Originally Posted by
Steve Griffin
Tom,
1/4 shaper will look like a toy on your 5hp shaper, though it may do fine with operations that don't require much force. I would highly recommend spending another couple hundred and get a 4 roller, 1HP feeder like the Griz G1095. This would be more closely matched to the nice machine you have. I'm a big fan of having two wheels on each side of a cutter. It's not just about horsepower, but a more massive and strong mounting system will give you smooth, safer feeding. It will also open options up in the future such as climb cutting.
Have fun, and be sure to get in the habit of double checks before cranking her up-- I give my cutter a spin by hand, check it's direction setting and give the power feeder a friendly yank to be sure I didn't miss tightening a lever.
-Steve