Boynton Shaper

I just finished mounting the countershaft, handles and belts for this little Boynton shaper that I got from Irby Jones (who posts here frequently) last fall. This was made in the 1870's, before Boynton and Plummer merged in 1880. The table is moved up and down by hand and locked into position; the head with the cutter moves across the work. I still need to anchor it to the floor, and then I can run it. I'll take a video and post a link here when I do.

My plan is to use this for cutting through the surface scale on dies after they're forged. Single point tools are nice for that, especially since the alloy I mostly use is 5160 and is not always perfectly annealed (being done by a blacksmith and all). Most of my dies for the press are about 3 1/2" square, so this shaper should be just right for that and a lot faster than my belt shifting 24" Smith and Mills. I need only light cuts for that, after all.

Joel

Neat little shaper! I always enjoy seeing pics of your shop, Joel... it's one of the very coolest I'm aware of.

Oh Joel, you need to put up bigger pictures! I can't tell you how happy I am to see my (now your) little shaper finally running on a lineshaft!!! It just sat around here and did nothing but try and avoid getting flooded. Now it's among other neat old machines and going to be doing useful work again.

The SN of that shaper is 34 so it's one of the first that E N Boynton made. Here's an ad from 1878 showing the same shaper.



Irby

Now why are they so itty-bitty? I thought that's how I'd sized them in the past. Guess not. Well, try again. Here are some other shots of it anyway.

Ugh. Now I managed to crash one over on its side. I'm just not good with these computer things. Well, I tried.

That looks like the same shaper in the advertisement, Irby, only it doesn't have the base. I wonder if it was sold either way.

I imagine it was sold by itself or with the legs. The same as with the cone pulley or without.

Hey I see the Becker mill over there with it too. All those really cool old machines are over on that side together! The little Boynton really lucked out!

Irby

Pretty cool.

Goat Marshall said:

I just finished mounting the countershaft, handles and belts for this little Boynton shaper that I got from Irby Jones (who posts here frequently) last fall. This was made in the 1870's, before Boynton and Plummer merged in 1880. The table is moved up and down by hand and locked into position; the head with the cutter moves across the work. I still need to anchor it to the floor, and then I can run it. I'll take a video and post a link here when I do.

My plan is to use this for cutting through the surface scale on dies after they're forged. Single point tools are nice for that, especially since the alloy I mostly use is 5160 and is not always perfectly annealed (being done by a blacksmith and all). Most of my dies for the press are about 3 1/2" square, so this shaper should be just right for that and a lot faster than my belt shifting 24" Smith and Mills. I need only light cuts for that, after all.

Joel

Click to expand...

I'm replying because I have a similar Boynton Traverse shaper. It looks very much like yours and the base says Boynton and Plummer so I guess it is newer. I bought it long ago and did all the normal cleaning and lubing that we do. It was powered by an electric motor mounted below. It has all the heavy cone pulleys and same neat flywheel. Even then, 30 years ago, I knew that it was wrong to put further weight upon the lower bearings. It will survive and work to some precision, no matter what happens.

alum100k said:

I'm replying because I have a similar Boynton Traverse shaper. It looks very much like yours and the base says Boynton and Plummer so I guess it is newer. I bought it long ago and did all the normal cleaning and lubing that we do. It was powered by an electric motor mounted below. It has all the heavy cone pulleys and same neat flywheel. Even then, 30 years ago, I knew that it was wrong to put further weight upon the lower bearings. It will survive and work to some precision, no matter what happens.

Click to expand...

Edit; The cast base legs say OYNTON & PLUMMERS Worchester Mass. I remember trying to find info on these. Where did you find the the serial #?

alum100k said:

Edit; The cast base legs say OYNTON & PLUMMERS Worchester Mass. I remember trying to find info on these. Where did you find the the serial #?

Click to expand...

Dang. I can't remember exactly so i took a pic. the raised letters say OYNTON & PLUMMER, MAKERS WORCESTER ..

alum100k said:

Dang. I can't remember exactly so i took a pic. the raised letters say OYNTON & PLUMMER, MAKERS WORCESTER ..

Click to expand...

But where is your pic?

I found a picture online that shows the B in Boynton gone just like yours (unless it is yours). Apparently the castings were flawed and the B didn't show up very well.





It is supposed to look like this, a picture of Bruce E. Babcock's shaper back in 2013 from this thread -

Boynton and Plummer Hand Shaper, Fresh From the Farm



Irby

alum100k said:

Edit; The cast base legs say OYNTON & PLUMMERS Worchester Mass. I remember trying to find info on these. Where did you find the the serial #?

Click to expand...

