South Bend shaper has made its way to my shop!

Nice to see a like new one. Two wires in the motor need to be switched if it's 110volt power . You may need to Ck the felts in the side not getting oil the black is the give away they sludge up. Ck aboms shaper cleaning YouTube videos.
 
I think that machine was worth what you paid for it. I know if it was my machine I would not sell one that pristine for less than that. SB metal shapers just ooze quality, no corners cut.
 
Simply beautiful, you done good. Congratulations, you're patience really paid off!

Old Iron is nice, but pristine Old Iron is the best.
 
There are folks that have gotten some cheaper but not as nice as yours. I wouldn't have tried to dicker for that price either. The last time I saw one that appeared to be that nice was an Atlas in Ridgecrest last year and they wanted $2,000. Appeared, because you know pictures can be deceiving. It lasted a week.

All the shapers I've seen locally were missing major parts, and two of them were basically stripped bare down with motors, jackshaft, vise, ratchet and covers gone. I'll bet those parts were all sold off on eBay. Both of the hulks they wanted $500 for and they went away so I guess they sold. If you've been watching eBay you know a shaper vise will run $300+, so trying to buy a fixer upper is a crazy rich guys game. I totally agree with the sentiment that you don't need another project. Trying to find parts for these old shapers is tough and expensive.

The other jem in this deal was becoming friends with the seller. You just never know what these kinds of searches are going to lead you to.
 
Well, I gratefully appreciate the compliments and comments.

I was surprised no one piped up with a bunch of "secret sauce" cleaning solutions. I'm probably going to pick up a gallon of Mobil DTE 25, ISO 46 for normal oiling. I'll dump the oil that's in it, wipe any debris out of the bottom of the sump and fill with a half and half of oil and MMO. I'll let that run for a while to circulate, drain, refill with just oil, run to make sure that there are no concentrations of solvents, drain and refill one last time. I can pull the felt wipers and let them soak in some acetone to get rid of any grunge hiding there and hopefully give them back a touch of pliability.

Mark
 
C-Bag,
You were replying while I was pecking away. You nailed it with the references to the half dead machines and missing parts. As for projects, I am definitely flush in that realm and I just got word I may be headed overseas again next month, so there goes a few weekends of working time on the shop.

Mark
 
My Atlas 7b find was totally unexpected. Basically buried in a tool hoarders barn. It was almost totally intact only missing the motor belt cover. But after cleaning it (a big job in itself) and working through the many problems from old age and abuse I've come to it's going to need some pretty major work to the cross slide, lead screw, nut at minimum and possibly some work on the ram. So only because it was so incredibly cheap and intact did I decide to go for it. But if I'd seen something like yours I'd have rather gone that route. You could say mine is the opposite end of the spectrum :) Here's what it looked like when I brought it home.

image.jpeg
 
My Atlas 7b find was totally unexpected. Basically buried in a tool hoarders barn. It was almost totally intact only missing the motor belt cover. But after cleaning it (a big job in itself) and working through the many problems from old age and abuse I've come to it's going to need some pretty major work to the cross slide, lead screw, nut at minimum and possibly some work on the ram. So only because it was so incredibly cheap and intact did I decide to go for it. But if I'd seen something like yours I'd have rather gone that route. You could say mine is the opposite end of the spectrum :) Here's what it looked like when I brought it home.

Looks like an old school, state, or institutional machine to me.
 
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