New Project: Plans for a Metal Shaper With a Six Inch Stroke
Material: Cast Iron (Castings) and Steel
Units: (in)
This set of vintage plans was loaned to me by a friend who has had them for many (30+) years. The plans are for a “Six Inch Stroke Bench Crank Shaper” from the Pootatuck Corporation of Stratford Connecticut. However, I can’t seem to find any information about them online. The plans are old enough that I believe they are no longer protected under copyright. If this is not the case, please let me know and I will remove them.
Also, if anyone has any information about this shaper, including pictures or videos of a completed version of this shaper, please post them to the forum.
Which reminds me, for those of you who haven’t heard, projectsinmetal.com has a new forum! The new forum will allow users to communicate with each other more easily and provides a simple way for visitors to share pictures of their projects, ask and answer questions, etc. The forum is free, so please take a moment to register via the “Forum” tab at the top of the page.
One more thing, it looks as though someone used to supply castings for this shaper. If anyone is still supplying castings, please let us know by posting the information to the forum. If not, this might be a good casting project for the furnace my friend Barry is building. Also, if you’d be interested in buying castings for the shaper, please leave a comment below or on the forum.
Six_Inch_Stroke_Bench_Crank_Shaper_by_Pootatuck_Corp.pdf (7.1 MiB, 1,496 hits)
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Tags: Advanced, Units (in)
January 10th, 2010 at 4:03 AM
The pdf is incomplete page 2 is only half there, I would be interested in a set of castings, but with you in WA and me in MI I think shipping would be cost too much.
Mike
January 10th, 2010 at 6:09 AM
Tyler many thanks for the very interesting set of plans in such good condition. The design is very close to “The Metal Shaper” by David J.Gingery .He has a book called “Build Your Own Metal Shaper ” which includes drawings and complete instructions available from “Lindsley Publications”. Well worth a look.
Regards
brad.roger
January 10th, 2010 at 10:16 AM
Hi Mike, I just checked the PDF and it downloaded fine (including page 2). Are you still having trouble? As far as shipping castings are concerned, I bet they'd fit in a flat rate box from USPS. I think their larger box is $10 for up to 75lbs. The bigger issue might be convincing Barry to try his hand at casting iron. But I think it there's enough interest he can be pursuaded.
January 10th, 2010 at 10:26 AM
Hi Brad, (or do you prefer brad.roger?) I had forgotten about Gingery's shaper. I have a copy of his series out in my shop. I'll have to go take a look to see how it compares. As far as the plans go, the fact that they are in such good condition after so long is precisely why I wanted to share them. My hope is that someone will make one (or already has) and share some images or video. I'd like to see what this little shaper can do!
If you get a chance, remember to introduce yourself by starting a new thread in the “New Members” forum. It would be nice to know where you guys hail from and what your background is.
And thanks for joining the forum. I hope this will be a better way to communicate than the old comments section of the site.
January 13th, 2010 at 9:26 PM
Hey Tyler
I'm having problems with the download myself on pages 2 and 4.
Rick
January 14th, 2010 at 6:56 AM
aztaig said:
Hi Rick,
I'm sorry you're having trouble. A few other people have been having issues because they were using an older version of Adobe Reader. Try updating Adobe and re-downloading. If that doesn't work, send me a private message with your e-mail and I'll try sending the plans to you.
March 7th, 2010 at 1:28 PM
Hi Ya'll If anyone is looking for small castings drop me a line. I can do small gray iron (55#), brass, bronze (100#), zinc (?) & alum (40#+). and have sources for gray & ductile iron up to 400#.
I also build forges, furnaces & small foundry set up and have small quantity's of most common foundry supplies including coke.
Thanks, Ross
P.S. PDF worked just fine.
March 7th, 2010 at 1:55 PM
Hi Ross, thanks for letting me know that the PDF is working. I think the others that were having trouble probably had an old version of Adobe.
As far as the castings go, do you have pictures of anything you've cast? Or do you have castings that you're selling right now? I know a friend of mine was looking for the castings for a Quorn kit, but I think he finally found the last casting that he needed.
