Unknown Shaper Accessory.

There is a South Bend Shaper for sale on Ebay in Virginia as a buy it now for $2,100.00. South Bend 7" Shaper | eBay The asking price is not cheap, but it has some accessories of note. It appears to be in reasonable condition, has the original cabinet (perhaps with a new chip tray),a possibly original lamp, a vise, two rotary tables, angle plate, indexing attachment, as well as various assorted dodads which pertain to the shaper. The indexing attachment is not really common, bordering on rare as I have seen only one or maybe two for sale over the years. The rotary table is not as rare, but for some reason sellers seem to ask unreasonable amounts for them. Overall the pricing to me seems sort of reasonable with all the included tooling. I am not selling this, and have no clue who the seller is.

There is one included accessory which I have no clue what it does. I looked at my SB shaper, and the circular projection projection from the unknown device is way to big to fit into the shaper table. I wondered if it was a device that fit directly into the ram, but it still seems too big. I asked the seller what it was, and asked for more pictures, which are enclosed. He thought it was a mount for a vise, but I don't see how it would attach to the shaper even if the shaper table was taken off. I wonder if this device is even usable with a SB Shaper. If anyone could enlighten me, please do. I enclose two pictures showing most of the accessories in a general view, with three views of the unknown accessory.

I am not going to buy this, so feel free to hit the buy it now button.

I've got a guess, how about a mount for a chuck. The item bolts to table and chuck bolts to item?

Tim

I think it goes on the swivel base under your shaper vise which I don't see in the photo.

Not sure about the piece in question, but I've got the exact same rotary table as the one on the bottom right. IMO it is way to flimsy for any kind of metal cutting. The table is held in place with a small round brass plate underneath, and there is no mechanism to index the table. You manually turn it and there are holes for a locking pin at a few positions.

Based off of these observations, and the layout of the T-slots, I'm 90% sure it is actually a piece of optical comparator stage fixturing. I'm adapting ours to use with our "new" Jones and Lambson I got a few months back.

scroll down here...courtesy of Steve Wells site..
http://www.wswells.com/data/drill_press/1963_drillpress_cat_6301E.pdf

Mystery Solved!

Ding Ding Ding! I quote from the ebay ad: "Machine came out of High school Vo-Tech shop,lightly used." When he bought it, the school selling it had no clue as to what the stuff was. They put it all in a pile for auction or whatever. The guy who bought it didn't ask here to find out what he had.

If you look at item K and L on page five of the PDF, (or page labeled 86 on the original document), the mystery item is clearly part of K, or L which is part of an XY table to use on a drill press. The unusual hold down clamps shown with L are also visible in the accessories pile linked above in the first and second picture.

Mystery solved thanks to iwananew10K.

Although a bit light for a shaper, it could actually have apps there for angle work on some small parts without re-fixturing. After re-setting any angle, I would always block it against the cut so the force would not swivel it. Most of the time a swivel base shaper vise would be better, though. Or a rotab.

If you have a vise and a rotab, probably better to sell it for proceeds for other tooling. Unusual SB attachments in good condition tend to bring good prices.

smt

"Although a bit light for a shaper, it could actually have apps there for angle work on some small parts without re-fixturing. ..." SMT

I measured the hole for the mounting of a vise on my SB shaper. It is 0.625" nominal. The unknown accessory is listed as 8.875" x 4" in http://www.wswells.com/data/drill_press/1963_drillpress_cat_6301E.pdf . From the picture I estimate the mounting flange to be about 2" in diameter. I am presuming it would take an adapter plate of some sorts to mount the unknown accessory on to a SB shaper. I would estimate the diagonal distance from the center of the table to the corner without the rotating handle to be a bit less than five inches. I checked, and this would clear the frame of the shaper assuming the handle was on the outboard side of the shaper.

So, an interesting accessory, but as suggested, it might be better to sell it and get other tooling.

Wow, the seller has a couple photos that include the mystery item face down, you ask for more photos and he sends you 5 more... all face down?

How I love thee, eBay!

This sale includes all SB shaper accessories. The second rotary table with side index holes belongs to an Atlas mill. Also has both shaper tool holders. Price is not unreasonable depending on condition of machine. Accessories usually show very little-if any-use so are probably in very good shape.

The seller took the item down, and re-listed all the accessories as "Machine Tooling" as buy it now for $1K. Someone had a sharp eye and seemingly bought them in hours. He didn't even mention they were South Bend anywhere in the ad. The shaper remains unsold as a buy it now after only a few hours for $1200. He seemed kind of non-communicative. His pictures were detailed, but you had to know what you were looking at to realize what it was.

Machine Tooling | eBay