An obscure machine tool and its history

I finally got a metal shaper -- time to dig a bit into its unexpected history, learn how it works, and make something useful on it.

[@eatenkate]

Here for the teardown and the deep clean!

[@aeiro5390]

I really enjoyed this! Thanks for subtitling your videos, as a deaf person that's greatly appreciated!

[@rrsteamer]

For those who think that sharpers are not worth the money, consider this. A number of tool and die shops here in this area used shapers to remove heavier amounts of stock before doing the finish machine work on vertical mills. Consider the cost of end mills and other cutters. The time to change the cutter and reset for dimensional requirements are all a part of machining thought process. Use a good grade of hs tool steel. Determine wear of the ram vs the column ways vertical and horizontal ways. Also for parts that have been welded to repair or build up worn surfaces HS steel tooling will generally be cheaper to use than end mills or in some cases carbide insert tooling. What you want to consider is flexibility. Since shapers are usually cheap it can be a low cost investment that even if only used occasionally can be a job saver = money maker.

[@googlesucks7975]

That's a badass machine you got there, I'd love to see a video on the teardown and cleaning process! If you don't mind me asking, how much were you able to pick that up for?

[@hilltopmachineworks2131]

Awesome old shaper. I use my 16" G&E shaper as often as I can. Another machinist mentioned and I tend to agree, that the final nail in the coffin for the shaper was when carbide insert face mills arrived on scene. That made hogging material more efficient and cost effective.

[@smellsofbikes]

That camera mounting on the shaper ram is so good. Somehow, the t-slot nuts on my mill stand just a bit above the table surface and I never realized how useful it would be to have them low enough to slide under work in progress. So, besides learning about shapers watching this, I learned about t-nuts.

[@TheDrAlbee]

The t-nut segment was a solid "the more you know" moment.

[@samehmann7353]

really awesome video! thanks for giving a great tour of the machine!

[@dutchgray86]

T nuts is the first thing I made on mine, though I modified some I had on hand that were for 5/8" studs but were too large to fit in the slots, I was lucky and mine still had its vice, I bought it from a guy who was retiring and he had had it sat in a corner at the back of his shop but hadn't ever used it, in 40 plus years, never even wired in and he told me it came from an R&D shop which he bought a bunch of machinery from when it shut. So its in pretty decent condition. I also bought an nearly unused universal dividing head, most of the accessories were still greased and wrapped from new and its in the factory shipping crate.

[@GeorgeWallace-l1s]

operated one like it in 1951 when i was a 1st year apprentice.

[@levirhoden]

Amazing! My uncles got a couple of these and he’s offered to give me one…if I can drive it all the way from Wisconsin to Seattle! Always thought they were too cool!

[@RutherfordRyan1]

Make yourself a spring loaded slapper retractor mechanism…..you can do it…! They’re simple and a great time and wear saver

[@ZanzasToys]

This was great- I've wondered about shapers for a long time, and it was great to see one actually in use. So great that that machine ended up in your shop rather than a junkyard.

[@xmadrugadaxeternax]

See also Leyton's "A Generative Theory of Shape".

[@JoeGassen]

Just bought a 20" Steptoe and cleaned and painted it up first. Will be watching and hope to learn from your efforts!

[@jrk1666]

Its better to clamp stuff in line with the stroke, that way should it overpower the clamp it will just slide it off the clamps. If you clamp at 90 degrees it will crash, either damaging the part or the machine

[@MichaelKJohnson]

3D print an addition to the strap clamp box for the new t-nuts?

[@Attoparsec]

That's a good idea -- once I figure out where they're living, other than on the bandsaw table!

[@n__neen]

very underrated channel. even though your two-thirds keyboard video did get a lot of views and is good, i like these videos about old stuff even more. you have a good presenting and editing style and are very knowledgeable; your videos are a joy to watch. thank you.

