Made by Roberts, Black & Co. Ltd., of 19/21 Brazennose Street, Manchester, England the Robblak shaper, was advertised until the mid 1950s. Its table was a useful 10" x 9", the tool slide could be adjusted through a range of 1.5", the cross-feed travel of the ram head  was  6" and the ram travel 7". It could machine material up to a maximum thickness of 3.5". It weighed some 70 lbs and was, therefore, substantially built in terms of a machine intended for amateur use. In design it was almost identical to the French "Rapide-Lime" (built between 1900 and 1926) and suffered from the same intractable problem -  the table was an extension of the machine's bed plate. Whilst most contemporary machines of the same class were arranged with their table formed as a simple angle bracket that could be slid up and down a machined surface on the front of the bed that on the Robblak and Rapide-Lime was fixed and, as a consequence, any coarse setting of work height was impossible. In addition, with limited room under the cutter, there was only just enough room to fit a small vice. Even so, on both machines, the table was of a generous size and provided with heavy-duty T-slots that would have allowed most jobs to be clamped in place.