Should I buy a Shaper?

The best way to search for a metal shaper on eBay is to search for metal shaper in business & industrial under the metalworking category. Some idiots will still list wood shapers there, but you can mostly filter them out. On Google, use the parentheses "metal shaper", that will filter most of the other stuff out. Looking for a metal planer is much more difficult.
 
A far better place to look for a shaper than eBay is Craigslist or a public online auction site. Most eBay sellers think their stuff is made out of gold or something even more precious. I've seen small shapers with a listed starting price of over $600.00. In most cases they weren't worth the price of scrap. A look on Craigslist through our state came up with several with an asking price of $250.00 to $400.00. I managed to purchase one a few years ago in like new condition for less than $200.00. It was part of a lot at the Badger Army Ammunition Depot auction. The buyer didn't want the shaper but was interested in some of the other machines in the lot. He knew I was interested in the shaper and offered it to me for a price I couldn't refuse.

Many community colleges, high schools and universities also sell at auction sites like these.


http://www.maxanet.com/cgi-bin/mncal.cgi?rlust

http://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/all,wi/browse/home?tm=m

The University of Wisconsin system just went through an upgrade of industrial shop equipment used in their Industrial Arts Teacher Training Program. Over the last 2 years they've sold dozens of pieces of high quality manual equipment to make way for more modern CNC machines. All of the equipment has been in like new condition and goes for pennies on the dollar. There are still a couple campuses scheduled to sell industrial shop equipment later this year and early next year.

Most states have similar auction sites. It's well worth your time to find and visit them regularly when looking for shop equipment.
 
You answered the three basic questions already, #! You have the space, #2 You have the cash, and #3 You want to operate one. IMHO you asked the wrong question. It should read "Where can I buy a Shaper?"

I want one also but intend to build one, the Acto Super 8 Shaper.]

Ha ha, I have been looking at several shapers over the last several months. Finding one is not too hard, finding one in good to great shape at a decent price is not hard either.

My main concern was misusing the space and money for "want". Many of the post have detailed the many uses and practicality of having a shaper. SOOOOOO......

I do own a small repair shop, not into production so this would be a great addition. Interestingly, many of my customers really seem to appreciate the older manual machinery. I always see their eyes light up when they see all the equipment. I often hear the phrase of "man, wish they still built stuff like this". I had a few youngsters ask if I needed help and listened to them talk of how they were taught cnc and wished they had more training in manual machinery.

Thanks again for all the responses.

Cheers
 
A shaper is a great remedy for people that have severe iron deficiency even when their bloodwork comes back normal.

There is a Cincinnati 24" shaper on my roster. I use it to resurface cylinder heads for other general repair shops. The set-up for finding square is pretty quick.

A couple weeks ago I had to square up some ends of 4" black pipe that were 79" long in my lathe. Here was the reason to get a steady rest I purchased a year ago properly fit to the lathe. I fiddled with this follower rest on my Van Norman 26 trying to get it secure and square. I planed to use a 2"x8" end mill to do the job. After a long time of checking squareness I was ready to cut. It chattered to matter what. So much that it moved in the vice and got cut diagonally. I was about ready to give up. Looking at the shaper, I didn't have to balance the part in the vice and use shims. I could just lock it in however it is secured best. Then simply rotate and tilt the table to find square. I don't have a tilting or rotating table for my mill. Even if I did, there wasn't enough table to spindle height to accomodate. Yes, I could have layed down the follower rest on the table and face off the end. But, I would still have to fiddle with shimming it square. Once square the mill could zip past in a few passes. The cutting time of the shaper is much longer. But, the overall job was done faster in the shaper because set-up was only a few minutes.

Plus, a shaper is probably the coolest tool in the shop to watch it work.

Here is a link to resurfacing a Subaru cylinder head on the Cincinnati 24".
http://vid52.photobucket.com/albums/g39/FirstEliminator/MVI_3626_zps63bffdab.mp4

Slow, but you can do other things while it works. If I had a bunch of the same heads to surface that all needed to be done in short order I'd have to find a faster way. The shaper is easy to set up for what ever comes walking in the door. Making it good for a repair shop.

Mark
 
Last edited:
Bill Gruby pretty well sumed it up. i had never seen a shaper nor knew how one worked. That all changed when i was given a very nice 16in cinn for removing it from a house basement. i had space,the price was right, so i wanted it!
i'm slowly learning how to use it. word of warning, make sure the huge vise is tightened to the table! repeat tighten vise to table!
it is really hard on the floor and noisy too!
thanks scruffy ron k
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Although I have written this a thousand times. I have changed my long winded opinion to "lets have a mill v/s shaper showdown" a simple
no brainer... lets machine some simple shelve stock out of the most rusted bad free junk you can find. Quite evident who won with a cheap
HSS tool bit. Why because I value my expensive end mills. On a shaper just about anything can be used from a ground allen wrench to a twist
drill for a tool bit. Shapers do not care about rust. A common job of a gear tooth implant, again its a shaper. No waiting for an expensive
mill cutter from UPS, just sharpen a profile tool for the shaper and go at it. Amazing parts can be made with a rotary table on a shaper.
Ya just gotta understand the thing.... I think the whole thing comes down to mastering tool grinding. Once mastered the results are truly
amazing. Even more since I put a DRO on my shaper.......




once you buy it you cant keep your hands off it....


I for one would really like to see some of the work you have done on the shaper with a rotary table. maybe a new thread on "using a shaper"
 
I've fixed up a couple. They simply the most fun machine tool there is. It's like stepping back in time .
 
Found a shaper this week and picked it up today. Made a few chips with it already, nice smooth running and quite. Very little wear, was used very little according to PO. Came with 9 unused Rex tool bits.

01111_gSiiwwgUluA_600x450.jpg 00C0C_4aGL7WXQIwW_600x450.jpg
 
That looks Awesome. It looks like one of the very early shapers.
 
What a silly ? Ofcorse you should muy any and all machines you have the space and money for.:roflmao:
 
Back
Top