T130 Class shaper

[J.R. Rutter]

I got this to consolidate several dedicated shapers into a single station for my cab door production. I figure that if I am going to survive the downturn in the housing market, I need to invest in equipment that will let me do more with less. This is the most basic Class shaper that SCM offers. They also make a version with CNC control of everything.

It came with a 4-wheel Maggi feeder with stock wheels. It is the 8-speed version for max versatility.



The control panel has a reversing switch with indicator light of clockwise rotation, the motor on/off, a speed controller and display for the inverter drive (this shaper can run all the way down to 1000 rpm for sanding), a spindle release switch, and one of 3 emergency stops.



There is a mechanical digital readout for spindle height adjustment. I'm used to digital ProScales on my other shapers, so I'll have to see if this is as accurate.



The fence has two wheel adjusters with digital indicators. The left moves the whole fence forwards and backwards, the right moves the infeed side only. I got lucky in that SCM was running a clearance on their aluminum fence plates with bar inserts that can easily be placed across the opening for things like panel and door edges to travel along and never leave a support. Another quick changeover feature is a section table instead of table inserts. You crank the table in and out and the phenolic insert runs up tight to the cutter for good support. The entire fence swings away on a pivot and indexes back in place with a locking pin.




The spindles are set up with ISO 40 tapers, like some CNC routers. There is a pneumatic system that clamps and unclamps the entire spindle in seconds. The idea is to mount cutters to various spindles and swap the entire assembly rather than mount and unmount from a fixed spindle. Less wear on the spindle and cutter bore, and much faster.



The spindles are stored on a cart along with any other tools you need.



The spindle assembly is very robust, and the precision bearings are widely spaced. The assembly that slides up and down inside the cast column is about 20 inches long and close to 5" in diameter. The motor is roughly 7.5 HP.



The inverter has a big honkin' heat sink around the back, and the electric panel is a bit daunting!




Hopefully, we'll be making shavings with this next week!

[Joe Jensen]

WOW

I'm in the middle of refurb'ing an SCMI / Rockwell F3a jointer and it's amazingly well built. It's good to see that the new stuff is built just as well. Congrats and may it quickly pay for itself...joe

[John Keeton]

Now that is one heck of a router table!! Because of J.R., for the remainder of my days I will be psychologically damaged from tool envy .

[Jeff Duncan]

That's the first time I've seen that sliding table section that replaces the inserts. I have to say that's very clever. I'd probably be nervous about a setup like that in any less expensive shaper, but I'm sure on that unit it's pretty precisely fit.
Well for me it's been a slow summer so not many purchases. Things are just starting to pick up for Autumn so I may just have to add one of those to the "List".
JeffD

[Mike Heidrick]

These are the machines MY dreams are made of!! WOW!!!

How much for a machine like this???

I was using the $15K Panel Master at Lagunas booth at IWF. I am sure they had to clean up my drool when I left. One day I will own that shaper!!

This machine is in a whole different league!

[Paul B. Cresti]

JR,
Good luck with the machine....I really love the phenolic insert and the fence system. My T50n is a bit more modest than your 130 class. I can not tell by the pic but is it a tilting spindle? I still do not know if it truly is worth the extra cost but at least it is there IF I ever need it.

So will you be doing cope & stick or straight tenons on that 'bute? Are you getting any air clamps or making up your own jigs?

[J.R. Rutter]

JR,
Good luck with the machine....I really love the phenolic insert and the fence system. My T50n is a bit more modest than your 130 class. I can not tell by the pic but is it a tilting spindle? I still do not know if it truly is worth the extra cost but at least it is there IF I ever need it.

So will you be doing cope & stick or straight tenons on that 'bute? Are you getting any air clamps or making up your own jigs?

Hi Paul - No tilting spindle . . . For my business right now, that would be pure icing. The T50N is a nice shaper. I was just looking at one on eBay recently. I like the compact and lighter weight slide mechanism. The cast iron types would be a real workout doing cabinet door copes!

Right now, the plan is to use this shaper for raised panels and door edges, plus other custom long grain cuts. It did come with a Ritter TESA coping sled mounted to the SCMI cast iron tenoning sled assembly (and a pair of big Gladu insert tenoning heads). Not the huge end-mounted one, but one that bolts to the table top. It has 3 air cylinders. I'm thinking of mounting it to a little T40N to do copes. It would be nice to mount it on the Class shaper and have fast access to every profile, but it is very heavy. I guess I'll keep an eye out for another one of these shapers!

By the way - here is a video that helped sell me on this shaper:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...69548178557374
Mine has the Ritter sled instead of the miter clamp type that is stock.

[Paul B. Cresti]

JR,
Another pro, Tod, that use to post here (he is down in Arkansas) has a Formula T1 shaper with the end table cast iron sled....he swears buy it and does honking copes on it. Maybe down the line it would be a good add on as long as it does not interfere with your main operation use of the shaper.

Where have you been getting your tooling? how many spindles did you get with the machine?

Question on the spindles...do they always zero in to the same point so that if you put different cutters on different spindles and put your dial indicator to the same mark the bottom will always line up?