What part of Oregon are you from? I travel the entire state of WA from Portland/Vancouver to Yakima a few times a month. Occassionaly I drop down through OR on my way to visit family in ID. Depending on where you live I might like to stop by and see your foundry setup sometime, if you're willing to show it off.
I've considered doing a roadshow of sorts visiting metalworkers in the NW and writing about their shops on my site. If you're interested maybe we could kick off that part of the site with your shop.
Anyway, welcome to the site.
March 10th, 2010 at 5:46 AM
You wouldn't happen to have a price on the castings for this project would you? I have been look ing for a shaper and it would be cool to build my own.
Andrew
March 10th, 2010 at 11:39 AM
I'm not sure. Hopefully Ross from above remembered to subscribe to this post. It might be worth PM'ing him with your question. He would probably be able to give you an estimate. I'll ask Barry the next time I see him if he's interested in making the wooden blanks for this and casting up a few sets. If several people were interested in castings it might make it worth doing.
March 12th, 2010 at 8:11 AM
Hi,
I am new to this forum and am saying hello.
I would be interested in a set of castings. I started on a hand crank shaper, but would prefer a motorized one with the features that this one has.
Regards,
Fred
March 12th, 2010 at 10:41 AM
Welcome Fred,
I'll add another vote for castings. What's your background? Do you have any recent projects that you'd like to share pictures of?
March 14th, 2010 at 9:46 AM
Thanks for the welcome Tyler. I am a home machinist, amateur knifemaker, beginning leather worker. The one large project that I have completed is a KMG grinder clone. I also have a lot of unfinished projects laying around. :(
I have a forge and burner experiment that I have to get back to. As soon as I can get/scrounge the materials, I want to make an electric heat treat oven.
I have only an unfinished photo of the clone. I attempted to upload it. Hope it shows up.
Regards,
Fred
PS It did not show up. I will try again.
March 14th, 2010 at 11:50 AM
I'd never seen a KMG before. I assume yours turned out like the one in this video?
Seems like a pretty versitile little grinder. Where did you find the plans for it?
March 15th, 2010 at 4:18 AM
Tyler,
Here is a link to the plans-http://www.dfoggknives.com/PDF…..rPlans.pdf
It works very well. Mine is powered by a 3 HP, 3phase motor through a VFD. It is a beast. The only reason I went to such a powerful motor is that I got it for free. I just tracked down the bearings for the small wheel adapter and will be making ne soon.
Fred
March 15th, 2010 at 5:45 AM
Here is a link of the completed clone:
A knife vise:
A Guy Lautard knurling tool:
Regards,
Fred
March 19th, 2010 at 7:31 PM
Sorry I have been busy moving & helping a friend build a house at the same time. I would look into pouing some shaper castings, price kinda depends on raw meterials market, on small ferrous stuff coke price usually dictates pricing, bigger pours are actually cheaper (better fuel to metal ratio) Let Me know when ya'll get the patterns done.
On the Quorn parts, I ran into a fella at the GEARS show in PDX a couple years ago that had some very nice castings set ( and a hand shaper as well) I think the Quorn is still under patents so that would be the best way to go, If I find his card I will post the info.
Found a set of drawings on vintageplans.com for a 4″ slotter Cool!
Found an ad in a 1952 Popular mechanics magazine for the Pootatuck Corporation, apparently the also had drawing for a 2 lathes, 3 mills (horz. I think) and the shaper. I would love to find the rest.
Ty I live 10 miles north of Baker City OR. when I get set up better this summer feel free to stop by. Ross
March 19th, 2010 at 9:26 PM
Hey Fred, I swear I replied to your two posts a few days ago, but the reply seems to have dissappeared. I'm not sure what happened. Sorry about that. Maybe I replied in a different place. Did you send me a PM? Maybe that's where I replied and explained how to post pictures, etc. If not, let me know and I'll reply a second time.
Ross, I drive through Baker all the time on my way down to Idaho to visit my family. I'd love to stop by sometime on my way through and take a few pictures of your setup for the site. Maybe we can coordinate a pour and I can film it. Not that there aren't hundreds of Youtube videos of people pouring hot metal … but still it would be a fun excuse to cast something. I'll talk to Barry about making patterns and see what he thinks. Might be a fun project.
