Metal Shapers

by Kay Fisher

Shaper of the month

This month’s shaper is a 7 inch South Bend that has been refurbished by Marty Escarcega on commission for his friend and club member George Glines. Their club web site is www.valleymetal.org. All this info is available on Marty’s excellent web site at: www.members.cox.net/escarcega/metal/metal.html.

I have spent quite a bit of time at this web site because in addition to his shaper coverage he has great documentation on his refurbishment of a Bridgeport J-head mill. As I have been in the middle of refurbishing my M-head for over a year (counting a move across country), I found his information to be both inspirational and educational. The following is from Marty’s web site:

“This is a late model South Bend shaper with an oil pump. Overall condition before refurbishing was good and the machine was pretty complete. The shaper had about seven layers of paint on it as did the cabinet. The machine and cabinet came from two different sources. I used aircraft stripper on the cabinet and then sandblasted it.”

Before photo by Marty Escarcega