Free Springfield Shaper

10 years ago or so, I started to rebuild a circa 1890' Springfield 15" shaper.
I am now 83, My wife is older. We need to sell the house and move to an old-folks place.
I did quite a bit of work on the shaper but it needs quite a bit more work.
Its located in Northern New Jersey. All together it weighs 1800 lbs, but it is partially disassembled so say 1300 lbs for the base.

I don't want to scrap this but if I cant find a new owner, I may have to.

Please contact.
jim-at-btdtrf-dot-com.

Thanks.

Jim B.

I had a quick google and it looks like a fine model worthy of restoration, I hope you find someone before the scrappy gets to it.

Where about in northern Jersey are you ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Verona, NJ 07044

I have attached pictures of some of the work I have done.
New horizontal feed screw. Square Cut LH 8 tpi as i remember 24" long.

Rebuilt Cog Drive. Most of the shiny stuff is new.
(I was able to get drawings from a board members 12" Springfield.)

The Yoke was badly butchered. If you dont tighten it to the ram you will destroy the Internal threads.
A PO had cut the top half off trying to repair it.
I milled to exactly the middle of the screw and made a new upper half.
I have a Bronze Square cut nut the length of the ram that would be attached.

More pictures if desired.

I hope somebody can pick this up.

Jim B.

Too bad I'm not closer, I've been interested in getting a shaper...

I might be interested. Would like to see the other pictures that you have. What else does it need? So far it sounds like you've made replacement parts and it just needs to be assembled? Are you in a tremendous rush to get it out of the house?

Thanks,
Chris

Hi Jim B.
Hope its Ok with you Ive added a link from my YouTube channel last video to this thread - I hope that some one will follow up on your project and help you out. I would hate to see a shaper go for scrap. All the very best and good luck with your home move.

Mat
from over the pond in the UK.

Here is the link to YouTube of the first video of my 14" shaper rebuild - it too weighed quite a bit - but Im half your age so must not grumble.

Thank you Mat from over the pond.
I appreciate any and all help I can get.

One of the first things I did was to make a roller stand. While the Springfield is a bit of a beast it will roll relatively easily.

This was originally set up as a line shaft driven machine. When I got it some PO had used the line shaft pulley and added a jack-shaft with a roughly 3:1 reduction. drive the reduction was a LARGE 1 HP induction-repulsion motor. It has a patent date around 1920. I had always planned to use that on it but the jack-shaft 3:1 was both ugly and big. I sourced a modern compact 3:1 reducer and that and all the flat belt pulleys and the motor are going with the shaper.

Thank you again

Jim B.

Matts channel is well worth watching, he does a beautiful restoration of that shaper from the ground up with very limited tooling.

I wonder if the Tuckahoe Steam Museum would like to have your shaper.

http://www.tuckahoesteam.org/

I think that they like to use historic machinery to repair and maintain their collection.

I have to say - I should have made a trolley for mine whilst I was renovating it - would have saved a bunch of effort humping the casting around the tight shop space. I had the satisfaction of lowering the 'nearly getting there' shaper project onto its cast feet today - first time its sat down for a very long time. Good luck with your sale Jim .
mat

Marcuschrist said:

Matts channel is well worth watching, he does a beautiful restoration of that shaper from the ground up with very limited tooling.

Click to expand...

Thats very kind - you can come over and have a brew n chunk of cake anytime you are passing :-)

Reeltor said:

I wonder if the Tuckahoe Steam Museum would like to have your shaper.

http://www.tuckahoesteam.org/

I think that they like to use historic machinery to repair and maintain their collection.

Click to expand...

Reeltor,
That's correct. The sad truth is that we have more machines worth restoring than we have manpower to restore them and, as anybody who has restored a machine knows, restoration takes quite some time and effort.
Right now we accept donations of machines that are particularly interesting from specific points of views (rarity, mechanical ingenuity/uniqueness, documented history, etc.), favoring machines of local provenance.
We would also consider donations of easily marketable machines in good conditions, with the understanding that we would reserve the right of trying to sell them to support the operating costs of the museums and restoration projects.

Right now, in the Machine Shop Museum we have five shapers on display (a Smith & Mills connected to the lineshaft, a Lodge & Davis that could be powered at any time by a portable power unit, a hand-cranked Boyton & Plummer, a hand-cranked 7" Rhodes with the vertical slotting attachment, and a ~1860-80 unknown maker, open frame shaper on static display) and a few more in storage.
For what regards shapers we would consider the donation of a period correct (i.e. older than 1920s-30s) universal shaper or a shaper with power-downfeed or marketable table-top shapers.

Paolo

The Shaper has found a new home. Chris Gesek a member who lives in Connecticut, near the Mass border Picked it up this morning.

I believe he will finish the project.

Picture shows it tied down on Chris' trailer ready to go to its new home.

Thanks to all for the help.

Jim B.

That's great news! Thanks, Jim for advertising it and for all your preservation and restoration work and Thanks to Chris for stepping forward!

Paolo