Post edited 5:46 PM – April 29, 2010 by Tyler

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.

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 on the forum.

  Six_Inch_Stroke_Bench_Crank_Shaper_by_Pootatuck_Corp.pdf

UPDATE: Tom sent me a scan of an original Pootatuck catalogue – it looks like the Pootatuck Corperation had more than a few products. Here's the catalogue. Thanks Tom!

Pootatuck Catalogue

Read the original blog post

brad.roger said:

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

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.

aztaig said:

Hey Tyler 

I'm having problems with the download myself on pages 2 and 4.

Rick

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.

…. P.S. PDF worked just fine.

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.