It's funny you mention GEARS, I went there for the first time last year and it was a wonderful show. There was a guy there selling Quorn castings (probably the same guy) and I think Barry got the last piece he needed from him, but I'm not sure.
As far as the ad goes, did you have a PM from back then or did you find a scan online? I'd like to have a copy of the add to attach to the post. That woudl be fun to have.
March 22nd, 2010 at 12:18 PM
Tyler,
This is the second time I try to respond to your last post to me. It got lost also. The black hole has apparently taken up residence here for now.:)
I had trouble posting photos from photobucket. From my computer, it worked fine, except I had problems finding some of them. They were hiding in another file-OOps.
Thanks for trying.
Fred
March 22nd, 2010 at 12:53 PM
Hi Fred, I figured out the problem. If you'd like to share links to photobucket images all you need is the proper link.
In photobucket there is a menu bar above each picture (when you hover your mouse over the picture it should show up). It says Edit, Share, Copy to my Album …, etc.
You need to click on Share > Post to Website > Get Link Code (Tab). You should see several options but the second one (Direct Link for layout pages) is the one you want. Right Click on that link and choose copy.
Now over here you use the Insert/Edit Image icon and paste the link you just copied into the URL spot.
Remember to Change the alignment from “Left” to “Baseline” otherwise the text wraps around the picture instead of appearing above and below the picture.
That's it, your photobucket image should show up now.
I've edited your post above so that the proper images show up.
Give that a try and see if it works.
April 3rd, 2010 at 11:15 AM
Anybody working on patterns yet? Don't forget core boxes, the main column core will be a pig.R
April 28th, 2010 at 8:33 PM
Hey Ty I got the ad scanned from a 1952 popular mechanic. I can't make any headway getting her posted. R
April 29th, 2010 at 4:43 PM
Go ahead and e-mail it to me instead. Use the “Submit Your Plans” tab – that way you can attach the file. I'm looking forward to seeing it. Someone else also found an ad that I added to the first post of this thread – did you see it? Is it the same one you found?
April 29th, 2010 at 5:53 PM
I got it, thanks Ross. Here it is:
You should also check out Tom's catalogue that he scanned and sent over to me. The company had several machines. It's a shame that they aren't still in business.
May 1st, 2010 at 12:42 PM
Hey Tyler,
Here's a guy that has some (original?) castings and is making his own.
Tom
http://www.angelfire.com/sc3/s…..haper.html
May 2nd, 2010 at 3:39 PM
Cool, thanks Tom!
I sent the guy an e-mail asking if he would like to sell castings since he's already set up with patterns. I'll let you know what I hear back. Or maybe he will respond directly to this forum. Stay tuned.
May 19th, 2010 at 7:45 AM
I have a friend in Canada who owns one of these old Pootatuck shapers. Pete has made a few of the missing parts. I currently have castings for sale for a small hand shaper we call the Strong Arm. You may view it at martinmodel.com.
May 20th, 2010 at 4:00 PM
Do you think you'd be able to round up a complete set of patterns? If so, it might be worth doing a casting run.
September 15th, 2010 at 3:38 PM
This shaper was sold finished, partially machined or as castings by Lewis Machine Tool Company in 1939.
Reference page 11 of “Advanced Gunsmithing” by Wayne Vickery:
“Of late years, a small milling machine is being offered by the Lewis Machine Tool Company, of 550 Fifth Street, San Francisco, California. This is a bench type machine and is offered in three price ranges, as rough castings only, as semi-machined and as completely finished. The semi-finished miller can be finished with the air of a small lathe and a drill press.”
This is the only writeup I could find on this mill. These are the prints that came with the castings. The castings were lost when I obtained the prints.
February 11th, 2011 at 11:48 AM
I downloaded the plans and have been working on a version of this using welded and bolted construction in a CAD program. One thing I have found based on scaling the plans is that the stroke on this shaper is a bit over 7 inches. I made my version 7.5 inches. I'll post some images when I'm a bit further along.
CJ
February 11th, 2011 at 4:52 PM
Interesting CJ, I wonder why the stroke is longer than advertised? Maybe with shapers there is a limit to how much of the stroke one should use? I haven't used a shaper so I'm not sure. But I'm definately excited to see what you come up with. Please keep us updated with pictures!
