Just got 7" South Bend Shaper!

[theperfessor]

Just wanted to show off my most recent machine tool acquisition. It's a 7" South Bend Shaper that's used but in very good condition. Its got a few dings in non-critical places and has obviously been repainted but the ways and seals are all good, no grooves or scarring on any moving surface, the sump was full of oil and it cycled real easily by hand. Some of the bare metal surfaces have a light dust of rust but that should come off real easy with some fine steel wool and light oil. More shop rash than anything.

I had one 30+ years ago and had no other machine tools to support it so when low times hit I had to sell it. Now I've got one again and I have a specific job for it. I wanted it so I could cut vent lines in bullet molds. I know a lot of mold makers groove the faces of molds with a rotary tool and a high feed rate, but I like straight vent lines. I think they're easier to keep clean for one thing. And you can change the spacing, putting more in the upper half of the mold if needed.

It was fun getting the thing out of my truck onto my welding table. Had to pry up either end 3/4" at a time until it was level with my table (4"+ difference) and then slide it over from tailgate to table. The upside down stand in the photo has a 1/2" steel plate top; it was shortened by cutting 5" off the bottom of the legs and then 3-1/2" x 3-1/2" x 3/8"square footpads were welded on. Cut off some extra junk from it and flame cut two holes for anchoring the shaper to the top, then ground everything smooth.

The stand was deliberately made the same height as the welding table, so it was easy to slide the shaper on to the stand. Then I pried/pulled/slid the whole thing about twenty feet into the only spare hole I have in my shop floor.

Picked it up about 11:30 a.m. Got it home after noon, and started the unloading process about 1 p.m. At 6 p.m. I was done except for sweeping the floor. I'm tired!

Still need to clean it up, change out oil, and check a couple things but I'm tickled pink right now.

[jmsj]

Great find. I wish I could find and afford one. A few years ago I stated making a .22 falling block. I made a kind of manual shaper tool that goes on milling machine, found the plans in a book. You had to manually crank the quill for each stroke. Man was it slow and still had spend a lot of time chasing the high spots.
Congradulations and enjoy. jmsj

[ANeat]

Nice; looks a lot like the Atlas shapers of that era

[PatMarlin]

Beauty!

I've never seen one operate. Sure would like to.

[elk hunter]

Great score. I'm jealous. I've wanted but never owned a South Bend, but have had three 7" shapers over the years. The current one is a Porter Cable complete with cast iron base, weight is about 800 pounds, miserable to move, but very stable when working. I hadn't thought of using it to do mould venting, great idea. If you're like me you'll come up with a project just to try it out. Enjoy your new find!

[scrapcan]

I am also jealous, good find. And if you can't find a project to try it out, I am sure I can come up with one for you!

[machinisttx]

Excellent! One of the things on my list to buy when I have the space to set it up.

[theperfessor]

Planers and shapers have mostly disappeared from modern machine shops because they are far less efficient and versatile than a good milling machine. But they will do some jobs with simpler tooling at a lower cost than many other machines.

I started my machining career running large 3 head single rail and 4 head double rail planers, a kissing cousin of a shaper. Machined castings up to 35 tons. I learned to cut dovetails, form-cut gear teeth on partial gears, form-cut irregular profiles for all sorts of templates and such, and cut internal shapes such as keyways and flat pads using an extended cutter. Even helped the millwrights recut the bedways on a 20' lathe. They just pulled it out of the floor and set the whole machine on the planer table.

The guy I got this from had a floor mounted shaper with a 24" stroke that was in good running shape, he offered it to me for the scrap price of the iron. He couldn't find anybody that wanted it. I didn't want it, it would have taken up more floor space than my 15 x 50 lathe and was way more than I needed at any price.

You see a lot of these big shapers sitting outside old machine shops rusting away. It's the small ones - the Atlases and South Bends and such - that are a little hard to find at a reasonable price. I've been looking on the Net for several years and ran onto this locally by word-of-mouth contact. I consider myself lucky to find it. :grin:

[mtnman31]

You see a lot of these big shapers sitting outside old machine shops rusting away.

Yep, there is one sitting outside one of the aircraft maintenance buildings just down the street from me. I imagine it will end up at a DRMO auction before too long.

[Bret4207]

I have a 7" Atlas. Had a heck of a time finding the clapper head, but the internet is great for stuff like that. www.linsaybooks.com has a lot of old info i book form for shapers and such.

I haven't done much with mine. The tool angles are a bit different than for a lathe and getting everything locked down tight to the bed is very important. A good vise would be a help for me.

[theperfessor]

Brett -

Good to see your post my friend. Got any pictures you care to share? What other machine tools do you have? Mine came with standard SB vise. Could you find a small (4") vise that you could adapt to yours? Let me know if I can do anything to help you out, such as modify base or something to fit your table. I'll be glad to help if I can.

A shaper is a great way to cut dovetails for sights!

[elk hunter]

Brett,

Small shapers are harder to find than an "honest politician", vises for them are even harder to find.

Shaper vises have to be low profile and extremely strong with no deflection to resist the cutting forces. It's nice to have a swivel base, but to be honest I haven't had to swivel mine in a very long time. I wish you luck in your hunt for a good vise.

[coleman]

I have a 12" hendy shaper with a universal tilting table. I used that shaper alot when i started my machning career. now that i have a bridgeport with a shaping head on it i dont use it any more just collecting dust. it is a work of art in its time.

