Walcott Geared Shaper

It seems that antique machine tools have a way of finding my home, in the same way that stray cats seem to know where they might be welcomed.

This afternoon, a Walcott geared shaper came ambling up my driveway.

It might not have happened quite that way, but close. Friends of mine had owned this shaper for several years and had stored it in a building with many other "things." I had never gotten a good look at it, all that I knew was that it utilized shifting belts to reverse the ram. They knew of my interest, and when it came time to clean out the building so that they could construct a sawmill in the area, they decided to let it out for adoption. Hence the trip to my shop.

I had never heard of a Walcott shaper, and I have not been able to find much. However, I have not yet explored every possibility.

This is probably the first geared shaper I have ever seen. It appears to be complete, and I don't see any broken parts. It does not have a vice, as can be seen in the photos. All parts seem to be free, and there does not appear to be a serious amount of rust.

I am curious as to the age of this machine, and I am interested in learning more about the history of the company.

I will post more photos.

Bruce E. Babcock

More Walcott photos.

Bruce,
After seeing some of your other posts I’m sure you will give the shaper a good home ,
There are some in these link that look much like yours
Walcott Shapers
Maybe the 15” ?
Walcott 15 Shaper

Walcott Lathe Co. - 1896 Ad-George D. Walcott & Son, Metal Shaper | VintageMachinery.org
I was thinking that I had seen something in Canadian Machinery somewhere before .
Walcott Lathe Co. - 1919 ad - engine lathes, crank shapers, Jackson duplex typeless die sinkers | VintageMachinery.org

Regards,
Jim

It looks quite similar to my George Juengst shaper. Especially the shape of the ram and the pulleys.

Walcott was probably better known for their lathes. They occasionally pop up on craigslist.

Very interesting piece. Nice save. Might even be a local water wheel where it could be powered.

locoguy

very cool!

That's a nice one. Not many of the geared shapers left, I don't think they made nearly as many to begin with as the crank shapers. Looking forward to a nice video of it cutting metal

So there's another Wallcot out there, eh? I picked up one (looks like the same size) about 30 years ago, & yours if the first other one I've seen. They were built about 30 miles west of me. (I didn't know Michigan shapers were allowed in Ohio, especially so close to Ohio State.)

Tom Stockton said:

(I didn't know Michigan shapers were allowed in Ohio, especially so close to Ohio State.)

Click to expand...

Tom,

I am from Michigan, and worked at the Albion Malleable Iron Company, for about 10 years, just a few miles west of Jackson. The shaper is in the company of quite a few old machines that I brought with me from up north.

Bruce

Tom Stockton said:

So there's another Wallcot out there, eh? I picked up one (looks like the same size) about 30 years ago, & yours if the first other one I've seen. They were built about 30 miles west of me. (I didn't know Michigan shapers were allowed in Ohio, especially so close to Ohio State.)

Click to expand...

There's discussion of another Walcott, converted to hydraulic, starting at post 109 of the "Shaper work ideas" thread:

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v.../shaper-work-ideas-stories-152439/index6.html

Andy

Bruce E. Babcock said:

Tom,

I am from Michigan, and worked at the Albion Malleable Iron Company, for about 10 years, just a few miles west of Jackson. The shaper is in the company of quite a few old machines that I brought with me from up north.

Bruce

Click to expand...

No trouble smuggling the MI machines past the OH border guards, eh?
The hydraulic conversion is an interesting (albeit ugly) conversion.
Better saved than scrapped though.

I have been able to spend some time on the Walcott shaper. So far, I have replaced the belt that extends the ram, and I have installed a small 1200 RPM motor. The ram, much to my amazement, started reciprocating as soon as I plugged in the motor. Even though it runs, the forward belt is not yet shifting far enough on to the fixed pulley. It appears that the overhead shaft is not parallel with the machine. After it ran for a few minutes, the old crossed belt that returns the ram simply fell apart.

I have not yet figured out the internal workings of the feed mechanism. It wants to work, I suspect that it simply needs a bit of adjusting or cleaning.

The first photo shows the internal gearing. The fast and loose pulleys are on the left end of the shaft nearest to the camera. The large gear on the second shaft meshes with the rack on the bottom of the ram. The third shaft goes to the power feed for the table. The two bevel gears that are barely visible at the far end are for the vertical adjustment of the table. There is a crank to the right of the upper one.

The "V" at the far end, and the gap between the gears on the second shaft, allows long shafts to be slid through the machine so that key ways can be cut in them.

The belting, and fine tuning the belt shipper, are my next challenge.

Bruce E. Babcock