Shaper cutter bearings

[Randy Henry]

For the shaper fellows,
Do you have an assortment of different size o/d bearings for your cutters? Being more specific, for your edge cutters. Having starting to collect more cutters and looking into the insert system, just wondering what you all use. Obviously they are not needed on the straight edges, but anything other than that, or full edge cutters where a pattern is needed, the bearings are needed. Does anyone know of a supplier of sets of bearings that consist of the most commonly used, or is it too broad of range for that? Thanks.

[Jay Brewer]

I have rub bearings for most of my cutters. For nothing else, it makes setting the depth of your fence easy and accurate. Grizzly sells sets and individual bearings that are good quality and reasonably priced.

The bearing also works well for bridging the gap between the 2 fences on straight edge work. It keeps the piece from diving into the cutter. Works even better on short stock .

Hope this helps.

[Peter Quinn]

I have some bearings that go with a particular cutter or set, like a panel raiser for arched panels, or a door set for curved top doors. With these I want a bearing that matches the small arc of the cutting circle, so I pretty much buy the bearing with the set unless I already have the appropriate bearing. I also have a metric rabbit cutter and use the Amana set up with the single bearing and the aluminum sleeves for different rabbits or as a flush trimmer. I haven't bought a set for the home shop as I haven't found the need. I think a few sellers do have sets, though a complete set of really good heavy duty bearings is going to get expensive. We have a full set at work and only a few sizes actually get much use on any regular basis. Like most shaper tooling I'd be tempted to advise buying the best you can afford, and buying what you need when you need it to get the job done, because it gets expensive as it is.

[Karl Brogger]

The only shaper cutter I've got that uses a bearing is my panel raiser. I want to can that one for a fence, I want to have a machinist grind out a section for the cutter so its only maybe an 1/8" thick under the head.

Bearings are a pain, one more thing to fail, and they're kinda spendy. They are a necessity for pattern cuts like for ached rails and panels.