MetalworkingFun Forum

It looks like a 24 incher, possibly a Steptoe. It also looks like it's been outside a while, like something you'd buy by the ton. Tom from Alberta, are you still around?

(03-15-2013, 09:19 PM)Sunset Machine Wrote: [ -> ]It looks like a 24 incher, possibly a Steptoe. It also looks like it's been outside a while, like something you'd buy by the ton. Tom from Alberta, are you still around?

If you're looking for Tom Reed, he hasn't visited the forum since the end of November. A couple of weeks ago I sent him an email but have not gotten a response as of yet. I hope he's OK.

Ed

Yes, Tom Reed. He was asking about mine but with his absence I guess this one is up for grabs now. It's out back of Bixby Tools in Spokane, Washington. Looks like it's been there for a few years, judging by the weeds and debris surrounding it.

Good old shaper. Looks like other interesting goodies sitting around there too!

(Waiting for this darn snow to go away so i can start prowling places!!)

Looked like some newer CNC brakes & shears, I wouldn't touch them with a stick though - electronics being out in the weather and all that.

But there was another prize:

Gee, that looks a bit to me like U.S. government surplus storage! Don't it just make ya crazy?

IF,, IF ONLY the people that put this stuff out in the weather would smarten up and at least spray some oil on these machines!! Friggin DUMMIES!!

The last time I was there, about 3 years ago, there were two 36" shapers outside in front of the shop, under tarps. They wanted $400 each for them, saying the indoors was full of CNC stuff. They were waiting for the scrap men to come get the beasts (huge machines), and they did. Gone gone gone.

These gems are outside, but not scrap. Or would you guys would like them scrapped? I mean, what to do? This seems like the lesser evil.

Sure is frustrating to see things left out like that!!

The beauty of bug shapers is of course that they don't mind the weather so much, take a wire brush to the cross rail and vertical slides and even heavy looking rust comes off to leave clean smooth metal and of course the ram slides and ways are almost always self protected as a result of the basic design, add to this that the ram ways are usually well oiled, so
1, check the electrics and belts,
2, clean the cross rail and vertical slides before moving any of the slides of course,
3, clean any exposed ram slide areas that have been exposed
4, Oil it up
5, skim the top of the table,

And then you've usually got a workable machine,

I bought a 24" Austolite that had sat outside at a coal mine for at least ten years, as the mine had been closed that long. I did the above, after that she was perfectly serviceable if not pristine. Quite the deal at 12 cents a Kilogram.
Best regards
Rick