Craftsman shaper (534 maybe?) - Is this a useful tool?

[jorp_porp]

ello,
I saw this shaper pop up in my feed. I'm not at all familiar with shapers, but this thing appears to be in great shape.. At first I was thinking that this could be a replacement for a router table (which I've been procrastinating on building..), but at a glance, it appears to use specialized cutter bits. Would this be a silly purchase? 50 bucks seems like a steal.. But I'm not sure it'd be worth the floor space if it's not something that would be useful in a small workshop.

link to post



As an added bonus, they also have this bandsaw. But I can't tell the model from the images. 50 bucks for this as well..

 

[Mintgrun]

I'd pass on the shaper, but jump on that bandsaw ASAP!

I believe that is a Walker Turner saw, with the slow-speed option.

 

[Mintgrun]

Check out this post/thread.

THE WALKER-TURNER THREAD - Post your Walker-Turner pics

@Bryan Burns that is a very late model 1200 series that manufactured after 1956 because of the Rockwell logo on the badge. There is a possibility that the hole might be too large. After hooking the spring on the pin you should have the spring housing as close to the drill press head as...

www.garagejournal.com

 

[RTM]

My understanding is that while a shaper with a full set of blades is awesome, most come with one, or no blade sets. The blades usually cost more per set than you'd pay for the machine. Or grind your own, more time spent.

A buddy of mine bought a used one 20ish years ago. Sold it about 5 years later after using it once. Felt it wasn't worth the floor space or buying new blades for the different stuff he was doing. He made do with a router table later.

 

[jorp_porp]

Oh wow. I haven't even finished cleaning up my Taiwanese knockoff bandsaw... Might be listing that on marketplace if I can snag this lol.