Back in high school shop...

Conrad Hoffman · Jan 23, 2021

I was going through some old negatives I shot in high school. We had a big school that catered to just about everything, including a nice machine shop. Apparently we even had a shaper, though I had no clue what a shaper was back then. This was probably 1971 or 1972. Anybody recognize it?

SIP6A · Jan 23, 2021

Well with the traveling head and crank dive It's probably British.

Limy Sami · Jan 24, 2021

How about a Perfecto shaper ? Page Title

thermite · Jan 24, 2021

Limy Sami said:
How about a Perfecto shaper ? Page Title

Seems so. Could was the proud lad in the photo had built it from a kit for a grade, too.

My 12" Sheldon is ex Dayton, Ohio school system and about two orders of magnitude stouter, even as an "ultralight" in the shaper universe.

A mere 1805 avoir, motor-indoors AND a Reeves varidrive included when even a small US-made 12" lineshafter was typically 500 lbs heavier. Or more. Without a motor, or half its Iron cone pulleys.

TedinNorfolk · Jan 24, 2021

It's a Boynton&Plummer

Limy Sami · Jan 24, 2021

TedinNorfolk said:
It's a Boynton&Plummer ��

I think ya got it Ted

1880's Boynton & Plummer Metal Shaper - YouTube

& boynton & plummer shaper - Google Search

And http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/115/4813.pdf

thermite · Jan 24, 2021

Limy Sami said:
I think ya got it Ted

1880's Boynton & Plummer Metal Shaper - YouTube

& boynton & plummer shaper - Google Search

Looked like new, too.

Conrad? How OLD did you say you were?

Limy Sami · Jan 24, 2021

thermite said:
Looked like new, too.

Conrad? How OLD did you say you were?

That's enough of your squit Methuselah

johnoder · Jan 24, 2021

How OLD did you say you were?

Well, moreso - how about 1955?

"Pop" Werner let us run the shaper but not the pipsqueak Axxxx mill

Conrad Hoffman · Jan 24, 2021

Well, high school class of '72, probably also when the photo was taken. Born in '54. Our high school in Vermont was really something because it catered to both the college bound and the trades. We had a spectacular auto shop with the latest of everything, a big machine shop and an electronics lab.

jim rozen · Jan 24, 2021

Was you in photo?

One regret, I have zero pics of me in HS - my wish would be for one of me with my mates in machine drawing class.

lucky7 · Jan 24, 2021

I’ve wondered about the risk calculation that must go on in shop teachers heads. In my case in the early 1980’s, virtually everything other than a little Myford lathe was fair game for everyone. I was allowed on the Myford as I’d been fooling around on the South Bend at home since I was a ten year old. It was the table saw and the jointer that scared me. Probably should have scared my classmate MZ who removed parts of his fingers on the jointer, but didn’t faze Mr. Wilson who just calmly wadded gauze on his hand and took him to the ER. Don’t recall any restriction after that for the jointer either, just a reminder not to put our fingers into the cutter. We probably paid more attention after MZ’s accident.

L7

Lewie · Jan 24, 2021

Gee what a bunch of youngsters here.
...lewie... high school class of 1949
Oh and we poured bookends in lead, in foundry. :-)
..lewie..

Conrad Hoffman · Jan 24, 2021

jim rozen said:
Was you in photo?

One regret, I have zero pics of me in HS - my wish would be for one of me with my mates in machine drawing class.

Not me. I've been into photography since about age 13. My basic persona is more observer than participant. I took shop classes in junior high, the usual sheet-metal and tinners rivet stuff, plus some wood, which I've never been good at, but in high school I was more into electronics and photography. Because I was a photographer and behind the camera, there are only a few shots of me during that time.

That reminds me, we also had a small drafting room, but for some reason it had a Unimat lathe I was always fascinated with.

Bill D · Jan 24, 2021

Lewie said:
Gee what a bunch of youngsters here.
...lewie... high school class of 1949
Oh and we poured bookends in lead, in foundry. :-)
..lewie..

My mother, born in 1920, still had some small cast lead elephants she had as a little girl when she died.
Bil lD

Bluechipx · Jan 24, 2021

Back in high school my shop teacher was demo'ing the shaper, the stroke was extra long, in high speed and he must have thought it was in backgear. You wouldn't think it was possible what happened. No clutch, so when he hit the power it instantly went crazy with very rapid long strokes and tore the mounting bolts out of the floor and began traveling across the shop floor. It probably made it four or five feet in just a few seconds before he was able to get to the power switch. Is it possible all shapers might be capable of doing this?

alphonso · Jan 24, 2021

Wood shop teacher was running the planer and a chunk kicked back and got him in the nuts. Rolled around on the floor for what seemed like forever. After he recovered, said "That's why you little turds don't get to use that machine" Still have the book case I built then.

thermite · Jan 24, 2021

johnoder said:
Well, moreso - how about 1955?

"Pop" Werner let us run the shaper but not the pipsqueak Axxxx mill

View attachment 311454

Sneaking into the machine halls, Watertown Arsenal, 1951-52 got me hooked:

Didn't realize it, but there are photos archived, including the 280 mm "Atomic Annie" cannon Dad forbade me to crawl into the breech of.

Skinny as a spaghetti-noodle as a kid, I was convinced I could crawl through it.

"Private tutoring" Dewalt radial sawdust-generator, wood & metal drillpress, then SB lathe started around '57, shaper and mills '59, first WAGE for it 1960.

Off the back of that "extracurricular" training I morphed into a teaching assistant back at school. Dave Chirdon otherwise had his hands over-full with safety issues, one instructor in a multi-trades shop.

Over time, learning to teach served me even better than learning the metal work.

michiganbuck · Jan 24, 2021

I was in the Smith Hughes class of 3 or 4 hours a day..We had two shapers, one surface grinder, two verticle mills, one horizontal mill, about 7 lathes, a heat treat furnace, two drill presses, one cylindrical grinder, one surface plate, perhaps 4 pedestal grinders, about 6 benches with having a vise, one horizontal saw and one verticle, a tool crib.
I favored lathe work but got titled as the surface grinder guy. When jobs search came the shop instructors Mr. Shuttleworth and Mr. Hollister sent me to a grinding shop and that is how I got started in grinding..darn.
The lathe was so much more fun.

thermite · Jan 24, 2021

michiganbuck said:
I favored lathe work but got titled as the surface grinder guy. when jobs search came the shop instructors Mr. Shuttleworth and Mr. Hollister sent me to a grinding shop and that is how I got started in grinding..darn.
The lathe was so much more fun.

After all these years of experience?

You want a really finely made lathe?

Just grab-a-slab and grind yerself one from the solid!

Back in high school shop...

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