Has anyone ever attempted to add cnc to a shaper? I have a 7" and
a 16" and thought it might be possible to automate the small one ( raise and
lower the cutting tool and table. control the crossfeed etc. I realize that shapers are obsolete but I use the big one at my shop quite a bit and thought
if I could refit the little one than why not the big one. Of course I am totally
new to cnc but have been reading the post for a couple of years. Thanks

It could be done, although it mgiht be an expensive touch for general usage, but if you had a particular repetitive application in mind, it might justify it.

The ram would not be under cnc control of the stroke, unless you had a monster servo motor to run it.

The toolslide would be Y and the table crossfeed would be X, so there really would not be a 'feedrate' for contouring with, rather you would use highly interpolated (broken) profiles, with an M function inserted between each segment. The M function would provide for reading automatic trip switches on the ram, so that XY motion only occurs during either end of stroke motion. It would likely not be too difficult to configure a post processor to insert an M function between each position command, or even a simple word processor could do that.

It would be cool for internal splines and keyways and such, to permit mounting the bar in a fixed clapper box, and still be able to quickly retract the tool on the backstroke and precisely reposition it for the next cut, something which normally requires careful attention on the machinist's part.