Old Minimax shaper: rebuild or use as router table?

[Hugh MacDonald]

Hello,

I just recently picked up an old (1986) Minimax T3 shaper in disrepair. The shaper has a nice thick, heavy table and base and came with a 3 or 4 HP motor and sliding tenoning table. It also came with the fence. The motor is detached and the shaper is missing many, or most, of its parts, including spindle and the apparatus that raises and lowers the shaper. I figured the table and base and the sliding table were worth the price I paid, and so I couldn't pass it up.

Now I'm deciding whether or not to try and rebuild the shaper with parts available from SCM, or to drop a large router into the shaper table, which is something I've been considering, to take advantage of the large, very flat and heavy top, which you simply cannot buy or build, unless you get the cast-iron Benchdog router table, which itself does not come with a nice slider attachment.

Has anyone here ever dropped a router with lift into an old shaper table, and, if so, what were the results? Which router and lift did you use? The opening and well, or quill, in the shaper table provides only limited room for a fat router motor and lift.

Many thanks.

[Larry Edgerton]

I have one of those shapers in good condition and it is a nice shaper. Not sure it would be worth the price of the parts, but it is a nice unit when working.

[Brendan Plavis]

Perhaps you could remove the casing off of a router, then drop it in. most of those things have a large case on them, to protect the user from heat/shock/dismemberment, but if it will be in a table, you shouldnt need to worry about that(just dont touch the table )

Just an idea...

[J.R. Rutter]

Good score! I have a feeling that it would be an expensive rebuild. You would need to get creative with router attachment - isn't there a recess in the table to allow cutters to go below the surface? It is not impossible that another minimax will come along at some point.

[Chip Lindley]

Hugh, research the needed parts and get a price on replacing what is needed to make the shaper BE A SHAPER! At the going prices for MiniMax machines, you still may be ahead of the game.

Seems a shame to waste a name brand shaper to make *just a router table!* But a CI sliding router table would be novel. In order to do it right you would need to strip everything hanging off the underside and have the table milled for a lift to fit into the top exactly. Once you mill the table you can never to back! That is not a cheap proposition either. But, you could sell the motor and parts on CL or eBay to help offset your investment.

[Hugh MacDonald]

@ all responders so far: many thanks for the tips. It might seem a shame to take the shaper and turn it into just a router table, but we are that extreme as far as getting a flat, vibration-free router setup. Also, the shaper is missing so many of its internal parts that i think it will be an intensive and possibly expensive rebuild. I've been in touch with SCM and have already gotten the manual. The people at SCM have so far been extremely friendly and helpful. I'm not sure yet how many of the needed parts will be available, or just how expensive they would be.

As for making the shaper table work with a router, the beauty part is that the shaper's round opening actually has a rabbeted lip or ledge to hold a router plate or router-lift plate. I would just have to cut that plate to shape and size, and leave the shaper untouched. That's one of the main reasons I decided to go ahead and buy it.

There is indeed that recess, or quill, so that shaper tooling can sit below the plane of the table top, but it's a little tight there for a big router and a lift. That's why I was wondering if anyone else here had done this and to find out what the smallest or lowest-profile router lift is.

Thanks again everybody.

[Peter Quinn]

Tough call. I'd get a price on the parts first to figure the costs. I'd rather have the shaper personally, but sometimes the sum of the parts can be astounding, and that router table idea might seem more attractive. Depends on the bottom line as well as your needs as much as anything.

[Chip Lindley]

There is indeed that recess, or quill, so that shaper tooling can sit below the plane of the table top, but it's a little tight there for a big router and a lift.

You mean to tell me the housing for the spindle quill is cast as one piece with the table top? That Sux! With most shapers, everything is bolted to the top, hanging beneath. Double check and see if you can remove the quill housing from underneath.

[J.R. Rutter]

Found an old pic of mine. Is yours similar? I forgot that the whole bottom of that recess was part of the column. Looks tight but do-able.

[Peter Quinn]

JR, that looks a whole lot like the T40's inards too. I had looked into getting a single phase motor from SCMI, and they wanted 88 scamillion dollars! Seriously, spmething like $1200 for a 5HP motor. Are all their parts that harsh price wise?

[Matt Meiser]

Why couldn't you either a) put a VFD on it or b) put a more standard motor on it?

[J.R. Rutter]

JR, that looks a whole lot like the T40's inards too. I had looked into getting a single phase motor from SCMI, and they wanted 88 scamillion dollars! Seriously, spmething like $1200 for a 5HP motor. Are all their parts that harsh price wise?

Sorry, yes that is a T40 that I sold last year, not a T3. SCM parts are mostly $$$, especially motors for some reason. They used to run specials on odds and ends that were huge bargains. But I haven't seen any on parts pronto for quite a while.

[Wes Grass]

Looks to me like the small Jessem FX lift would drop through a 7-1/2" hole. And maybe a bit smaller.

[Hugh MacDonald]

@JR: Awesome photo; thanks a lot for that. Mine is missing many of those parts, and the pictures in the manual are terrible, so that helps me a lot in seeing what actually is missing and where it all goes. It does appear very similar to what mine looks like, though I seem to be missing the pulley attached to the spindle or spindle shaft, the spindle, and that large shaft as well.

@ Peter: luckily mine has the motor, and, though its unattached and unwired, it is hefty and appears to be in quite good condtion. Wont have to shell out $1200 there at least.

@Chip: Part of the quill can be unbolted from the top, giving me room to drop a router in. But the upmost part of it is part of the table and not movable unless I get it burned off.

@Matt: what is a VFD?

@Wes: Yes, I had looked at the JessEm FX and it seemed like a possible option.

[Matt Meiser]

VFD-Variable Frequency Drive. Smaller three motors can be run on a single phase VFD. And you get the advantage of getting infinitely variable speed.