How many shapers? Not enough!

G&E 16"
Atlas 7B

I have an Atlas 7" manufactured in 1959 according to the date hand written on the cover of the owner's manual. Excellent condition with original vise and tool holeders.

Tom B.

Once you've been bitten/smitten there's no going back.

I'm not sure if it's an affliction or a love affair.

Tom,
What is the serial # of yours? I'm trying to figure out when mine were built and I'd like to get a frame of reference.

From what I've found out so far, there are no records that would allow one to date a shaper by serial #. This could be a start....

I have #2750 and #7200, but zero clue as to when they were made.

Thanks!
Dale

I have an Elliott 450M (18 inch) Sturdishape,power downfeed on toolslide & powerlift on clapper. Vee block strip parallel to ram. Not wired or bolted down yet, in fact not cleaned up even.

Sadly, Only one for now:

Walcott and sons. Dial says 12" (if I remember correctly) but I've measured the ram travel at a few inches more. Not sure of the age, but I believe it is newer than the flat belt style seen here The main pulley is set further down on the base.

-Aaron @ the Sandy Creek Forge

I have a 7" Lewis.

Did I mention already that I have an Adept 2 shaper? A very small benchtop machine, mine is the powered version.

I have Rockford 24 HD and Rockford 24 Special, both machines run excellent and I do a lot of production of internal splines on them.

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I see we have quite a few shaper owners here. I know that there are a few who have not replied yet. I wish that there was a way to find how many shapers are still left in the US. If only the question could be asked during the 2010 census. How many people are in your household and, do you have any metal shapers? LOL Shaperhaven

I saw 4 in Craig Donges shop today all for sale. 2 Atlas's, 1 AMMCO and a 12" Vernon/Sheldon...Bob

__________________
Bob Wright Metal Master Fab
Salem, Ohio Birthplace of the Silver and Deming Drill, all others are copys.

1943 Smith and Mills 25" Heavy Duty BG.

And she still puts out paying work.


JT

Benta,

In spite of two years German in high school, a couple of years instruction from a German-born and raised professor in college (economics), and a lineage right out of the Palatinate (grandmother's name Veda Lewsader, other grandmother named Jennie Brinegar (Bruninger)), I just could not wrap my frontal lobe around the brochures' language. Outside of "one", "form", "close", and a few other terms, including "shaper", virtually all words were absolutely byzantine, and indecipherable.

Sad, I have always wanted to learn the language of my not-too-distant ancestors. Should have married a good German girl to learn about the Old Country, instead of my wife, the Scot (Greer).

J.D.

Great there are shapers still in use and making money. I have not seen one in any shop I have worked in for a long long time. Great posts!

I've got two shapers, the first is a 7" atlas with legs and vice. It is in excellent condition and I bought it from Jay Hahn (tiptop). One of those deals that lead to gaining a good friend.

The second is a 28" G&E. It was loggerhoggers and I think he got it out of a Crown Zellerback shop up in Washington state. Jay and his buddy had been on an all day tool buying trip to Washington and showed up at my house about 10:00 at night with a grossly overloaded pickup and trailer. Two small camelbacks, a very large platten, the 28" G&E and a ton or so of other crap. I'm not sure they would have made it home if I hadn't lightend the load about 7500 lbs by buying the shaper. It was about all my old Hough H-100 could handle.

l probably could get by without a shaper but why...they don't ask to much of me and they help hold the shop down. On second thought...nope I need them. Ed.

14" Smith & Mills and 8" Shape-Rite

I have an old 24" Cincinatti with a 4 speed gearbox and back-gears. It has square ways and no hydraulic or oiling sysem. There is no serial number plate and I have found no information directly related to it. I salvaged it from scrap but it has little wear. It has a 7.5HP motor but I suspect it may have originally been line-shaft driven. It came with a proper vise and rotating table. I have had it running but have not done any cutting yet.

24" Cinci Standard with a universal table.

I live in North Dakota. A year ago I placed a want add in a paper in montana looking for a shaper. I ran the add for a month, I had five people call me with shapers for sale. I got a 36" G&E in northern wyoming. It ran before we loaded it and I paid $500 for it.

Greetings to All,

A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to pick up some interesting work that would require "milling" (according to my client.)

When I looked at the workpieces (his material) and the print I realized that instead of the $47.50 a "regular" shop quoted per piece that I could do the same job on a small shaper for less than $10 a piece, so I quoted him $33.75 each, half in advance, just to see if he would bite. Yip, took the bait, the full line and the sinker too. And his check cleared in my account just fine.

Then thinking about it some more I realized that working on a shaper would require a lot of switching-and-adjustment. So thinking just a bit deeper I realized that if I had two shapers I could set each up with the different stops the job would require, and just flip the workpiece from one machine to another.

So now I own two of SB's 7" shapers. Both purchased up in Pennsylvania, one 110v single phase, one 220v three phase. The 110v unit came ($725) with the S-B shaper stand which had four tool holders in the drawers. The 220v had one custom-build tool holder, no stand ($600.) Both bought within a week of each other, both a six hour drive up and back. Both in very fine mechanical condition.

So a few weeks after setting up the second machine, and 550 workpieces done fully to spec, I ended up with these two machines, neither of which I'll get rid of - for now, anyway. Oh, and four $0.75 "lathe" tool bits, only partially used.

Regards to All,
Stan Db