New machines in the shop

[chefrvitale]

Hello all, I just picked up some new machines for my wood shop and was curious if any of you have used a shaper with a flush trim bit to clean up accents and raisers off of a template/ guide?
I have fabricated a similar setup for my spindle sander but this machine would be so much more efficient. My concern is tear out, it would be a shame to take a chunk out of some beautiful hard wood trying to save some time. My other machine is a new 80in edge sander that I can't wait to fire up!

[dbeaver]

I think youre right about tear out, and i bet your about to fire up one hell of a "turn your 80 inch into a profile sander by adding a table above the motor and getting a collar or bearing installed" conversation.  Various threads on that topic so far. 

[Kirkll]

That was one of my first thoughts when really got into footed risers, and i bought an assortment of big cutters and set up a big 2hp router on my work bench rather than use a shaper. I used straight cutters, and spiral cutters both. You are absolutely right about tear out issues....There are times when running a shaper where the only way to avoid tear out is by "Climb cutting", and it is very dangerous to do hand feeding the material into the cutters. perfect formula for loosing fingers if ya ask me... The only way climb cutting can be done safely with a shaper is using a power feed that holds the lumber rather than using your hands. it's typically only done shaping molding on straight runs... doing radius work by hand with cutters on a shaper or on a large router table is flat out not recommended.... You can take that from someone with a lot of experience running these machines....

I would encourage you to pursue setting up a pattern sander in the future for doing riser footings, and don't even get started trying the shaper. Nothing but herat breaking, and dangerous work.

.05 cents worth...  Kirk

[wood carver 2]

That was one of my first thoughts when really got into footed risers, and i bought an assortment of big cutters and set up a big 2hp router on my work bench rather than use a shaper. I used straight cutters, and spiral cutters both. You are absolutely right about tear out issues....There are times when running a shaper where the only way to avoid tear out is by "Climb cutting", and it is very dangerous to do hand feeding the material into the cutters. perfect formula for loosing fingers if ya ask me... The only way climb cutting can be done safely with a shaper is using a power feed that holds the lumber rather than using your hands. it's typically only done shaping molding on straight runs... doing radius work by hand with cutters on a shaper or on a large router table is flat out not recommended.... You can take that from someone with a lot of experience running these machines....

I would encourage you to pursue setting up a pattern sander in the future for doing riser footings, and don't even get started trying the shaper. Nothing but herat breaking, and dangerous work.

.05 cents worth...  Kirk

My sentiments exactly. I was about to post something similar, until I read Kirk’s post. I have run a lot of wood through various routers and a big shaper. I used climb cuts on oak moldings to avoid tear out, but I used very shallow cuts and on the shaper, I used a power feed.
That power feed allowed me to do some big curved moldings for window openings, but it also scared the crap out of me. There were some big divots in the knock out rings on the shaper that were caused by the previous operator.
I would stick to a belt sander to profile risers. The little bit of extra time it takes makes up for any potential excitement on the big machine.
Dave.

[chefrvitale]

I had a feeling that this was the right group of guys to ask, much appreciated.
You guys probably saved me a chunk of wood and a finger tip.

[wood carver 2]

Lol, just seeing the gouges in the rings on that old shaper sobered me up and made me treat it with respect. 🙂
Dave.

[Kirkll]

I got my education on running shapers working in a big shop building fancy motor yachts. We ran some large wing cutters on radius crown moldings that were damn scary. These cutters were 8” wide, and sounded like an airplane propeller winding up….. Getting tangled up with one of those things you were more likely to loose your whole hand or worse.

There are techniques used for using a high speed shaper safely that need to be learned, and the set up is critical. Having a bit come loose at those rpms is a nightmare.

I still use my large straight cutter on the router table for building forms, but quit using it on riser blocks completely years ago. I also got rid of my jointer years ago after getting into working with exotics. They eat too much wood, and are also man eaters.

Be safe!     Kirk