South Bend shaper has made its way to my shop!

tweinke,
About 8 years ago, I got an Atlas that turned out to have had an electrical fire in it and after rewiring it it became cascading train wreck. It slowly revealed all of the kludged repairs that were keeping it in a semblance of operation. I finally let it go, but the seed was planted and I have kept my radar tuned to find a replacement. This was just a casual inquiry that escalated into finding a gem like this. I have a few tasks that have languished because I lacked a shaper and a vertical mill was ill suited. Keep looking and be patient, I wish you well.

Mark
 
Wow, that is really in beautiful condition. Quite a lucky find!
 
Vince,
Thanks, I feel fortunate to have gotten it, but I think the fact that I have made a friend is an even bigger score. Since I didn't wind up with another piece of equipment in project condition, I will hopefully be able to wrap up the overhaul of my Takisawa lathe. I just finished the stripping and cleaning of the tailstock and carriage this weekend. Those are the last two major components in need of paint, then I can finish reassembly. Next big task is selling off a bunch of crap that has accumulated and is serving no practical purpose to make some room in my desperately overloaded shop area.

Mark
 
Okay, I have a question. While running it yesterday, I flooded all of the external lubrication points with CLP to loosen up some of the hardened oil/cosmoline and also observed how well oil was being circulated by the pump system. I noticed that the right side of the ram was receiving less oil than the left and both had a bit of black residue. I will change the oil as a precaution, but does anyone have a preferred product to run through the system to flush the lines? I would be tempted to fill the sump with Marvel's Mystery oil, or some mix of oil and ATF to just let it run for an hour or so until it flows clean. Then I could drain and refill with an appropriate oil. I would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions.

Mark
 
Crank, what would you consider to be a fair price for that machine ,
 
As you well know LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!!! I have been shopping for a few years to find a worthwhile example after my previous experience. Several reasonable condition machines have popped up here in SOCAL from $700-$900, none were anywhere this nice, but timing to get one ( I missed out on two because of work related travel ) and having the cash in hand have proven to be a hiccup. I gave $995 for this one and haven't got the least bit of buyers remorse. I have seen several shapers listed as high as $1200-$1500 down around here, I never bothered to look at them, but often those listings don't seem to last long either. My best recommendation is if you find a decent one, buy it! If you find a better one later for a better price, buy it too and you'll be able to sell the other one off. Location has so much to do with this stuff, I was back in Cape Cod last fall and I was cruising Craigslist from NH to CT and you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a shaper or all sorts of machine equipment for prices that had me losing my mind how to ship it all out here. Long story short, I feel I paid towards the higher end of what you typically see these machines sell for, but the condition was unlike anything I have looked at, so I feel it was a score.

Mark
 
There was an untouched Atlas at a US machine dealer last year that sold for 4500.00 but it was still in the original shipping crate, with the original cosmoline on it.
 
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