Hello,
I just recently picked up an old (1986) Minimax T3 shaper in disrepair. The shaper has a nice thick, heavy table and base and came with a 3 or 4 HP motor and sliding tenoning table. It also came with the fence. The motor is detached and the shaper is missing many, or most, of its parts, including spindle and the apparatus that raises and lowers the shaper. I figured the table and base and the sliding table were worth the price I paid, and so I couldn't pass it up.
Now I'm deciding whether or not to try and rebuild the shaper with parts available from SCM, or to drop a large router into the shaper table, which is something I've been considering, to take advantage of the large, very flat and heavy top, which you simply cannot buy or build, unless you get the cast-iron Benchdog router table, which itself does not come with a nice slider attachment.
Has anyone here ever dropped a router with lift into an old shaper table, and, if so, what were the results? Which router and lift did you use? The opening and well, or quill, in the shaper table provides only limited room for a fat router motor and lift.
Many thanks.