Panel Cutterheads w/ inserts

[andrew whicker]

Hi,

Worth getting one or stick w/ buying one piece panel cutters for whatever shape you want?

I was looking at Whitehill because that's the only shaper tooling I have, but not sure what others thought. Seems like a limited selection of inserts available.

[Michael Schuch]

I have a nice insert head and 8 or so sets of inserts that came with a shaper I purchased used. I played around with it once and it did a very good job. I always grab the one piece panel cutter though. The insert heads always seemed more pertinent for someone that needs to cut a lot of different profiles and possibly have inserts custom ground to match an existing pattern. The inserts I have are high speed steel. They leave an incredible smooth cut but dull faster than carbide. Because all the inserts in a set have to be identical and of an identical length I don't have the guts to sharpen them myself.

I am not a production shop so I have never dulled a carbide shaper cutter to the point that it needed to be resharpened. I am a big fan of the Grizzley shaper cutters. The standard 3 wing cutters do an excellent job for me. I have a 5 wing lock miter cutter that does and incredible job. The 5 wing lock miter almost leaves too smooth of a cut for good glue ups. A bit rougher cut would leave more grain for the glue to bite into.

[Larry Edgerton]

I like insert cutterheads. One thing to keep in mind is the carbide for an insert head in finer that the carbide in a brazed head out of necessity. Braised carbide must be more porous so the braze will adhere to the carbide. A good example is the Tersa carbides cut better than the steel inserts. I have braised carbides of good quality in my jointer and even new the cut is not quite as crisp. Both are SCMI. I like with my raised panel heads that I can buy new inserts for about $50. New saves on sanding so $50 is soon paid back. I replace a profile after about two jobs. Big plus for me is not having to send out cutters as there is no one near me that can sharpen large profiles.

[brent stanley]

Hi,

Worth getting one or stick w/ buying one piece panel cutters for whatever shape you want?

I was looking at Whitehill because that's the only shaper tooling I have, but not sure what others thought. Seems like a limited selection of inserts available.

It would depend on how many profiles you plan on doing. The limiter style heads like Whitehill's have about a dozen stock profiles and you can have unique profiles custom ground. They also have carbide insert style and though custom profiles would technically be possible, there are limitations due to how the blocks work. I have the limiter style and they work extremely well. The HSS knives can also be tipped in carbide if required for longer runs or man made materials.

[J.R. Rutter]

I agree with Larry that the insert grade carbide cuts better than brazed. I have many dedicated profile insert heads for this reason. A more universal type head would be great for lower volume work. It's worth being very finicky with cleanliness, tightening, etc. when installing a new profile so that the knives are set as close as possible to each other. With a fine diamond plate, it's possible to touch up inserts by polishing the faces.