Adept Hand Shaper

Hi folks. I was just scouring fleabay and came across an Adept Hand Shaper. Looks pretty good condition and not far from me. Is it a good addition to a small scale workshop? I’m just making mechanical nick nacks and filing any profiles at the moment. Not got budget for a mill unfortunately and this might be a budget option. What do these normally sell for? Thanks!

Great little machines

Is it a No.1 or No.2 that you have seen ?

MichaelG.

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P.S. __ If it’s the one I just found then I think “Starting price is a giveaway. Happy bidding” might be rather ambitious.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 04/04/2022 18:20:25

Small shapers were once the bees knees for a model engineer. Now more of a collector's item so can be listed for silly money. Note that there are two sizes of the Adept hand shaper, one fits in the palm of one hand, the other in the Hulk's hand. I think this is the small one but the seller hasn't put any dimensions on the listing.

Background reading available here: **LINK**

http://www.lathes.co.uk/adeptshaper/

MichaelG.

I shall ask for some more information. Thanks for the replies. It might be just what I need. Seems like they are a Marmite tool, some love em, some can’t see the point. Think I’m in the middle somewhere.

Can't help but think it was rather naive to post this here in undisguised form. Now you have ~300 people who also know about it. (Unless of course you are the seller).

Edited By Peter Greene 🇨🇦 on 04/04/2022 22:40:04

It's an Adept Number 1 Nick, so it's quite (very?) small and you can't set the clapper box over either (which is really useful).

Hand Shapers certainly have their uses but don't expect them to remove large amounts of metal quickly or without some effort & lots of patience. A vertical slide is a better buy if you don't have one already for your lathe.

If you must buy a hand-shaper, then wait for an Adept No 2 (or Perfecto or Drummond).

Regards,

IanT

Then convert it to power operation. I'd look at using hydraulic cylinder and electric pump. Hand powered machines are for masochists or body builders (same thing?) 

Edited By duncan webster on 04/04/2022 23:37:12

A hand powered shaper, by definition is low powered, so will not remove large amounts of metal on each pass.

I have a very rarely useed No 2 and find that that couts of and feeds of about 0.002" are as much as I can manage.

A shaper has the advantage, over a mill, (unless it is VERY carefully trammed ) that it generates a flat surface, may be able to produce a better surface finish.

It can be a versatile machine, able to cut slots, keyways, and even gears.

But an Adept is a small machine, with a limited power source, and should be treated as such..

One day I must get round to making up an automatic cross feed for mine!

Howard

I bought one when I was younger, soon got fed up with pulling the lever back and forth. There are various designs to motorise them, have a look and see if a future project would make one of these machines a little more acceptable.

I have both hand and powered shapers. You should view them as different beasties, used for quite different work. So if you need a powered shaper, just buy one that is already motorised!

The best way to think of a hand shaper (in my view) is as a hand tool that will give you better results than other hand tools (think files and saws). Some examples

Battered 'V' rest, needed cleaning up but basic machining already done.

Fairly easy to clean up on the hand shaper, still took time but just really re-surfacing...

Next, tidying a slot drilled in a 'finger' for a finger plate

Simply done but an example of why you need to angle the clapper box on vertical cuts. Also used the Adept to cut the angles in the finger...

And finally, cutting 1mm AF hex parts. I often use my finger as a hold down for this and as I'm the 'motor' it is quite safe. Wouldn't do that on my Atlas of course!

All of this work can be done by other means but it's what I did at the time.

So just see a hand shaper as an aid to better hand work....

Regards,

IanT

I have a hand Perfecto shaper, but there is a motorised one on ebay at the moment at £350. I also have a Swan made near Norwich, also hand operated. The Adept at least looks as if it has been looked after, and all the parts seem to be there. As it does not have a reversible sideways feed it could be a pain to use. Another source of information on these machines are the Kay Fisher shaper columns on the internet.

Regards. Mike Potts

Ended now, l presume that someone made the seller an offer they couldn't refuse.