Rail & Stile/Shaper Cutter question.

[Kyle Kraft]

I have a rail and stile shaper cutter set that I picked up used. After setting it up on my machine and running some lumber through it, the cope feature doesn't fit snugly into the stick feature and it doesn't "engage" the mating part. There is a gap at the end of the cope where it meets the stick on the face and backside of the door. The lumber is perfectly straight and true. The shaper spindle is at 90 degrees to the table in all planes. I am cautious to set the fence so there isn't any snipe on the cut also.

I took the cope cutter and the stick cutter and held them together up to the light and it appears that the radii are different....ever so slightly.

Could this problem be due to a poor sharpening job (or something else I'm missing) or am I just completely inept when working with the rail/stile/shaper group?

[frank shic]

if the sharpeners did not run test fit cuts afterwards you will get gaps.

[J.R. Rutter]

Do you mean that the rail stub tenon is bottoming out and keeping the rest of the joint open? How many cutters are in your set? Is there a trimmer cutter for the cope to cut off the end of the stub tenon to fit the groove (six piece set) or a rub spacer where that cutter would be?

If the tenon/groove fit is not to blame, then you may be able to shim the top cutter on the cope set up to get more clearance for the profiles to fit together.

[Jim Kountz]

It could just be the cutters. I dont know what brand they are but I have found this is one area you dont want to skimp on at all. The cheaper router bits and shaper cutters have problem fitting together properly. If they are decent ones from a maker of known quality then maybe you just got a bum set. Happened to me once or twice over the years. Try the Freud or Amana cutters, they work really nice.

[Joe Spackle]

If the set is stacked and the cope is loose it needs to be shimmed.

As sets are sharpened the detail changes ever so slightly and in time you will end up with gaps.

Also, when you cope try adding 1/16" to the rail lengths then actually cutting off 1/32" on each end. I set then infeed fence back the 1/32" and use it to guide the end anyway so it is pretty easy to do. This assures you are getting a full cope cut.

I leave the fence setup the same way to cut sticking so I get a full cut with no jointer or saw tracks in the detail.

I have an ogee set that has been sharpened so much I think I have about 30% of the detail left. I still get very acceptable fits once properly shimmed

JS

[Kyle Kraft]

J.R.,
The stub tenon is not bottoming out. The area of interference is the quarter round feature. Because the two radii don't match, it holds the joint apart so there is a gap visible on the front and back of the door and also at the end of the stub tenon.

The six piece set is an Amana and the stack set is made by SY (?) taiwanese. I googled SY and one of the hits said they were sold by Grizzly, but a check of the Grizzly lineup didn't show anything like what I have. Perhaps I have an older set.

Joe,

Do you think all I need is some shimming??

[Brian Gumpper]

It could just be the cutters. I dont know what brand they are but I have found this is one area you dont want to skimp on at all. The cheaper router bits and shaper cutters have problem fitting together properly.

I'll second that comment. Perhaps that's the reason the person who bought them new sold them.

[Scott Whiting]

It is quite common for stile and rail sets to get out of match. As they get sharpened the relief they have to have makes the profiles changed. Even nice sets like LRH and Freeborn need to be rematched. Every half dozen or so sharpenings on Freeborn sets I send them back to Freeborn to be rematched. They charge more than just sharpening plus the 2 way shipping. Most of the time they shave off the raised hubs but occasionally do some regrinding too. If you want, you can have a machine shop remove most of the hub and then you can use a shim set to match it yourself. For a fee Freeborn will remove most of the raised hub on a new set and then it will always be up to the operator to adjust the set. They don't build their sets to be shimmed from the factory because most people using shapers either don't understand or don't want to deal with shims. On lesser expensive sets I have not heard of a factory rematching service.

[J.R. Rutter]

A quick test would be to put a shim between the top and middle cope cutters to shift the profile cut up. But if the tenon is tight in the groove, this would make it even tighter... Like Scott mentioned, shaving down the hub on the bottom side of the middle cope cutter would shave the tenon thickness back down.

Is it worth doing? depends on what you paid for them, I guess.

You can buy shim sets from just about any cutter manufacturer or dealer.