Making friends with a shaper

[Dr Stan]

I'd say that about the right size of vice for the machine. BTW, learned how to run shapers and planners in the USN. Chapter 12 of the US Navy's Machinery Repairman 2 & 3 has a fair amount of information on shapers and one can download the entire document from: http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED203130

IMHO one of the best references for machinists.