Early Rhodes No. 1 Shaper acquired

RCPDesigns · Nov 28, 2020

I just acquired an early Rhodes Shaper. The older girl was in pretty rough condition as she was living in an open air shop. A light cleaning has revealed a solid unit that will not required near the effort to restore as I first thought. Amazingly enough she's free in all directions. There isn't a serial number anywhere I can find. It seems the early units didn't have serial numbers or they're hidden somewhere and not on the right side of the ram. The name on the casting is L.E. Rhodes and it was made in Hartford Conn. The lettering is interesting as the 'R' is supersized.

As she was found.

Lettering on casting

After removing hideous vise and a quick clean up.

Full restoration is still a ways off as I have a car to finish restoring. I did remove a few pieces and dropped them in the Evapo-Rust bucket. I have a 15" Hendey friction shaper so this little guy is more for fun than function. Plus, after seeing the picture of the poor thing on Craigslist I just had to rescue it.

Paolo_MD · Nov 29, 2020

RCPDesigns said:
... The name on the casting is L.E. Rhodes and it was made in Hartford Conn. The lettering is interesting as the 'R' is supersized.
...

Interesting. All the letters seem a little slanted. To me it looks like that the writing was assembles from multiple blocks, each having a character (like in a Linotype) and the person that put it together swapped the "R" of Rhodes with the first "R" of Hartford.
I'm not expert in casting. But I would expect that any writing to be embossed on the casting would be either part of the pattern (if the pattern were to be used just for that product) or on a monolithic panel to be attached to the pattern.
Given the apparent absence of a serial number, I'm wondering if this one were a pre-production or prototype machine.

Nice score!

Paolo

RCPDesigns · Nov 29, 2020

Paolo_MD said:
Interesting. All the letters seem a little slanted. To me it looks like that the writing was assembles from multiple blocks, each having a character (like in a Linotype) and the person that put it together swapped the "R" of Rhodes with the first "R" of Hartford.
I'm not expert in casting. But I would expect that any writing to be embossed on the casting would be either part of the pattern (if the pattern were to be used just for that product) or on a monolithic panel to be attached to the pattern.
Given the apparent absence of a serial number, I'm wondering if this one were a pre-production or prototype machine.

Nice score!

Paolo

I hadn't thought of that, thanks for the information. This unit also has a handle on the wheel like the 1903 ad that is shown in Cope's American Planer, Shaper and Slotter Builders. The other pictures I've seen as well as the Rhodes catalog do not have the handle. I ran the shaper through its motion with the handle but I'm not sure it has enough leverage to do any real work. Guess I'll have to try that one day.

cutting oil Mac · Nov 30, 2020

On the lettering , The R letter is a different size of font than the others on the casting , In that style of font these letters were lead "castings" supplied by various foundry accessory suppliers, So my guess is the patternmaker ran out of the correct size of letter and only had recourse to taking the next size up This resulting in the R sticking up like a sore thumb,Usually one attached the letters on to the pattern body with thick shellack, Although in the case of larger letters sometimes one came across these little lead letters with a couple of tiny holes cast in for small panel pins
I would surmise the folk who made these letters in the past would make them in some system not unlike the mmanufacture of printers type, Nowadays the dreaded plastic has taken over

R.C. P. I am impressed with your little Rhodes It is an intresting little thing and has not suffered from the curse of modernisation, I think you will enjoy making chips with it.

JohnMartin · Dec 1, 2020

Very interesting indeed.

I too have an old L E Rhodes, Hartford. Ive always thought it dated from the late 1920s, based on the Hartford location and the ancient motor on it. But the motor of course was not original, and when they electrified it who knows whether they bought a new motor or used something that was laying around the shop. And when they did so.

My R is the same size as the other letters. On mine, the S in Rhodes appears slightly smaller than the other letters. It also is a bit mangled - not nice and crisp - but with the black filler on it its hard to tell. The letters probably often fell off the patterns and were lost and replaced with whatever was handy. Ive never been able to find a serial number on mine, and believe me Ive looked.

Mine also has a 3 slot table, like yours. It may be the perspective of the shots, but it looks as if your table might be taller - mine is 8.

I got mine with a Rhodes vise and cast iron base. If you look at the lathes.co.uk website, youll see that the shapers pictured had a chip tray between the main casting and the base. Mine either never had one, or it went missing. Formed steel or cast iron - who knows? Apparently, there were at least three different versions of the main casting. Yours appears to have a substantial foot at the front, while the foot on mine is shorter, and those on the website have none at all.

The link rod which operates the feed ratchet is also different - yours appears much heavier. Not a good place for extra heft, in my opinion, as there have been a few times when mine was adjusted too long with the table too low, and luckily bent before breaking anything.

Have fun with it.

John

Technical Ted · Dec 1, 2020

Not sure what year my Rhodes is, but it's one of the older ones that was line shaft only. When I bought it someone had mounted a single phase motor on the back with a single pulley drive so only one speed. The motor was mounted very poorly at that. I machined a flat spot on the back of the housing and mounted a plate to secure a 3/4HP 3 phase motor with a VFD. I over sized the motor so I could run it slowly and not worry about it. Works great! Have wide range of stroke speed that I can easily change on the fly!

RCPDesigns · Dec 3, 2020

JohnMartin said:
Very interesting indeed.

I too have an old L E Rhodes, Hartford. IÂ’ve always thought it dated from the late 1920Â’s, based on the Hartford location and the ancient motor on it. But the motor of course was not original, and when they electrified it who knows whether they bought a new motor or used something that was laying around the shop. And when they did so.

