A good morning at a tool tag sale.

[Todd Davidson]

A neighbor is retiring and moving south so he's selling the contents of his small shop (along with the usual moving sale stuff)Picked up a nice pair of roller stands, a little bit of wood, a few hand and garden tools, and a Delta 43-122 Shaper. Have not used a shaper in years and have never owned one before so if anyone is familiar with this machine I'd love to hear about it.

[Bob Wilkerson]

A friend of mine that makes high quality cabinets uses this machine routinely. He has a large shaper for one off runs but almost all of his rails/stiles/panels get run thru one of the 4 LD shapers like this one. He sets each one up with a cutter and leaves it in place so that he doesn't waste time changing/adjusting them. So my take is that it will be very useful as long as you don't need to run large diameter cutters.

Bob

[Chris Rosenberger]

I owned one of those back in the 70's & 80's. It was nice shaper. I found it was under powered when I started coping with it. It had a 1/2hp motor. I put a 1hp on it and it cut fine. It was at times difficult to micro adjust the height of the spindle. Overall it worked well. I cut alot of wood with it in the 10 + years I owned it. In 1989 I bought a Delta HD shaper & sold the LD to a friend. He is still using it today.

[Todd Davidson]

Sorry the picture came out so lousy. I haven't quite mastered the digital thing yet. The machine came with a 1hp motor and a set of cutters for raised panel doors. I will soon be needing to make new cabinets for my shop so that's where I'll probably be doing most of my experimenting/learning.
Chris~ I was tinkering with the shaper last night and I was trying to figure out if there was a way to "microadjust" the spindle. Imagine I'll get a feel for adjustments over time.

Bob~ Am thinking this will primarily be used for small cabinet raised panel doors as the expense of cutters is not something I can factor into my budget at this time (although I would like to know who makes reasonably priced/quality cutters).

[Chris Rosenberger]

Chris~ I was tinkering with the shaper last night and I was trying to figure out if there was a way to "microadjust" the spindle. Imagine I'll get a feel for adjustments over time.

It does take some practice. You will get the feel of it. Keep the cartrigde lubed. That does help. I used spray silicone because it would not collect dust.
There are other lubes now that work just as well.

[Todd Davidson]

Chris~ Were you able to come up with an effective means of dust collection?

[Chris Rosenberger]

Yes I did. I used a piece of 4" pipe & notched it to set straight down in to the cutter opening of the fence casting. I attached it to one side of the fence casting. I had an elbow on top to connect it to the collector.

[Mike Wilkins]

I have that same shaper, only with the Rockwell nameplate on the front. This
is one of the machines that was sold under both companies' name.
The motor is wired for either 120 or 240 volts; you can make your own fence
plates out of wood or whatever is lying around; mine does not have a spindle
that accepts a router collet-I don't think any of them did.
This is a great little machine for the home shop. Mine does not get a lot of use, but I cannot bring myself to part with it; at least until I get my hands on
a combo saw/shaper.
There are lots of books available on shaper use; check Amazon.
Good luck and watch those fingers.

[Todd Davidson]

Chris~ Thanks for the Dust collection tip. Will definately give it a try

Mike~ Given that the shaper was priced way below a decent router and aside from needing to make a new fence and order a taper pin it is in great shape & complete. I don't anticipate it getting a whole lot of use but think it will be quite handy for raised panel doors. This machine doesn't have a spindle that accepts router bits either (Grizzly has a similar looking shaper and I was thinking about giving them a call to inquire as to whether or not their spindle is compatible with my machine). Haven't used a shaper since I worked in a low end cabinet shop while I was in college - ten years or so ago. Do have an Engler book on Shapers that I was browsing through last night. Will check half.com later for another while I'm looking for some turning books for LOML.