February 11th, 2011 at 9:12 PM
Scaling the plans has been a bit difficult, due to the size of the printouts, but it may be so that it can surface its own table. From what I have read, shapers were able to true their own table, and this shaper has a 7 inch table. Also, depending on how accurately I have scaled the casting; there is interference at the front of the maximum stroke, which I removed from my version by moving the entire drive train rearward by 3/8 inch. This may be due to features in the casting that allow for clearance that I couldn't see or scaling errors. I personaly doubt that the originals had an interference, and that this was just advertised at 6 inches and were capable of a bit more. Due to the lack of extensive dimensions on the plans, I have to build allot of the parts and see if they fit and then modify some of the parts that are already built to make the design work. I'm still working on the knee, table, x axis slide, ratchet and shafts and shafts supports. I've located some plate to start building it with, but it may be a while before I finish it.
February 17th, 2011 at 6:55 PM
When you get a chance I'd like to see some pictures of what you have so far, as well as a PDF of your plans if you're willing to share them here. It would be nice to have an updated version of the plans.
March 2nd, 2011 at 11:09 PM
Here's what I have so far. I've been trying to make the parts out of standard materials that can be purchase in small quantities on the web. Unfortunately, the shipping is going to be killer from what I have seen so far, but if you live near a steel supplier that will cut to length for you, this could be done relatively cheaply. And if you have an extensive scrap pile, it could be done quite reasonably. With the dearth of shapers on EBay within reasonable pickup range of where I live, this is looking all the more attractive. To that end, note that the ram has changed shape drastically from the plans. This is due to it being made from DOM tubing with inserts at the front, back and in the area where the crank arm attaches. The main body is currently made from 3/8 plate, but I think 1/4 might be more reasonable. Most of the other parts are either off the shelf items I found from Grainger or MSC or they are made from standard steel stock. I used A36 for everything that I could find it for, and I believe that it would be quite adequate for this machine. There are a few visible parts not yet modeled, and some that are not visible that aren't there.
March 2nd, 2011 at 11:37 PM
Wow CJ! That looks amazing! I'll be sending you a PM with a few questions.
April 29th, 2011 at 4:07 AM
Tyler said:
Hi Tyler
If your still interested in info for the Pootatuck Design 6 Inch Stroke Shaper
there is a post in (Home Model Engine Machinist) you might be interested
in, there is plans there for a shaper based on the Pootatuck Design, it's described
as (1930's design redrawn for fabrication bolt/weld and metric dim's) No castings
and there is build pictures included with the plans.
The gentleman that built it did a real nice job.
The plans are in the download section page 21 and 22 listed as (6 Inch Shaper)
there is three different zip file, one is plans the other two are build Pictures.
May 5th, 2011 at 3:48 PM
Hi Don, thanks for the heads up on the other shaper. I hadn't seen those plans before. I sent a message to the original uploader on HMEM (“airbus”) to see if he was ok with me posting the plans here. I'm waiting to hear back from him.
Anyway, thanks again for pointing out the plans to me!
Tyler
May 5th, 2011 at 3:49 PM
@CJ, it's been a few months. Status update?
May 5th, 2011 at 4:44 PM
Well, bad news and good news (of a sorts). Bad news is I had a hard drive crash and lost all the work that I did on the Pootatuck shaper. The good news is that I have read and modeled Gingery's shaper, and I have bought a 16″ Steptoe shaper. Studying and modeling Dave's shaper as well as the Steptoe has given me some ideas for improvements in both useability and buildability for a small shop made shaper.
May 5th, 2011 at 4:50 PM
Wow, that sucks! You did an amazing job on those 3D rendered drawings! I wish you still had them.
So will you be drawing up a modified shaper of your own design then? If so, I'd still be interested in posting the plans here on the site once you are finished.
October 22nd, 2011 at 8:30 AM
I was intending to make a Gingery Shaper with a 12″ stroke.
This design seems rather interesting and a nice set of plans too.
I think its a going to be cracking project, I post some drawings as I progress.
Lokii