[38-55]

Hey Ya'll,
I have a real fondness for shapers... There is nothing better that I've found for working cast/ductile iron.. I just used my sheldon to make a vise from a casting that a friend made.. So here's a pic (or two ) for ya.
Stay safe
Calvin

[Bret4207]

Brett -

Good to see your post my friend. Got any pictures you care to share? What other machine tools do you have? Mine came with standard SB vise. Could you find a small (4") vise that you could adapt to yours? Let me know if I can do anything to help you out, such as modify base or something to fit your table. I'll be glad to help if I can.

A shaper is a great way to cut dovetails for sights!

Sorry Keith, no pics. My shop is so disgusting I'd be embarrassed to post pics anyway. ( MIddle son is rebuilding his Camaro engine and I have 2 Allis/Simplicity mowers torn down) It resides in cruddy splendor with a 6" Atlas lathe and a mess of other tools of various pedigrees.

Currently I have a Stanley drill press vice from the 50's on the shaper table. Works okay, but a bit high. I bought a clamping set from MSC or Enco some years back. Darn shaper has 1/4" or 5/16" slots and the clamp set is 3/8"!!![smilie=l:

[PatMarlin]

One very nice inexpensive low profile vise is the big USA (blue colored Low -pro) Palmgren drill press vise. I bought an 8 inch to use for my docking mount machining as my 6 would not handle the 8 stock. It's amazing how true that vise is, and clamps very accurately.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

About twenty years ago I walked into a machine shop while the owner was running his lathe. I mentioned that I had an eleven inch lathe and I was just learning how to run it. He said, would you like to have a shaper?I thought he wanted to sell it so I asked how much, and he said you can have it. It was also a seven inch South Bend but it had a different vice than the one pictured here. He went next door to another shop and asked the owner to help us load it. The machine shop owner was moving to smaller quarters and needed to get rid of several pieces of equipment. He offered me a large turret lathe but he said it weighed four thousand pounds so I passed. I saw an eight inch Buck chuck in a box of tool bits but I hesitated to ask abou it .I didn't want to press my luck. I was actually in the shop on a trouble call since I worked for the phone co. I had given him my business card and told him if he had further problems to call me. In less than a week he called and asked if I could open the terminal box outside his shop. I took that oppertunity to ask about the Buck chuck. He said I could have it. I rushed to his shop and did what he asked and he started looking for the chuck. He couldn't find it and he said he might have thrown it in the dumpster . It had started to rain and I had on some new dress shoes that I had just paid 125 dollars for but I had to look anyway. I opened the lid of the dumpster and on top of everything was a rotery table made by Troyke. Since it was not my chuck and having the one track mind that I have I just pushed it over and heard it clunck to the bottom. The rain had picked up speed and I was standing in oily water so I called off the search. After coming to my senses I rushed home , put on older shoes , paged a reliable member of my crew and told him to meet me at the machine shop. Too late, someone beat me to it. By the way don't ever through incriminating evidence in a dumpster. I learned that someone checks them everyday. All was not lost however, the shop owner called two days later and said he found the chuck. I traded it later for a six inch,six jaw Buck . I still have it. Within two weeks I sold the shaper for 550 dollars. A few years later I was offered a very large shaper that had never been used. The man bought it from Navy surplus. It was a thing of beauty and the vice on it must have cost a fortune but sadly it weighed about a ton and a half, so I passed. At the time all this transpired the machine shop business was dying. Most of them depended on the space program for sub contract work and it was being phazed out. The shop owner that gave me the shaper closed his shop within the year. I want to tell you the job I had at the phone company was fantastic. I went into every type of business there is.

[Hogpost]

What a wonderul prize! Shapers can do things no other machine tool can, and without requiring expensive special tooling; and with a lot more fun!

However, these tools can be extremely dangerous. I think you should ship yours to me, so I can test and analyze it. If I feel it's too dangerous for you, I will protect you by not shipping it back. It's the least I can do....

[Frank46]

I was in a huge machine shop years ago. They had a shaper there that was bigger than any I had ever seen. I must have stood there for 15 minutes just watching it run. Poetry in motion. Frank

[theperfessor]

Well, I finally had the chance last week to clean it up and get everything back into proper operating condition. I had twelve mold blanks made up and ready for the air vents to be cut in them so I spent the better part of two days making up some little fixturing components to accurately and easily cut them.

The first thing I did was measure all the dimensions of all the features of the table top and generate a 3D CAD drawing, with all the holes and grooves included. This was saved as a template file, so when I need to make additional fixturing I can just open up the file and electronically "build" my fixture on top of it.

The end result is shown in the photos below, and it works perfectly. I had to tweak it a little bit so it took a little while to cut the first piece but after that I ran the next eleven mold halves in less than an hour - a tremendous improvement over using a fly cutter tool in a vertical mill.

The tool used is a 5/16" square HSS blank ground to a standard 60* threading tool profile and aligned properly using a Starret thread gauge. The grooves are 0.006" - 0.007" deep and were cut in three strokes.

Well, this is what I bought a shaper for and it works just fine - I am very satisfied with the end result. Now I am working on another fixture so I can cut the vertical vent lines - the ones between the cavities. Since these do not intersect the cavities I plan to cut these a little deeper.

Just thought I'd post a follow-up.

[Buckshot]

.............In the HSM magazine for the past 2 issues there has been an add for a brand new 7" SB shaper, unused still in it's shipping crate. Asking price is (IIRC) $3,555.

.............Buckshot

[PatMarlin]

Awesome project! I've never seen one of those in operation.

[GeneT]

Lovely machine! Shapers are probably my favorite tool in the shop. Lots of gun-related capabilities as well. Nice find, take care of her!

GsT

[SPRINGFIELDM141972]

I WANT ONE! I want one. I want one.:cry:

Congrats on a nice little machine.