Just curious which way do you run your panel raisers? above the stock or below? I run mine below for safety

I will check out that video a little later....If I ever hit the lottery I jump on one of those Vanguard T160 shapers..

[J.R. Rutter]

Yeah, tod evans has it going on! My scale of work right now is such that even the TESA sled might be overkill. This shaper came with the cast extension wings and front extension bar, but I took them off. If I ever use the swing-away fence feature, maybe I'll remount the feeder in one so the fence clears more easily. The Gladu heads that came with it are probably 10" diameter with a series of inserts for bottoms and side of the cut...

Right now, my tooling is all Freeborn. A mix of brazed and insert. But I am considering going to Byrd for insert cope and stick cutters. I have a 1" Schmidt corrugated knife head as well that I use for a mitered style door profile. The shaper came with 5 x 1-1/4" spindles and 1 x 1".

You can set the spindles up any way you like using spacers so that the height never changes. You can also stack them just like a fixed spindle machine. Right now, I run 3 raised panel cutters on one spindle and adjust height based on which profile I want to cut. Obviously, you need a heavy duty machine for that. I'll probably do a mix of spindle configurations unless I find a bunch of inexpensive ISO 40 spindles somewhere.

I run my cutters on top, to keep the panel edge super consistent. The feeder guards the exposed cutters, even if there are 2 extras spinning away on top of the one making the cut.

The Vanguard machines are very nice. The Martins, even better! Overkill for me though.

[J.R. Rutter]

These are the machines MY dreams are made of!! WOW!!!

How much for a machine like this???

I was using the $15K Panel Master at Lagunas booth at IWF. I am sure they had to clean up my drool when I left. One day I will own that shaper!!

This machine is in a whole different league!

Around $20K new.

I looked at the Unique 250 and EZ Door shapers at AWFS last summer. They are basically the same as the Laguna. Definitely the way to go for doing arched top doors. The HSK quick change spindle versions push the price up quite a bit though. I run 5 cope & stick profiles regularly, 5 raised panel variations, and 3 door edges. The fast change is very important!

[Paul B. Cresti]

JR,
Just looked at the video....that fence is just awesome...But one thing he kept saying was that other fences are not repeatable square??? well mine always is!. I would have to say one of the best features is that swing away feature...it sure beats lugging a cast iron assembly on and off that machine... I will not even touch the dial indicators for fence alignment wow is that nice

You may want to consider some more insert tooling. I have a whole bunch of Schmidt insert tools....I like dealing with those guys. They even made me some custom profiles I have created in Autocad and then emailed it to them. They are about 45 minutes from me so I can order one day and get stuff the next (if in stock of course)

Have you found an easier way to adjust feeders? it always is such a time consuming process especially going from a flat to the table to a flat against the fence feed.

[J.R. Rutter]

He must have been talking about square to the miter slot, or front of the table? I don't like changing my current fence setups at all. Though for panel type cuts, squareness doesn't matter much. The shaper came with wooden fences. I was surprised at how massive the aluminum fence is. It is machined flat rather than just extruded, and is quite thick, with phenolic ends that remove to use the bar system. The bar inserts are not as convenient as the Aigner, but they are still quick to change.

I will take a look at the Schmidt insert cope & stick tooling. I have one of their Innovator raised panel heads that I will be converting to run carbide, now that the profile has become a standard for me.

I only have one cut that requires a side feed, so I don't do much changing. I do vastly prefer a 4-wheeler for going back and forth on climb vs normal cuts. Just center the wheels and pivot the motor.

[Jon Dieterlen]

Nice Shaper. I switched to byrd insert tooling for cope, stick,panel raising, and door edges. Well worth the investment. Rejects went to nearly zero even w/hard maple and hickory. There is no reason to climb cut if you use the right tooling.

I run 4 shapers, one being a 2 spindle 1940's Greenlee. I know about the tedious set up procedures. I spent a whole day making 300 feet of assorted moulding for our present job. Crown, beaded casing, and base. By the time you set up to do the back cuts, edges and relieve the back, I must have hade 25 different set ups.

The best way to run stick cuts is with an outboard fence. I even have been running crown with an outboard fence. You just have to be sure you have good pressure holding the stock against the outboard fence.

Go with the bryd heads, you wont be sorry.

Jon

[J.R. Rutter]

Thanks Jon - I run shelix heads in my jointer and planer, and have heard good things about the shaper tooling. I appreciate hearing about your good results. I run an outboard fence for sticking as well. I stack my sticking cutters and use spacer blocks for the various widths. We routinely get +/- 0.005" tolerance with this method. Belt conversion on the feeder is well worth it for doing short rails.

This new shaper will take me from 7 shapers down to 4 (add one, sell 4). As I get tighter for floor space, this gets more and more important.

Sounds like it might be time for a small 4-head moulder for you! I'm thinking about picking up a Quattromat for running S4S and a few crown profiles. Weinig seems to be moving towards more sophisticated moulders, but their older 4-heads make sense for small shops.

[Jim Becker]

Very nice machine! Congrats.

That electrical picture looks similar to the "innards" of my MiniMax S315WS slider...very scary!