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My new old Rhodes shaper !

Hello All,

It's been a while since I posted, and this may be a first from this account, but ...

I bought my first real machine tool yesterday, a 7" Rhodes shaper in very good condition :) The funny thing is, after looking for a cheap mill or shaper for several years, I decided to build the Gingery shaper. I built the lathe many years ago (1994-96?) after being inspired by this group, and am about 6 patterns into the shaper when this fellow at work had a garage sale which included the Rhodes. I bought it for $250 Canadian and it came with a reasonable vice, a nice rotary table, and a small (8" or so) bench center with two dividing plates ! You can still see the flake marks on the ways, everything seems to be there, the machine runs smooth as silk and the auto-feed aparatus works perfectly. There is hardly a chip out of the paint ! OK, so maybe I should have included the word 'gloat' in the subject line ...

Now I have some newbie-Rhodes owner questions. After some searching I could not find any references to manuals on-line. I checked the FAQ and googled a bit, but nothing. Wasn't there a fellow with a web site that had a large collection of manuals and sells reproductions ? Or is there a fellow Rhodes shaper owner who would be willing to copy the manual and mail it out (I'd be willing to compensate for time and costs etc) ? Next, as Dave Gingery says, "OK, now you have a shaper, you're gonna need a manual". Is it just me or has the selection of titles at Lindsay Books gone down ? Or does their website not list all titles ? Anyway, does anyone have a recommendation for some shaper operations books ?

Of course I still have to get the machine home, but I think it will be manageable. According to the specs I found in the drop box, the thing weighs 650 lbs complete. I'm hoping that the shaper will be manageable by four men after removing it from the base, and taking off the table. Maybe even under 300 lbs ??? The base etc should be no problem, I'm assuming it's a bit lighter than the shaper. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

I will take a few pictures of my new old beast and pop them into the drop box, now that I have a digital camera. Maybe I'll even take a few of the lathe if anyone is interested (it's good to see a few people around here planning to build Gingery machines, it's a very rewarding undertaking). Lastly, if anyone is interested in building a Gingery shaper, I am willing to part with my patterns for the price of shipping. It would be easier if someone in Canada wants them, but maybe sending a little parcel like this (I got them into a shoebox) to the USA would not be so bad. Let me know, my reply email should only have one 'w' in 'shaww', and it's '.ca' not '.ceh' :)

Dave (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada)

Reply to
DaveK
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Greetings:

Try

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for fellow shaper enthusiasts. I think this is a subscription group so you'll have to register with Yahoo groups. It's a pretty active group. I use it to reference for my Klopp shaper that I paid 10 Euros for on German Ebay. It is in excellent condition, precise, and a pleasure to use.

Congratulations for your (new) machine.

Regards, Jim Brown

Reply to
Jim Brown

Sounds nice. :-)

I think if you'll look at Lindsays site they state that all the books are not listed on the web site. You have to send for the catalog to get the full listing. I looked a while back and noticed that there wasn't much listed for shapers. But there's lots of shaper books listed by resellers on ebay thus I'm sure they're still printing them.

Wayne Cook Shamrock, TX

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Reply to
Wayne Cook

Hey Dave, good score!

Not much help on the shaper front, but do you know about the Model Engineering show in Estevan? There's usually a pile of the Saskatoon guys down there. October 16-17 this year.

Cheers Trevor Jones

Reply to
Trevor Jones

I've been looking for a manual for my Rhodes shaper for quite a while and have come up empty. Run a search on Ebay for Clausing or Rockell lathe manuals and you'll find the seller you probably remember. Or email and I'll pass along his web site if I can find it. He and I had a disagreement a while back so he's not talking to me, but he did mention that he had found a Rhodes manual. He may have just been trying to yank my chain, though it wouldn't hurt to email him and ask.

If you do find one, I would also like to get a copy at reasonable expense.

I've scanned in a couple of Rhodes brochures and believe that at least one of them is available for download at the Yahoo Shaper site. Email me, if not, and I'll send them along to you.

Looks like the combined shaper with slotting attachment weighed in at 650 lbs. It's been a while, but I was able to move mine to a basement shop with just two people and a refrigerator dolly. It comes apart pretty easily. Can't remember what we did now, but you'd probably want to remove the motor, vise, and main body from the base. You could optionally remove the ram by removing the two metal strips that retain the ram on the ways - each strip has 4 screws.holding it in place. Once that is done you could pull off the table. I think that the base is the heaviest of these components at maybe

250 lbs. The refrigerator dolly and some good straps make this a pretty easy move, though.

BTW, did you get the slotting attachment? These are very hard to find and that would make your gloat even better. $250 is a bargain in any case.

I'd like to see a picture of the shaper, so please post here or email me when it is uploaded.

I've got some old shots of mine posted here:

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One of these I'll have to update those.

Mike

Reply to
Mike Henry

I've heard it's a good one, but have never been. Someone told me a gentleman brings a Gingery Shaper to the show, which I'd like to see. Some day ...

Dave

Reply to
DaveK

Thanks Jim and everyone. I signed up for the yahoo shaper group, and downloaded some good information. Your Rhodes looks good Mike, I'll post some photos of mine soon. It looks like I'm going to retrieve it tomorrow evening ! And unfortunately no, it does not have the slotting attachement.

Dave

Reply to
DaveK

There's usually at least one Gingery shaper running. There was a Gingery mill with a Gingery dividing head making gears there when I was last out (two years ago). I'll be driving down from Cold Lake for the weekend, this year. If you can only get away for a day, do the Saturday. IIRC it's in the Wylie Mitchell Building at the fairgrounds.

Maybe see you there!

Cheers Trevor Jones

Reply to
Trevor Jones

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