Just bought a shaper and I have some questions.

[Peter Quinn]

I get that there is a use for the individual fences but I sure don't like the inconvenience it brings to the table when I have been building things for 15 years and have never once thought gee I wish I had offset fences on my router, ( which my Incra actually does but has never been used now that I think about it.) I was looking at cutters today and it looks like I can get a matched rail and style bit set for about 65 dollars which is way cheaper then my set for my router table and unless I am missing something it looks like I don't have to change my setup I just have to change my cutters. If that is true then I am going to love this shaper if that is all I do with it. I hate messing around changing my bits and setup and getting out the set up blocks and the digital height gauge to get a good fit on my rail and style bits.

Matched sets are a serviceable way to make doors, but less flexible than stacked sets, so the utility really depends on your use. I do some stuff with flat panels where the groove must match the plywood, I make some thicker doors, glass doors. These options often don't exist with solid reversible cutters, which at that price is what I assume you are seeing? A 5 or 6 cutter stack approaches $300, but you get a lot of flexibility. If you don't need it its a waste of money.

I'm not understanding the "inconvenience" factor you find in the split fence hood? I understand you have been working a certain way on the router table, and that makes sense on the router. You can certainly keep working with a straight fence on the shaper just by bridging the two halfs with one fence plate after setting them parallel, but a shaper gives you options. 90% of what I make on a shaper involves an offset fence set up. Almost every molded edge operation benefits from this technique. Moldings are more accurate, door edges are always fully formed. You quickly set the out feed fence to the cutters arc using a straight edge, you set the infeed fence to the depth of cut required, done. I still clamp or otherwise attach one piece fences to the hoods, in fact I will be today to make some panel grooves for carriage house doors. Once I learned to use the shaper like a jointer it changed my entire work flow. You can also skip the "hood" fences and use a "back fence" set up to shape and accurately dimension in one pass. I prefer to do that with a power feed, but others have posted set ups for safe hand feed with a back fence too. There are a number of excellent examples of back fences here in the archives. Mine is a hunk-o-wood with some sand paper on the bottom to keep if from shifting when clamped to the table.

The coping thread is a good one, coping almost never involves split fences. There are lots of ways to work with a shaper, and some parallel to the router table. I'd keep an open mind to new techniques, lots of versatility in that tool.

[david brum]

Peter, in reference to his stock Grizzly fence, the only way to move the fence faces is by advancing each side independently. For some reason, Grizzly designed the fence center/hood section of the fence so it bolts directly to the table top, with no adjustment. So each time fence adjustment is required, the faces have to be realigned with each other. It sounds like a pain.

To the OP, here is an illustration of what I'm suggesting for your fence. You basically attach your current fence to a board, which can be clamped anywhere you need, without worrying about fence alignment. BTW, please ignore the attachments. They don't work and I can't kill them.



shaper fence 2.png

[Mark Bolton]

Kieth,
Your finding out that the shaper itself is trivial with regards to expense if your going to put one into use. This is true even if your buying a new import or used industrial machine. The accessories will quickly dwarf the cost of the shaper itself but the simple fact of the matter is the instant you put it to work you will realize why you made the investment.

IMO the very first thing you need to invest in is a feeder. A feeder is the single biggest asset in any shop and moreso if your running a shaper. Its a good safety add-on too but the real plus is increased production and increased quality. After that you can modify your fence and begin to invest in tooling. As others have stated the tooling budget will have to be substantial but if your using your shaper for much at all it will be well worth the investment. Our cope & stick/panel raising tooling for cabinet doors (insert) is well over 1K by the time your done. I would guess in my small shop I have 5k in tooling easily. Oella Saw and Tool is a great place to watch for shaper tooling at reduced costs. You can often pick up tooling far superior to Grizzly there for reasonable money.

Another great alternative is to invest in an import corrugated head and then you can have knives ground in a variety of materials depending on how much and what materials you plan to run. You can usually pick a head up for 200 or less and will likely be able to have knives ground for anywhere form 80-150 depending on the size of the profile.

The feeder is the key.

Congrats,
Mark

[Mark Wooden]

While the quick preview of the video in very informative, I'm betting he did not make the swan neck molding on that shaper, or any shaper in that class. More likely a W&H molder or machine like it.
It's disturbing that they put things like that in sales brochures and videos, prompts people to buy the wrong thing.

Yes, most rub collars are based on bearings so they don't burn the pattern and are less prone to kickback.
The shaper is a mainstay in any custom cabinet or millwork shop; I have 3 and can't imagine being without one.
The fences on many of those machines really could use some refinement but before you decide it's no good, do the reading and if you can, visit a cabinet/millwork shop and ask to watch a shaper in action. This will give you a much better understanding of what the operations of a fence are. One problem I've seen more often than not on those machines is the fence halves aren't coplanar. This can be corrected with a jointer. Other refinements can usually be made with a little tweaking here and there.