On my, now Joel's, Boynton - not Boynton & Plummer - it is on top of the sliding head, pointed to it on the photo below. The next photo shows it and it's hard to see. I had remembered it wrong when I mentioned it above. It isn't 34, it is 14. Joel can take a closer look and see if he can see a 14.





On the Boynton & Plummer versions I have photos of it in several places. On the front top of the vertical ways (at least it looks like that is where this is) like here.



And on the right end of the slide, near the flywheel like here from this thread
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...nd-history/boynton-plummer-shaper-ebay-319831



And then there's the location of the SN on esbutler's shaper in post #10 of this thread -
https://www.practicalmachinist.com/...haper-315362/?highlight=boynton+shaper+serial
which appears to be on the front of the clapper feed slide.


So the newer shapers seem to have the serial numbers in various locations. So maybe some Boynton & Plummer shaper owners will chime in with their sn locations.

Irby

This is tremendous help to me. I never knew another owner of an "Oynton". I really appreciate the pics and location tips. wow!

Irby - thanks for the SN references. I was going to dig some up and you saved me the effort.

I was just using my B&P shaper last weekend. Got a little exercise at the hand crank and did something productive in the process.

Eric

Thanks again, Irby and partners with these shapers. My SN is 703. I found it at the top of the right vertical way. 703 appears on the face of the clapper mount and on the clapper itself. I found nothing along the right ram slide. Apparently these went through some changes. The back of the main casting has like a square hole, where your earlier types have raised identity and a neat emblem. The legs' casting is different, as the earlier legs have a compound curve at the feet. I wasn't able to rack it around to see the flywheel side. Maybe more ID there.
I'm wondering if "03" meant the year and "7" meant the month. Sorry to be all fixated about this one machine but it is rare to have this sort of conversation about these. I bought mine from an elderly gent who had a wharehouse of machinery of different types. He was struggling to even sell things and thirty plus years ago, needed some cash. My GF and I made an appointment to meet him at his storage- but even then, parts of Maryland were quickly turning into huge office buildings. They were taking out the classic shops and storage facilities by oppressing taxes first and then outright seizing them. I mean; this gentleman was a professor and we talked about things which came about after his passing. In his younger life, he had casters attached to the legs. We could fairly roll the whole shaper out to certain areas, where I had wooden planks or he had something, to get it to the sidewalk. I detached the machine from the base to pack it in the FJ40. I reassembled in my basement and was rockin' and rollin' due to casters but I was able to see its frank ability to move metal. It had the original vise and machine cleaned and lubed before use. So what? Seems like a conversation which could have happened a long time ago. Glad that I got here in time.

It's definitely Number 14, Irby. Thanks for showing me where to look for it.

Another thing different between the Boynton and the later versions with Plummer is the table doesn't have a screw to raise it. You lift it, or put a jack under it, and lock it in place. I don't think that'll be any handicap for what I'll be doing though.

Here's a link to a video I made of it cutting yesterday. Sorry about the focus issues. I'm not a camera man.

YouTube

Here's the cut it made. It's just a piece of A-36, so who knows what's in it, and I was cutting just deeper than the scale. I'm happy with how it did. You can see a wee bit of the gears' pattern, but that's typical. I get than with my other shaper (a 24" geared Smith and Mills) and with the planer.


Joel

The video is fine and I really like it. Yes, mine has the knee elevation handwheel and the same vise.

I can’t recall what number is on my Boynton? I will have to look tomorrow and snap a couple of photos...In the meantime I am in need of a flywheel for mine as it has gone missing. If anyone has an extra one in the pile please let me know.

Hit Miss Engine said:

I can’t recall what number is on my Boynton? I will have to look tomorrow and snap a couple of photos...In the meantime I am in need of a flywheel for mine as it has gone missing. If anyone has an extra one in the pile please let me know.

Click to expand...

The normal attitude would let this stand for days. Months become years. As much as I'm not a fan of pickers or steam punk, they do get around. More likely; these particular flywheels are hanging from a ceiling and modified to be a chandelier.
It is important to know; there is huge weight placed on the lower bearings if not driven from above. If driven by hand, there is some lift motion.

I finally found some time to go out and snap a few pics of my Boynton shaper... at the moment it’s a little hard to get in to inspect it thoroughly... I found the number 505 stamped in two places but something tells me I remember it being stamped multiple other places... I apologize about the quality of the pictures and the fact they rotated ?? Not sure what I do wrong to make that happen.

The pics are fine and can be expanded so your number is 505. Nice crisp dovetails too. Mine shows some chip gouge marks. These are all in pretty good shape, overall. Does yours have the raised identity at back of the machine base or an open square hole ? I apologize if I referred to the cast legs as "base". The actual machine base holds the answers to identify the time period.