Nick, I haven't done much with my shaper, but from what I have done I have come to realise they are very much undervalued as a serious workshop tool. I will be doing more with it later. At the moment I have other priorities and workshop time is at a premium.
Shapers remove metal effortlessly, even with hard materials that a mill can struggle with. They can be slow and hence I understand why modern machine shops shy away from them. Tooling for shapers is seriously cheap and as such this can be a great asset to the home workshop.
Once you have used one you would realise that they can often leave a better finish than a mill in most circumstances. My shaper is only a small type, but compared to other small home machines it really shines. I'd love to find a bigger one.
The sad thing about all the machinery being melted down to make whatever junk is made from it is the fact that once it's gone it's well and truly gone for good. I doubt anyone is making new machines to the quality of the old stuff any more. Sure old machinery can be worn. Some can be salvaged to live again and some should be rightly left to pass on.
Take my Beaver mill, I paid just £400 for it and it's got more than my lifetime left in it. Forget Ebay it's just a plain silly market place. You can find the odd bargain occasionally, but it's the real live auctions you need to buying from.
You may have guessed by now that I refuse to spend silly money chasing tools. There is a lot of good stuff out there still to be had and mostly the sellers are only looking for scrap values.
In fact it was my local scrap man that put me onto my shaper. He was asked by the owner to clear it out to make room. The owner wasn't even trying to sell it. Luckily the scrap man suggested that the owner tried to find a new home for it and promptly gave me a bell. I offered £60 for it as a token of goodwill and thus it changed hands.
The Quaters and Smith saw again was about to be scrapped. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
I believe Chris got his shaper for free, or as good as. But he's being a bit slow getting his butt moving. He'll have a shock when he gets going with it and makes something.
Yep, give me an old lump of iron any day to keep the old git happy....
