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Lately, I’ve been buying shapers like it’s nobody’s business (meaning I have no business owning this many shapers)  A few weeks ago, I received this little gem from the United Kingdom:

Sagar-9

It’s a very sweet little Sagar shaper with a Wadkin rolling table attachment and a very large set of box joint cutters on it.

Then last week, I was lucky enough to get a call from my friend Jesse alerting me to a Whitney No. 89 that was up for auction in Philadelphia. I already own three No. 89 shapers and the bid price was so high that I passed on it. However, in the catalog was another English gem:

295043b

295043c

295043d

295043h

295043i

A pristine Wadkin EQ. The shaper had all of it’s original switch gear, a 1″ spindle and a brand new Delta single phase three roll stock feeder.

32” x 36” table
220/440V, 3 phase
1” spindle
6,000 & 9,000 RPM spindle speeds
Forward & reverse
Delta 3-Roll variable speed feeder
1 HP, 230V, single phase
S/N EQ430

The current bid was low ($225). I bookmarked it. Jesse was going to the preview, so I asked him to check the machine out. The bad news… the upper spindle bearing was making a whole lot of noise. The good news (and I mean very good news) was that the much sought after fence was on the fl0or behind the machine. This is a beautifully made, heavy cast iron fence. It’s nearly impossible to find one on this side of the Atlantic. The ending auction price was $650. It cost me an additional twenty bucks to get it loaded.

Here’s a picture of it at home with the fence mounted:

Wadkin EQ Fence

Wadkin EQ Fence

 

Finally, I was doing my usual digging around on e-bay early yesterday morning and I ran across an auction for a Yates N-4 shaper. It had a fence on it and was located in nearby Brooklyn, NY. It was scheduled to end later that morning, so I bookmarked it and set a reminder to check back on it. When I finally did check back, it was only at $102. I decided to place a bid on it and checked back later that afternoon. Much to my surprise and delight, I had won it for a whopping $122.50

N4-eb

n4-2

$_57

n4-5

n4-3

n4-4

Now part of the reason for the low price was the issues with removal, which were pretty clearly spelled out in the auction listing and the Q&A submissions and responses. I’m familiar with the location and have both delivered and picked up machinery there. The only way out is on a pallet jack, using a freight elevator. When you get to the first floor, there’s no street level access, just a couple of loading docks. This is pretty daunting to most folks, but I’ve got some ideas on how to get the machine into the bed of my truck. I’ll post a follow-up after I pick the shaper up.

N4QA

N4LD

 

So, that’s three new shapers in two weeks. Add this to the eight I already have and you might start to think I have a problem.

Thanks for playing along.

 

 

 

 

 

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