AMMCO (Not AAMCO) Metal Shaper - Reunited

When my mother-in-law decided to clean up her basement 30 years ago, she had a few metal working machines there that her late husband had acquired during his all-too-short years on this earth. Among them was this AMMCO (two "M"s) 7" shaper, circa early 1940's. (For those that may not know, AAMCO (two "A"s) is a transmission rebuilding company but I've seen people refer to AMMCO shapers as AAMCO.)

I was the only one on my wife's side of the family that knew what a shaper was, so I naturally (and gladly) was given possession of it when my mother-in-law decided to get rid of it.

Moving ahead 16 or 17 years, when we began the chore of cleaning out our old house and garages in preparation for moving, I had a moment of weakness and sold the shaper to an acquaintance during a garage sale, as I figured I needed the money more than the shaper at that point. And this was back when old machinery was not that popular as it seems it is these days. Well, over the years I'd come to regret the sale and thought that if I ever run across the guy, I'd ask if he would sell the shaper back to me. Wonder of wonders, he was at a car swap meet I attended last weekend, so I brought up the shaper. He said he never had even used it, and he'd be happy to sell it back. We couldn't remember what he paid for it but he said he'd sell it back for $120. I ran out to his place about 40 minutes away, brought the little guy home, and looked it over. It had sat in a fairly open shed for those 12 or so years he owned it so it was quite rusty but still looked presentable. I shot oil in all the holes and on all operating surfaces, then plugged it in. Woohoo, it still ran!

These machines are quite a marvel to watch when they're running. The top ram quietly glides front to back and the ratchet mechanism rocks back and forth, moving the table slowly along.

One thing the shaper never had was an on-off switch. It was one of those things where you plug in the cord and make sure all body parts are out of the way. That would have to change, so I rummaged through my bin of switches and came up with this little gem:

How appropriate, the switch is made by GE and so is the motor. And the switch is rated for 1/3-hp, same as the motor. A match made in heaven, so to speak.

I rewired the motor cord and wired in the lamp cord that had never before been wired in. I then mounted the switch to a piece of aluminum scrap, and voila, a very welcome addition. Special bonus, the lamp bulb even worked.

I also mounted the shaper and motor to a plywood and 2x4 base, as I didn't want to permanently bolt it to a table. The motor drive unit is separate from the shaper and so it and the shaper needed to be mounted to something to keep proper tension on the drive belt.

Here the shaper is making practice cuts in a piece of aluminum.

I made the cross-hatch by rotating the vise plus and minus 40-degrees from zero.

In the photo below, the shaper is taking a .030" cut in mild steel with a .006" feed rate.

The above piece ended up being a 5/16" square key to lock the vise at precisely 0 degrees. The shaper's first project in who knows how long.

AMMCO stands for Automotive Maintenance Machinery Company. I can understand AMMCO making lathes for car brake components (which are prolific on Craigslist) but it seems odd they made this piece of equipment, something more at home in a machine shop than an auto shop.

Keith Rucker's excellent website "VintageMachinery.Org" has a brochure for this machine in PDF format.

Just tonight while perusing the brochure, I noticed the small tool holder in several of the photos:

It reminded me of the small tool holder that came with my 100-year-old Seneca Falls lathe (also from my mother-in-law). Wouldn't you know, it fit the shaper perfectly, and possibly came on the shaper when new. I don't know why I didn't mount this tool holder to the shaper 30 years ago.....

Below are some of the specifications from the brochure (and a picture below):
7-3/4" ram stroke
40, 70, 115, 180 strokes per minute
9-1/2" horizontal table travel
4-1/4" vertical table travel
3-1/4" vertical tool head travel
4" vise jaw width
4-1/4" vise opening
Six automatic cross feed increments: .003", .006", .009", .012", .015", .018"
4-step pulley and adjustable countershaft
Approximately 200 pounds, shaper and motor

Interestingly, the motor and belt guards were additional cost if you purchased the bench model (which I'm assuming mine is), but the pulley drive system and lamp were included. If one was to purchase the "portable cabinet model", the motor and belt guards were included.

The poor shaper's bare metal parts got quite rusty and crusty during their stint away from my home, so I spent some time cleaning some of the rust and scale off. Below are a before and after photo of the tool head handle using a wire wheel on the drill press. While not shiny, it looks much better than before.

I never knew how satisfying it would be to once again own my little AMMCO shaper. Thank you Lord for those little joys that come along.