Metal Shaper- Worth picking up??

I can get a 10" metal shaper in excellent conditon for a reasonable price for my shop. My question is, are they worth the space they take up? I was hoping that I would get it home and find a use for it. Does anyone else have one in their shop?

 

I don't have one but the answer is HELL YES!! get it. Once you learn what it can do for you and how to make it do that you'll probably wonder how you lived without it for so long. And if you ever decide not to keep it you'll more than likely get your money out of it when you sell.

 

What is a 10" metal shaper? If it is a shaper that will machine a 10" cube they are very cheap and have been replaced by milling machines. You can't hardly give away the big ones. The small 7" machines are the ones that have the most demand because they don't take you much room. There are a few things that they will do better than a mill but they are not used much anymore.

 

Haven't seen one since first year College.

Definitely way outdated technology, but if you have a use for it, why not ?

 

i have used one quite alot, i have one in my shop now but have not had it running yet, they are slow but you can make alot of things with them, a 10" would be quite large, the one i used to run had a 18" stroke i think, the one in my shop now would be maybe 4" and would be a bench top i guess, can the ways be replaced?, are they worn?, over in cloverdale there is a company running 4 24ft shapers makeing press brake tooling, they use carbide cutters and you have to lift the cutter on the back stroke or they just chip all to hell in no time. if its the right price buy it, there not easy to sell though.

 

We had one in the highschool metal shop, it sat and sat and sat. I used it once just to try it, but really did not have much purpose since we had vertical and horizontal mills.

 

i love machine tools . if it's cheap and you have the room , i say get it...even though you will probably not use it much.i asked a friend has one how much he uses it , he said about once in the last ten years . he also has a mill and lathe

my brother has a Blanchard , so i know where to go if i need something flat

 

Shapers are Great!!! I use mine all the time. I'm a Tool & Die maker though. I'm always taking .100 cuts of tool steel w/ that shaper. Just set the piece up in the vise, set your tool, set it on auto & watch it skin your block.

saves your end mills from so much roughing out.