Rhodes vertical shaper

This puzzles me: why would the table be perpendicular to the ram travel? I'd think parallel would be better - the ram/tool could travel past the table. And work holding would be easier, I'd think.

Nice thing about "vertical is the smaller footprint - I like that.

Bob

Rhodes sold this model as both conventional 7" horizontal shaper and a 3" vertical slotter. With the right parts, you should be able to switch between the two. The slotter is much rarer than the shaper and are not often seen on the used market. So far as I know, there was never a manual for these. I have the shaper and the parts for the slotter and have been looking for nearly 15 years without luck. I do, however, have a couple of brochures that have been scanned and can be emailed to you on request.

Mike

Oh that brings back memories. Just before I bought my bridgeport, my uncle asked if I would provide a home for his vertical slotter if he brought it back from North Carolina where he left it after a divorce. I said heck yes, it was the first machine tool I ever worked the handles on and I have very fond memories of it.

Well, his son, figuring that since it had be down in his mom's basement for years unclaimed, put it up on Ebay a week or so before, 1100 bucks later, someone else had it. Bummer. It did pay for some sort of securities license that helped my cousin make a decent living so it went to a good purpose. Still regret being too late to the party though. I'd poney up the 1100 right now if I could get it.

Btw, uncles had a rotary table and I bet it would have been much nicer than a bridgeport slotting head that I still hope to acquire.

Wes

If one can judge by the pictures it looks like the machine has done a lot of work but has been well cared for.

What the heck is the postage going to set you back from VA to MN?

Thanks for the link:

It looks like I have a combination vertical slotter / shaper. lots of good information for me. One fella has even made CAD drawings of all the parts.

Karl

...

You're still buying a pig'n'poke with just pictures. I'll know what i got next week. Shipping was $280. I'm assuming I bought a project. Seems like all my shop time is spent just making all my equipment cherry shape. Turns out its a combination horizontal vertical machine. I'll bet some change parts are missing.

Karl

I have one for sale, just as soon as i see that this unit can be made operational. Email me off list if you're serious.

Karl

On Fri, 28 Nov 2008 06:03:46 -0600, the infamous "Karl Townsend" scrawled the following:

Why did you buy a project AFTER a pair of idiots voted the price up sixteenfold, and then you add freight on top? I guess you really wanted that one, eh?

-- In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted. -- Bertrand Russell

One of my eBay favorites was a search for vertical slotters. When i see one, I put in an ebay snipe and forget it. I had been bidding $700 and change all summer with no hits. This one, I went $900 and change, guess that was enough. I went higher after going to an uaction and seeing the same dang thing bring $2K. Now, I thought that was ridiculous.

i ebay search for the few items I'm interested in 1/week and put in snipes. the key to ebay is to be patient. Still, I'm not doing anywhere near as well as a few years ago. But auction prices are up too. guess I'm too cheap.

Karl