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I am always amazed by the number of people who immediately discard a shaper as useless. The shaper is probably THE most versatile machine in the shop... it is also the slowest, which is why you don't see them in shop much anymore. A shaper can do ANYTHING a mill can do, short of drilling a hole. You'll also need a drill press to get the most out of it, but that said... A shaper can BORE a hole by rotating a boring bar around in an existing round hole betwen strokes (machine stopped!). It can also do a square hole, rectangular hole, triangular, or whatever other internal shape you might desire if you just use your brain setting it up. Internal splines and gear teeth can be done no other way except broaching. They are superior to a mill for cutting gears because you can make your own cutters out of $2 tool bits and re-sharpen them quickly. All you need is an indexing head or dividing head and you can make any gear you might dream up. Ditto square splines, dovetails and other odd shapes that cost mucho bucks for special form cutters. When it comes to surfacing, the shaper has no equal. You can use a surface plate to print a part surfaced with a mill and you'll discover it ALWAYS has a dished surface due to the round cutter being ever so slightly off flat. Even grinders aren't always as accurate due to heating of the part. The shaper cuts absolutely flat with very little further work to get an perfectly flat surface. Once you learn to use a shaper, you'll find a mill to be even MORE useful as you'll approach things differently due to being forced to think when setting up the shaper. You'll also find yourself using the shaper nearly as much as the mill as you will recognize situations when it wil be a better way to do things instead of automatically going to the mill. Note the cautions that have been posted. A shaper is the most decievingly docile looking and sounding machine in the shop.. it is also the most powerful and least forgiving in terms of damaging itself, the work, or you. Don't touch the work unless the power is OFF. Don't even reach near the ram unless the power is OFF. Make sure the work is securely clamped or it's going to make a hole in the opposite wall. Stay out from in front of or behind the ram. Use that wheel on the side to hand traverse the ram before every cut to make sure it isn't going to hit anything or suck the ram back into the column and snatch the compound head off. This one is too small to bolt down, just set it up where it can't walk around. Get it. Having the original vise with it doubles its value. Have fun and be very careful with it.
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