[@skipd9164]

Graduated 1980 from trade school as a machinist. In the summer of 78 I worked in my first machine shop after 10th grade. Half of the shop was run from a belt and shaft that was almost a century old . This was an old machine shop when Lynn MASS was shoe capital of the world. Upon graduation I worked at United Shoe Manufacturing corporation ( USMC ) in Beverly Massachusetts. This was the factory that produced shoe making machine's and was the largest shop in America. It is now Cummings property. This factory had its own foundry and production line machining where I worked on an old Milwaukee horz and vert mill as piece worker. The story that ruined this company was about a monopoly. USMC had its own thread system and nothing was standard measurement. Meaning no 1/4 20 tap but maybe..265 by 18 tap. No 1/4 , 3/8 or other known measurements but .240 or 385. This is examples and not real but no one could produce or make any piece until courts sided with the government and forced USMC to use same system in the country

[@paradiselost9946]

gah. and i bet they used nuts that were those pesky "neither metric nor imperial" like certain british/australian machines loved to use... effin kills me pulling apart old machines with BSA/whitworth sizes... unless its really important, i drill and tap them out to metric rather than even bother undoing them? i derive much pleasure from destroying "sh1tworths"... and thread geometries that arent the standard iso 60 degree, either... the most common is bspt, 55 degree, thats ok, its still widespread, but just enough difference to the NPT to be a pain in the butt when dealing with plumbing/hydraulics.

[@skipd9164]

@@paradiselost9946 it was a great company until the government got involved. Look on Google maps and see. Beverly Massachusetts under Cummings property. Around 1900 it was the largest building on earth it had 3 parallel buildings joined by connecting buildings and was 3 stories tall. Had it's own electric power plant and a foundry for its own castings and metal. Worker's had a yacht club and it's own country club. If you work for General Electric and wanted better pay and benefits then you went to USMC. Look at Google to see how big it was

[@garyhall2126]

Great Video! Gotta tell you how nice it is to have a fellow Washingtonian and Seattle Metal Head doing youtube videos. Gives everything a "home grown" feel. You do a really good job!

[@CullenCraft]

Wow! I can imagine a shop filled with this type of machine. The sound would be deafening.

[@spankeyfish]

Mills are faaaar louder

[@paradiselost9946]

get a tilting rotary table, check the maths for generating spur gears with a slotting saw, engage brain cells to "roll a cone on two axes", and you can cut high precision bevels, relatively quickly... the only other way to make them to the same accuracy is with a very specific and single use "shaping machine", the gleasson bevel gear generator. the only one i know of (GBGG) is a yuppie ornament in a cafe that was once a train workshop because in this country the current practice is to have the train workshops as far away from the rail network as possible, shipping them around by truck instead? oh, how i would love to fire THAT particular lump of iron up during the lunch hour rush! find the RIGHT application for a shaper, and they CAN make you money... and for the hobby shop, theyre just nice to have if you have the space. generally the machine comes free... its the shipping that kills it.

[@johneric3886]

Nice video. Good find, I'm happy for you!!!

[@Codebreakerblue]

Personally, I'd love to see a video on the teardown and cleaning

[@StripeyType]

Jealous! I think I mentioned on Masto but also this would have made my job of rebuilding my lathe cross slide a whole heck of a lot easier.

[@IndianaDundee]

You mentioned "South Bend". I am assuming Indiana. If so, or not, hello from Richmond, IN.

[@nickdecker2350]

South Bend was a major lathe manufacturer out of south bend indiana. They got bought out decades ago and are probably still the most prevalent lathes because of the quality and quantity they put out

[@desertTooHot]

Nice!

[@alastairbarkley6572]

It's a substitute for a horizontal mill (a tool much more popular over here in the UK) - in the case of a vertical mill, a shaper can do some work better and more accurately. Look at the slotting attachment sometimes fitted to a Bridgport - that's a sort of poor man's shaper. And, watching a shaper at work is so absorbing hypocritical even. How many million hours of work time have been wasted just looking at a shaper?😊

[@spankeyfish]

The saying is that you can make anything with a shaper except money.

[@mason5557]

P r o m o s m ☺️

[@firesurfer]

Plenty of shaper action on abom79.