My R is the same size as the other letters. On mine, the S in Rhodes appears slightly smaller than the other letters. It also is a bit mangled - not nice and crisp - but with the black filler on it itÂ’s hard to tell. The letters probably often fell off the patterns and were lost and replaced with whatever was handy. IÂ’ve never been able to find a serial number on mine, and believe me IÂ’ve looked.

Mine also has a 3 slot table, like yours. It may be the perspective of the shots, but it looks as if your table might be taller - mine is 8Â”.

I got mine with a Rhodes vise and cast iron base. If you look at the lathes.co.uk website, youÂ’ll see that the shapers pictured had a chip tray between the main casting and the base. Mine either never had one, or it went missing. Formed steel or cast iron - who knows? Apparently, there were at least three different versions of the main casting. Yours appears to have a substantial foot at the front, while the foot on mine is shorter, and those on the website have none at all.

The link rod which operates the feed ratchet is also different - yours appears much heavier. Not a good place for extra heft, in my opinion, as there have been a few times when mine was adjusted too long with the table too low, and luckily bent before breaking anything.

Have fun with it.

John

Very cool that you have the vise. I'm looking to get some dimensions on the vise so I can make one at some point. As per a base, from the ads I've found it appears the base for mine was a simple pair of A-frame legs, much like a lathe base. I believe that is the reason for the bigger foot. I would have loved to get the base but it is long gone. I'll eventually make a cabinet for it to sit on as I can always use some more storage.

RCPDesigns · Dec 5, 2020

Well... I couldn't help myself, I decided to go ahead and restore the little guy... or at least get the bulk of it done. I'm waiting on some parts for the MG so it is a good time to go ahead and get started.

Soaked the machined parts in Evapo-Rust and, as usual, it worked great.

Cleaned up the main casting and prepped it for paint. I'm going with a semi-gloss black. The shaper was most likely gray originally but I have so many gray machines I've grown tired of the color. As I cleaned it up what was left of the paint came off and revealed either a black filler or a japanning. I thought it fit the shaper so that's the color I chose.

M.B. Naegle · Dec 7, 2020

Two thoughts with the miss-matched letters: Lots of companies were on hard times during the depression and it's very possible that Rhodes switched to the cheapest foundry they could find, or their usual foundry was working with unskilled help. Or, this could be a later piece made during World War 2 when manufacturers were trying to get as many machines produced as they could and superficial things like casting letter were given almost no effort so they could focus on more critical things.

One of the machines we make has a cast pot that was first made out of bronze, then aluminum, but we have one that was made out of steel and it has imperfections cast into it like they used an old part for the pattern. Our assumption is that with material shortages during the war, the pattern was likely in shortage at their usual aluminum foundry, so they sent an extra pot to a different foundry to get a few pots made to hold them over.

RCPDesigns · Dec 8, 2020

Got a couple coats of black on it and I like the way it looks.

Wire wheeled the handles to see where things were.

Had to do 60, 80 and 120 grit on the big handle to get the dents out. The rest I was able to start at 150 and then 240, 400 and 600 before moving to course wheel on buffer and then two finishing wheels. It takes forever but the results are always worth it.

Homebrewblob · Dec 9, 2020

Shut up and take my money!!

RCPDesigns · Dec 12, 2020

Getting closer! I've gotten a pretty good look at the whole machine now. The wear is acceptable and a good bit better than I thought it would be. The ram is in great shape, the x-axis leadscrew will need to be replaced at some point and needs some new gib screws in a lot of places. It does seem, however, that our little guy took a tumble at some point. The shaft that the step pulley and hand wheel ride on is bent at the far end where the hand wheel rides. I'll have to see how it looks under power to know how big an issue it is. The end of the x-axis lead screen is also bent but since that turns rather slowly it shouldn't be a problem. It was really only noticeable after I realized the rear shaft was bent and I theorized it must have fallen on its side. I don't think it will be a problem but even if it is, I can either bend it back or make a replacement.

M.B. Naegle · Dec 14, 2020

Looking really good! You do a good job balancing preservation and restoration.

I'm a bit of historical optimist, in that the good that happened should be more important than the few hiccups. So, I like when machines are rebuilt or restored in such a way that they don't look "mint," they just look like they've been cared for extremely well. The nicks and scratches all tell a collective history. Rust, bad repairs, and 1000 layers of crummy paint, I'm fine to forget about. Look at your machines like a loved grandparent, not a saint, and you tend to enjoy them more.

thermite · Dec 14, 2020

M.B. Naegle said:
Looking really good! You do a good job balancing preservation and restoration.

I'm a bit of historical optimist, in that the good that happened should be more important than the few hiccups. So, I like when machines are rebuilt or restored in such a way that they don't look "mint," they just look like they've been cared for extremely well. The nicks and scratches all tell a collective history. Rust, bad repairs, and 1000 layers of crummy paint, I'm fine to forget about. Look at your machines like a loved grandparent, not a saint, and you tend to enjoy them more.

I like that philosophy!

One rule, here..

IF ... /as/when a "green" is appropriate?

THEN.. either a brilliant and proud - to "run like a Deere" or "Kelly Green"

OR the subdued "Rock Moss Green" I had the local Benjamin-Moore brew-up off PM's research.

No, repeat NO "OSHA" green..

Kinda ruins the mood...

D'ruther stuff resembled an honest farm tractor than a decrepit schoolhouse or earlier-war GI "hospital" hallway.

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