Thread: whats a Douglas shaper worth

I picked up my first one from ebay for $350 in Cardiff

Then I picked up my second one off ebay in Sydney for $350 in good nick, so I cant see why he would want to charge you more than that.

If he is a mate anything from $100 to $350.

Dave

I've seen 1 in Sydney for $180 and 1 in Brisbane for $200. I assumed that would be the lower end of the range. That was a while ago though and I think they've been sold.

Joe

More than life itself. But that's just me. Without seeing it I wouldn't pay more than $300.

Phil

Hi,

I paid $800 for mine, but it came with a pretty good milling machine vice and about 200 kg of usable aluminium and a heap of other stuff that I'll probably never use. I still paid too much for it.

Ben.

Two Douglas reside here both 3 phase and ex NSW.Expect to pay for a good one.2 models early has no clutch cast in name on ram head.later model with the chromed insignia on ram has clutch.Expect most of them to be 3 phase but not serious as a 1 or even a 3/4 hp single phase motor is easily adapted.Good ones are extremely accurate and a clunker will need lots of work to bring it up to an accurate machine.That all being said I reinforce the words of Phil,they are one of the most enjoyable machines to work with and will always fascinate all who visit your shed.1 tool holder and a piece of hss will last you years.
With a vice [they are scarce],they tend to be kept for the other machines most private vendors have.I would pay 500 dollars,but again knowledge of your machinery helps and knowing what to look for.With facilities in house lathe and mill there is nothing that cant be fixed.Beauty of them is that you can set a cut and attend to other jobs while the shaper does it job. Cute Factor 10/10.
Buy one you will never regret it. John

They share home with a Ikegai 27inch Shaper, 24inch Invicta 6M Shaper,16inch Invicta 4M Shaper. 2 ''baby bears'' the Douglases. John

Originally Posted by j.ashburn

They share home with a Ikegai 27inch Shaper, 24inch Invicta 6M Shaper,16inch Invicta 4M Shaper. 2 ''baby bears'' the Douglases. John

Hi John,

Have you seen this thread? https://www.woodworkforums.com/f65/sh...shaper-146358/

More importantly have you been inducted into the "Shaper Support Group" ( aka "Reciprocators Anonymous") sounds like you might be in desperate need of some counselling from the group..

Bryan is maintaining a complete list of members and their machines.

I think Phil ( aka Steamwhisperer) is still taking membership applications for the travelling stick, it's a USB stick with shaper related information, that get's posted around, good stuff..


Regards
Ray

Originally Posted by j.ashburn

Beauty of them is that you can set a cut and attend to other jobs while the shaper does it job. Cute Factor 10/10.
Buy one you will never regret it. John

John thanks for the info re the different Douglas models. I've only ever used a Douglas a couple of times at school way back in the early 1970's, but I spent weeks beside a 24" ( I think) Invictor doing mostly weld preps when I was an apprentice at the Newcastle State Dockyard. There was also a big old machine with, I think about an 28" stroke, that was pre WW1. The rocker arm had been broken and brazed up so many times it was more bronze then cast iron.
I also had the pleasure of using a large Russian machine a couple of times. It was a hydraulic machine with about 900mm stroke, it had hardly been used. Beautiful machine to use, very well made and accurate. Also extremely quiet. Most of the noise when machining came from the tool cutting. It got sold later at auction and only brought about $1300. This was the mid 1990's. I couldn't afford to buy it unfortunately.

bollie7

Originally Posted by j.ashburn

Beauty of them is that you can set a cut and attend to other jobs while the shaper does it job.

So precisely how is this different to setting a cut on a mill and having it stop when it hits its limit stop? All 3 of my mills have this as does the Monarch lathe. Even the Maximat 11 has a slipping clutch pack on its power feed though I never use it.

Auto-feed with trip stops is highly useful but it's nothing special to shapers.

PDW

Originally Posted by PDW

So precisely how is this different to setting a cut on a mill and having it stop when it hits its limit stop? All 3 of my mills have this as does the Monarch lathe. Even the Maximat 11 has a slipping clutch pack on its power feed though I never use it.

Auto-feed with trip stops is highly useful but it's nothing special to shapers.

PDW

Hi PDW,

Suppose you wanted to take 3mm off a 12"x12" block of cast iron, (Josh did it a few days ago) to do that on a mill you would need to have auto-feed on both axes, too big for a fly cutter? and I wouldn't put it on the mill anyway it had a hard patch of chill, makes a mess of mill tooling.

In any event, this mill vs shaper argument has been done and dusted many times already. Cost of tooling is the major advantage for shapers. You can do a lot with a few dollars worth of HSS, wheras buying cutters for the mill seems to never end...

Regards
Ray

Originally Posted by RayG

Hi PDW,

Suppose you wanted to take 3mm off a 12"x12" block of cast iron, (Josh did it a few days ago) to do that on a mill you would need to have auto-feed on both axes, too big for a fly cutter? and I wouldn't put it on the mill anyway it had a hard patch of chill, makes a mess of mill tooling.

In any event, this mill vs shaper argument has been done and dusted many times already. Cost of tooling is the major advantage for shapers. You can do a lot with a few dollars worth of HSS, wheras buying cutters for the mill seems to never end...

Regards
Ray

I don't disagree at all with any of that - especially the comment about the proliferation and expense of mill tooling. I too would never rough down cast iron on a mill if I had an alternative like a shaper.

My question was, what's so special about auto-feed with trip stops on a shaper that makes it worth commenting on as a feature? All 3 of my mills have it (2 axes on the U2) and I've never seen a mill (other than the bottom of the line drill mill types) that doesn't.

I'm not trying to restart a mill vs shaper argument, I've got and use both, I just don't regard auto-feed with disengaging trips to be anything worth singling out as a shaper advantage, because it's not.

Douglas shaper, without vise, worth maybe $300 to $500, upper price if in exceptionally good condition.

PDW

Just to add to what Ray said,
You have to remember a lot of home shop guys have smaller mills with no power feeds, so a shaper with power feeds is a bonus in the home shop.

Dave

Douglas shaper price.. how much is it worth to you?

I paid more than $300 for mine, and far less than $800 for it.
There was the option for the price to reduce if I took the original 3 phase motor, instead of the aftermarket single phase motor which Rodm had purchased and fitted

My shaper is in perfect condition, and worth every cent I paid for it - a few people said I paid too much, but those same people now use it at its temporary storage location (until my shed is built).. and when pressed for a realistic price, their argument was "I've seen ones ten times bigger go for scrap, so this little thing should have been much less"
Simply, the Dougie is a nice size for hobbyists, and is worth what you want to pay for it. You can only really compare it to what other people similar to you pay for Dougies... and lurking here has revealed prices between $200 up to $1000 based on condition, motors, accessories, and luck

Hope that helps,
Des

Hello members,had a stereo show in the shed today the Douglas pruning away at some new tee slots and the Invicta 6m knocking 1/4''off an old piece of cast iron roughly resembling an oblique cube hard skin, on all sides and once through the hard skin it cut like a hot knife through butter.Some thing I would never do or use a mill for.It is hoped a cube can be made a ''paper weight'' for the desk.Cheers John.
p.s Many thanks to Ray for introducing me to show me your shaper thread read the whole lot last night and early hours this morning.Guess that am ridden with a social disease Habitual Shaper Aquisition Syndrome.Its very addictive. J.