Photo Index - Delta Specialty/Delta Mfg. Co./Delta-Rockwell/Rockwell Intl. - Light duty shaper

Machinery Photo Index

Manufactured/Badged by:
Delta Specialty/Delta Mfg. Co./Delta-Rockwell/Rockwell Intl.
Milwaukee, WI; Jackson, TN; Tupelo, MS

Machine Specifications
Machine Class:	Wood Working Machinery
Machine Type:	Shaper, Wood
Machine Size:	1/2"
Submitted By:	Frans Grove

Machine Specifications
Description/Model:	Light duty shaper
Date of Manufacturer:	1968
Serial Number:	DX4160
Last Updated	11/6/2006 12:00:00 AM

Comments:

There are already quite a few Delta Light Duty Shapers posted, but none of them are built into a cabinet like I have done with this one. So I decided to add this posting.

I have been searching for one of these little shapers for many months. All the ones I found were either too expensive for me or in very bad shape. I have been watching ebay for shapers and then in Nov 2005 this one was listed in Northern NJ (2 hours from me). It looked nice and the seller made two big mistakes:
-Two real bad photos taken from a distance and
- A very poor description with the wrong model number (He used the publication number for the parts manual PM1710).

I thought it would go high as all the others I have been watching, but I decided to watch it anyway. The night before it closed, it already had more than 1000 views, but was still standing on $78. The ending time was mid morning, right when I had a meeting scheduled at work. The meeting ended early and when I looked at it, it was standing on $112 with only 5 minutes left. I decided to watch it end. I did not even think about bidding as I was expecting high sniping bids at the end. Amazingly with 10 seconds left, it was still at $112. So I quickly entered a bid with only seconds left. I have learnt a bad lesson only weeks before to not enter a round number. I lost out on a Parks planer by entering a round number and it turned out the winner had entered exactly the same amount as me, but his bid was entered only seconds before me and therefore he won the auction. So my bid was $146.21. Unbelievably, I won the auction at my max bid. It turned out the previous highest bidder had a high bid of $146.00. So I won it by 21 cents.... I could not believe my luck. Not only did I get a shaper at a great price, it turned out to be in *very* good condition.

The seller was super nice. It was used in the maintenance shop of an up-scale private school in Northern NJ. It was never used by the students, only by the maintenance personnel making cabinets for the school. The school bought it new in 1968 and it spent it's whole life in the same building. The shop wanted a larger shaper and they bought a new Gr*zzly. The supervisor was selling it for the school on ebay. He admitted he was disappointed in the selling price. He expected a lot more, as *48* persons was watching the auction!!! I have no idea why nobody else was bidding in the end, but I am not complaining.

It was well used, but very well looked after. It had no rust on any parts and even the paint job was still excellent. After complete disassembly for cleaning, I decided it was not even worth the time to paint it. It has the original Cutler Hammer switch with art deco cover, which I like a lot. It also came with the original manual and parts list. It also come with a spare tie rod and included all the parts like the wide motor pulley, belt cover, tapered pin, complete fence, etc. Have a look at that long frame motor in the photo below. It is only 1 HP, but it is by far the largest and heaviest motor in my shop. It has a reversing switch right on the motor junction box.

Probably the biggest disadvantage of this shaper is the small work space of the top for handling larger panels. When I was re-assembling the shaper, I was thinking of ways to make an in-feed and out-feed table to increase the working area for handling larger boards and panels. I decided the only way to do it effectively was to build it into a cabinet with work space around it. When a friend was replacing his kitchen counter tops and throwing the old ones away, I grabbed it quickly and decided it was time to build a shaper cabinet. The final product can be seen in the photos below. I cut the shape of the shaper in the counter top to make an extension table. The shaper bolts onto a thick shelf underneath the top. Accurately planed blocks of wood underneath the shaper were used to "shim" it for exactly the same level as the counter top. I still have to adjust the spindle height and lock it all the way underneath the table, but the extra work surface makes up for that small inconvenience. One other disadvantage of the extended table is that a miter gauge cannot be used. I realized that before I built it, but it did not matter to me as I do not use a miter gauge anyway. I use a shop-made sled that slide against the fence.

I do not have a power feeder. So for now I just use fence mounted featherboards for applying downward pressure on the work piece and it works fine. I also use featherboards mounted in the miter slot for applying pressure against the fence when using narrow work pieces.

Photo 1:

Comments: Condition as I brought it home
Source: My Canon Powershot

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Photo 2:

Comments: Completed from the front
Source: My Canon Powershot

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Photo 3:

Comments: Completed from the rear
Source: My Canon Powershot

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