[keith micinski]

So, I spent all day getting the shaper ready to go. Unfortunately that involved dismantling the entire thing because the previous owner hadnt really done a good job of cleaning the cosmolene off of it and it was so gunked up you could hardly even move the spindle. On a side note I am pretty sure Grizzly is laughing at all of us and they arent really making any money on the tools they sell. Clearly they own a bunch of Cosmolene factory's and what they are really doing is just providing an outlet for it. The Gib screws and the gib plate were all screwed up to so I made the decision to just take it all apart and get it cleaned up and adjusted properly. Here is what it looked like before cleanup.

IMG_1647.jpgIMG_1644 copy.jpgIMG_1645 copy.jpgIMG_1650 copy.jpg

I was a little disappointed with the quality of the machining on the castings they are pretty rough and I was going to clean them up with sand paper to try and get the operation a little smoother but I decided to wait since I haven't even used it yet and don't know what I have. This turned out to be a mistake. This is what I had after cleaning everything.

IMG_1651 copy.jpgIMG_1652 copy.jpgIMG_1654 copy.jpg

I have messed with the gib screws and have gotten it as good as I cant get it. The motor hanging off of the bracket is massive considering the size of the machine and the lifting mechanism, so I am not real sure how smooth the up and down is going to be no matter what but the Rough machining in the keyways cant be helping any. I wish I would have just went ahead and did it while it was all apart but I didn't want to start messing with stuff before I learned about how it worked. Maybe that was the right decision but it sure is going to suck if I decide to take it apart again to clean it all up. One thing I will say is that even though it stinks to take a machine all apart before you even get to use it it is by far and away the best way to learn how a machine works and even gives you some insight into how to best operate it in the future.

[Rod Sheridan]

The only of the three shaper books I own that's not decades out of date is The Spindle Molder Handbook by Stephenson.

He covers modern machines and cutters, as well as safety considerations and accessories.

One of my most used cutter heads is the Euro Block style with HSS knives. The knives are in the $20 range and produce a flawless finish on solid wood. Purchase the unit with the chip limiters.

A rebate head is also a must have, I have a 125mm X50mm carbide insert head with scorers, great cutter.

A stock feeder of about 1/2 HP is invaluable for quality of work and safety.

Enjoy your shaper, I use mine a lot.........Rod.

[keith micinski]

While the quick preview of the video in very informative, I'm betting he did not make the swan neck molding on that shaper, or any shaper in that class. More likely a W&H molder or machine like it.
It's disturbing that they put things like that in sales brochures and videos, prompts people to buy the wrong thing.

Yes, most rub collars are based on bearings so they don't burn the pattern and are less prone to kickback.
The shaper is a mainstay in any custom cabinet or millwork shop; I have 3 and can't imagine being without one.
The fences on many of those machines really could use some refinement but before you decide it's no good, do the reading and if you can, visit a cabinet/millwork shop and ask to watch a shaper in action. This will give you a much better understanding of what the operations of a fence are. One problem I've seen more often than not on those machines is the fence halves aren't coplanar. This can be corrected with a jointer. Other refinements can usually be made with a little tweaking here and there.

Fence faces not being coplanar is an understatement. The fence originally came with 1/2 inch thick MDF pieces that were no where near coplanar. Shockingly the fence is perfectly square with the table but I still cant get over how bad a job they did on the fence castings and the machining the factory did. I took a piece of rift sawn oak I had laying around since it was the hardest most stable thing I had right now and countersunk the holes enough so that I could mount them on the fence and then joint the face. it took some time but everything turned out perfect and the fence is coplanar and square with the table. One thing the factory did get right was the machining on the lift mechanism so that the spindle is square to the table with out having to try and shim it. It took me way more time then I wanted it to but I have everything square and coplanar with the table, the fence, the cast iron wing, the insert, and the spindle.

[Mel Fulks]

I have the Stephenson book ,too. It is ,I think,lacking in info on the old style slotted shaper collars.The old Delta "getting the most out of your shaper" is still a good book, though a short one. And even though some consider collars "unsafe" they are still needed for things like stair rail fittings with small radius.Only one company still making them.

[Jeff Duncan]

Your learning why Grizzly shapers are so inexpensive compared to others FWIW the fence on my Poweratic 27, (which cost 3x more than the Grizzly), was pretty crappy also. The 5/8" thick scrap oak faces were certainly not coplaner and had to be shimmed to work properly. There were a handful of other things that kinda ticked me off considering how much it cost!!! Here's the thing though, if the spindle runs true and is at a 90 to the table....you can do a lot of work with it! I've now graduated to a much nicer high end machine and the difference is night and day, fence adjustments are independent and precise. Spindle height adjustment is smooth and accurate, and the whole quill assembly is as robust as a Sherman tank. When you boil it down though the shaper is a very simple machine and regardless if it's a Grizzly or a Martin....once you learn how to use it properly, you'll be able to do a LOT of work on it.

good luck,
JeffD

[Rod Sheridan]

http://www.felderusa.com/us-us/video...-workshop.html

Hi, for an introduction to things you can do with a shaper, the above Felder video is good.

You may have to register on their site to watch it.

Watch the entire presentation ( over an hour) which shows a shaper being used to make a desk, along with the other machines of course.............Rod.