little sticky and the blade has a slight nick in it. But overall seems like it just sat for a while and got some wood dust on it.

I'm guessing lube all the moving parts first? Anything I should do to the blades?

Is there a test for sharpness and how and where do I sharpen them ?
 
NICE SHEAR! I had it's powered brother I traded/gave to member JL Sargent a few years back (took it over to give to him, but he sent me back with a PILE of stuff).

Oil the moving parts and it should work fine. This is going to be limited to very thin work. We had a much newer model at the museum. It had a foot bar instead of that pretty but fragile treadle. To cut .062 aluminum, you had to stand on the bar and hop a little. Thinner stuff it cut like paper.

Take the blade to a grinding company and have them regrind/sharpen it. Be VERY careful handling that blade, it is very heavy and incredibly sharp. Screw it to a 2x6 board for transport.
 
That's a neat old shear! My guess is that it's from the 1920's-1940's, just by the construction.

I agree with Mike that you need to be careful about overloading this machine. Those are nice old castings, but this isn't a heavy duty machine. You can see by the linkage and geometry that it's only capable of putting maybe 1000 lbs onto the shear blade. That isn't much for metal cutting. And you can see that there isn't a whole lot of structural stiffness in that beam that supports the blade.

I wonder if this is actually a paper shear for a print shop, rather than sheet metal shear? I think we had a shear like that in printing class in high school (1971).

Yes, you can get the blades sharpened at a grind shop that does printing company equipment. It isn't that expensive. My local place (L. A. Grinding) quoted me $40 to do the similar sized blades on my Kidder manual shear.
 
I would limit that shear to 20ga mild steel. With sharp, properly adjusted blades you should be able to cut full length by just putting your body weight on the treadle. Of course I weigh 220lbs so you may have different results. Proper adjustment is just as important as sharp blades. Make sure the stationary blade sits flush with the table. The moving blade just needs a few thou clearance from the stationary blade. Too much and you'll see the edge of your material is getting laid over. Use shims to help keep the blades in place once adjusted; the bolts will tend to slip over time.

Bob
 
It has no bar that pushes down on the metal while the shear is cutting it. I have looked at shears similar to this and they were in printing shops. I use a photoengraving shop and he has a pexto shear that is similar that he uses to cut large sheets of paper.
 
Definitely a nice early one by the label, as the later ones would have been marked Peck, Stow & Wilcox Co, Southington, Ct. By the patent date cast in below your tag, she was probably built 1898 to 1914. By the model number I would assume she handles 30" wide sheetmetal, if so then it would fit the later model number system ( the 3' shears of the 50's were model 137). I have a ph52 and it is 53" (IIRC) between scales.

With the blade, it should be doublesided (assuming the other cutting edge is not pitted). Clamp a piece of 3/8-1/2" plywood to the top of the table and let it extend a 6-12 inches beyond the cross head (casting that holds the upper blade), this is to catch the blade after the bolts are removed instead of crimping your fingers or dropping it on the floor. Remove the bolts and see if you can flip the blade so that the edge that was on the top is now on the bottom, the same can usually be done with the lower blade also. When you go to adjust the blade, if you can cut a single sheet of paper (regular 20# bond) everywhere along the blade then the spacing is correct. On the backside where the crosshead slides in the end plates there should be a brass block that set screws push against, you want this as tight as possible, without binding the shear.

Since you say it looks like she has sat for a while I would spray every pivot and slide with Kroil, Rust Buster, WD-40, Liquid Wrench, etc... to dissolve the old grease that has turned into tar and the oil that has turned to grease. After a short while she should be moving like new and then you can start using oil to lube the slides and pivots.

She was built in the old Stow Mfg Co plant (merger of Seth Peck of Southington, Stow Mfg of Plantsville and Roys & Wilcox of East Berlin happened in 1880). The PEXTO trademark was registered in 1914, not sure when the old Stow Mfg factory closed and production was moved to Southington.

Enjoy your new friend,

Rich C.
 
Nice score!

To properly adjust the shear it needs to be fastened to the floor. It is adjusted by moving the bed back and forth using the bolts on the front. (Loosen the bolts holding the bed from the sides.) The bed is the only connection between the sides, so if the legs shift, the relationship between all the parts shift.

Mine cut paper all the way across with pitted blades once adjusted carefully. I'd play with it a bit and figure out the adjustments and possible uses before getting the blades sharpened. (That way if you do something bad and nick them, it won't be your freshly sharpened blade. ;-) )
 
As a guy who cuts lobster wire mesh for aquaculture I'm drooling over that shear :drool5:

Probably not much demand for oyster cages in Colorado.

Bet a person who makes copper or aluminum gutters would drool too.
 
I saw this posting when it started, and made a mental note to go check out mine. I finally remembered to do that, and sure enough I have the same one, #130. I only wish mine was in that good shape. The bed has been reinforced under the blade, although not sure why, and has a crack dead center (bed sags!), next to the reinforced area. Both legs have clean breaks, and both foot pedals are broken off.
Also a craigslist find, but I talked the guy down to $75 or 100 due to the leg cracks. He offered to weld them right there on the spot (outside in the dirt). I politely declined.
I only use it for light short work so it meets my needs. Now that I know it's the oldest machine I have, I guess it deserves to be fixed up. Cool, another project....
John
 








 
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