# Help with my Sheldon 12" Shaper Re-build



## rlfort (Apr 6, 2018)

Hi gang! I’m new to this forum and loving it!
I recently came across a fairly banged up Sheldon 12” Shaper that I’ll be rebuilding this summer.  Thrills me to death to be able to save this kind of old iron from being scrapped.  It’s missing the tool head assembly, a handful of not-too-difficult cover castings, and both guide/indexing arms that I do need to either machine up or re-cast.  It sure would be great though to have a few pictures and get some measurements of those original parts before I start.  I must also admit the clutch arm and coax cable hookup have me baffled.  Anybody out there have a working Sheldon Shaper in your shop or know where I can look at one first hand to do this?  It wouldn’t require any disassembly and I’m guessing perhaps 30 minutes or so for me to take the pics and measurements.  I’ll be more than happy to donate to your shop’s “project funds bucket” as well.  I'm hoping to find a forum member out there who will allow me to swing by for a few moments or who can direct me to the right place.  Your thoughts?  Doesn't matter where it is as I work for the airlines so can generally fly anywhere on pretty short notice.
Thanks so much for your help!
RL Fort
Seattle, WA


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## vocatexas (Apr 6, 2018)

Would this be of any help to you?

http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/2133/3575.pdf


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## DAT510 (Apr 6, 2018)

Welcome to H-M.  

Sorry I can't help you regarding info about your shaper, though I look forward to following it's restoration.


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## rlfort (Apr 7, 2018)

Thanks. I do plan to post progress here once I get started.


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## 4GSR (Apr 7, 2018)

Get a hold of John Knox over on the Sheldon Lathe group on Yahoo.  He may be able to help you identifying the missing parts you may need.
I missed buying one close to me several years back.  Didn't catch it until it was sold.  I want one too!


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## wcunning (Apr 8, 2018)

There's one up for sale in near Akron, OH: https://akroncanton.craigslist.org/tls/d/shaper/6510159439.html. That particular craigslist ad has been up for about a year and a half, ever since I picked up a little Logan 8" shaper, and much as I want it, it's too big for my shop... You might see if he'd be willing to take some measurements for you? Heck, not that that's a *cheap* price for that size of shaper, his looks fairly complete and might be an easier rebuild to start from. 

I would personally also attempt to contact this man: http://www.benchtest.com/w-sheldon_shaper.html. His coverage of restoring his Sheldon is very very informative, and I definitely get the impression that he'd be interested in making sure another one got saved rather than scrapped.

Glad to see one getting fixed up, since that's pretty much my dream shaper with all its features and design components!

Cheers, 
Will


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## Silverbullet (Apr 8, 2018)

Hi and welcome to the site. Never a wrong question on here. We are here to help ,  your shaper  sounds like a great project.


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## rlfort (Apr 9, 2018)

Thanks so much to all of you. Excellent leads that I will followup on.
Best regards,
Bob


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## rlfort (Apr 9, 2018)

Thanks to all and particularly Will above. I was able to email back and forth with Jim at www.benchtest.com and we'll be catching up with one another a bit later this spring at his shop. Man what a terrific website he has. And what a terrific guy to talk with. Most helpful and most accommodating! And thanks also to 4gsr for bringing my attention to John Knox over on the Sheldon Lathe group on Yahoo. I haven't contacted him yet but plan to do so here pretty quickly.  As I get into this and start casting up some replacement parts I'll keep everyone posted.
Life is good here in my Gig Harbor shop!
Cheers!


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## dlane (Apr 10, 2018)

'John Knox' jeknox@knoxusa.com 
this should be John’s email 
He worked for Sheldon as a design engineer for a long time, good guy.


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## wcunning (Apr 18, 2018)

Glad to hear he helped you out! I've never interacted with Jim, but his website is *very* informative and interesting -- he's clearly knowledgeable and meticulous in his work. I have gotten some help from John Knox dealing with my Sheldon-Sebastian, and he's quite literally the expert on Sheldon machines of all stripes. I'll be looking forward to living vicariously through your rebuild, so keep posting things! We're all thrilled to see a piece of old iron come back to life, and glad to be a sounding board when you're figuring out how to fix it up.

Cheers,
Will


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