Hendey shaper

I just looked a 12" motor drive Hendey with the universal table. Does anyone know the published weight? I'm guessing 3000lb. One way is square, one a dovetail , and it has power feed on the tool holder, is this typical of Hendey?

Andrew:

Hang a magnet on the ram. Hendey tried to make an aluminum ram work for a little while in the 12". I think they were mostly replaced with iron rams.

John

My 12" Hendey has dovetails on both sides of the ram and power feed on the tool. I used it today to cut a 72 degree V block for forging a pentigon. It is an excellent machine. You may find some info on http://www.lathes.co.uk/

John, aluminum? Maybe I could use it to cut aluminum die blocks for my trip hammer. It looked like iron, but next time I will bring a magnet or a pocket knife.

Danny, any guess on weight?

The 12" Hendey is an excellent machine. One we had was so quiet you could hardly hear it. I don't recall its weight, but I doubt it's anywhere close to 3K. The mechanism for power feed on the toolholder is a great place to get your hand cut off if it gets in there. Watch out for it.

Richard

I think mine is about 2800#. It has the iron ram.

Andrew T:

The 12 inch high speed Hendey shaper weighs
2825 lbs with motor. The power down feed was an
option, but most shapers were sold with it fitted.
After holding your arm up in the air for a few
hours operating the down feed manually, you will
be glad that your shaper has one. The universal
table was standard with the 12 inch shaper. If
you will post the serial number of your machine,
I will research its history. All the original
drawings, most of the patterns and some repair
parts still exist. The parts book, the operating
instructions and the foundation plans are avail-
able for this shaper. I hope that this information
will be of some help.

I found a manual on this site that didn't come up in my "search", the shaper I'm looking at is very close to it.

Hendeyman, I won't have the # unless I buy it.
Do you have any insight on the square way/vee way
combo, does this suggest the dreaded alum. ram, or
a older model? Thanks for all the replies, Andrew

Andrew T:

It took a bit of time to reseaerch the history
of the different styles of rams used on the Hendey
12 inch high speed shapers. Without a serial num-
ber I can't tell you with any certainty the date
of construction, but I can give you a circa to
work from.

Hendey used a simple system to indentify var-
ious parts. First, the size of the drawing was
listed, A to E. Then a number assigned to the pro-
duct, in this case 11 (which represented the 12"
high speed shapers). Finally, the part number.
The lower the number the older the part. Now a
list of all the ram drawings for this style of
shaper:

E11 - 44 - Castiron ram with 2 Vs - drawing com-
pleted on July 10, 1930 (first engineering draw-
ings for the high speed shaper)

E11 - 364 - Aluminum ram with 1 V and 1 Square
(made from Alcoa Alloy #195) - drawing completed
on August 25, 1932. Last used on Order #13169.

E11 - 1056 - Castiron ram with 1 V and 1 Square -
drawing completed on June 26, 1940. First used
after Order #13169. Last used on machine #2310.

E11 - 1100 - Castiron ram with 2 Vs - drawing com-
pleted on July 8, 1941. First used on Order #
13210.

E11 - 1169 - Castiron ram with 2 Vs - drawing com-
pleted on November 18, 1948. This ram was to be
used as a replacement for ram E11 - 1056. It ap-
pears that this ram style was used until the end
of Hendey production. It was also used by Barber
Colman for their line of Hendey shapers.

From the information above, any 12 inch high
speed shaper with 1 V and 1 Square ram design was
built between September 1932 and August 1941. A
magnet, as Johnoder has suggested, will determine
aluminum from castiron. You will notice, that
the original design was for 2 Vs and after nine
years of using 1 V and 1 Square, they returned to
the original design. I hope that this informa-
tion will be of some interest.

Hendeyman

Hendeyman, excellent post! Thanks much, Andrew

Well, did the alum. ram work well or no? I have ssen a Hendey 12" run but could not talk the owner out of it. I have no idea what the ram was made of. I just wonder if the light ram is necessarily a bad thing. Fine looking shaper though.

Hendeyman:

I am trying to get a Hendey 12" shaper back to speed. I picked this one up in Thomaston, CT. in an area I think was the Seth Thomas plant. There were many very old brick manufacturing buildings clustered next to a small river.

First, where is the serial number located, and what type of oil is used in the lube oil sump.

I have the product brocure that was posted online, at leat this gives me a start point for all the various handles and levers this thing has. I need some kind of service manual for the various clutch settings and adjustments.

Thanks

Ken BBD Sparks