This rather elegant little machine, capable of  being bench mounted but normally supplied on a neat stand with two locking drawers, was introduced in middle of 1950. Whilst the South Bend's table had only the same 5" of height movement as the competing Atlas machine the automatic cross feed, which worked in both directions, had just a little more travel at 9.5" and was allowed, for safety reasons, to run off its nut at the end of the travel - a feature other many other shaper makers could have copied with advantage. The box-form table was 65/16 inches long, 5 inches wide, 53/8 inches deep and was provided with parallel slots on both its top and left hand sides and  tapped holes and a single V-grove on its right. It was supported by an adjustable jack-screw which slid along a cast-iron support plate fastened to the top of the stand - so stiffening the front of the work table and eliminating, to large extent, the flex caused by taking heavy cuts.
A proper lubrication system was fitted (although it may not have been incorporated in every machine sold) with an oil sump in the base and a pressure pump to supply lubricant to the most highly-stressed parts: the ram dovetail, bull gear and pinion, pinion shaft and rocker arm.
A simple but effective self-contained, plain-bearing, V-belt countershaft system was fitted, neatly hinged on the rear of the machine and carrying a 1725 rpm single or three-phase 0.33 or 0.5 hp motor that provided four stroke rates of 42, 75, 120 and 195 per minute - which translated into cutting feeds of approximately 3 to 114 feet per minute. Speeds were changed by lifting a slotted belt-guard cover on the right hand side of the machine, releasing the belt tension with a long, ball-ended lever, and changing the belt from pulley to pulley.  As a finishing touch proper 'balanced' ball-handled levers were fitted to the vertical, cross and tool-head feed screws; a swivelling -base vise, with steel jaws 4 inches wide and a maximum opening of 4 inches (by 1 inch deep) was supplied as standard.
More illustrations of the South Bend shaper can be seen here.