Vintage Tool Project, Perfecto Metal Shaper (pt1)

So I've been teasing all day on twitter (Follow me here!) that I had scored a vintage tool that I had wanted for a while. And here it is! It's a hand powered Perfecto Metal Shaper. I'm really pleased to have found it at a reasonable price and it couldn't have been more local as it turned up in my village. I had wanted a shaper for a long time and kept looking at the small Adept ones which sometimes crop up on Ebay and sell for quite a lot of money. This Perfecto one is even better for 2 reasons, one is it has an automatic feed which many of the Adept ones don't have, so that with every stroke of the tool this one will feed the work piece to the left or right meaning you can concentrate on cranking the handle and not having to reset the work every stroke and..It's a Perfecto!  The reason I am excited it's a Perfecto is because the larger of my two main lathes is a Perfecto (the larger heavier 4" swing one they did)  and mine came from the AVRO factory. I don't know the heritage of this shaper or where it has spent it's life but I am pleased to have one of the few other types of machines Perfecto used to manufacture. Shapers are less common in the workshop these days but historically before Milling machines became more accessible they where a go to tool, they still can be incredibly useful for certain types of job. If you are interested in reading how these machines cut and shape metal Wikipedia is a good place to start and there are lots of YouTube videos of shapers, powered or hand cranked showing how they work. 

So it's a bit of a project/restoration, It all functions pretty well but would certainly benefit from a strip and a clean up, it has one part missing which is the rear travel limit block which also moves the ratchet on the automatic feed mechanism, but it is a pretty simple part to fabricate and I have the other one to use as a pattern. I'm sure I'll find a few more issues but don't think it's hiding any big problems.

I am aware that these shapers were made from the 1950's through to the 1980's and I am guessing that this is a later one as something about the way the graduated dials are printed rather than engraved hints at this. I will scour around for a method of dating the machine based on the various serial numbers all of which are present on the machine. 

So as time allows I will crack on with a restoration of this machine and hope to put it to good use. Stay tuned for updates.