Craftsman 1/2HP shaper-ready to cope

[Peter Quinn]

I was recently given a small Craftsman shaper by my father during his retirement move to Florida. He never used it, didn't want to move it, and it made him cry thinking about throwing it out. I was ready to help him throw it in a dumpster when I started thinking, hey, I want a second shaper, I had figured on going MUCH bigger when finances allowed, but maybe I could go smaller and use it as a dedicated cope machine for cabinet doors? When I used a two router table set up my smaller router always played the coping role, and this thing has at least as nice an iron table as any router table I've seen.

So I took it home, cleaned it up a bit, fired it up and....phooey, not nearly enough power, just bogged down in the middle of every cope spinning a 3/4" cutter set bushed up for the 1/2" spindle. But if I went REAL REAL slow, it did a fine job and was accurate! That's enough to make this frugal Connecticut Yankee bite, so I creeked a bit and found others had had luck with this tool by upgrading the motor. Most stock Craftsman motors in the last 35 years are pretty much bottom of the barrel, and this one was no exception. I think my battery powered nose hair trimmer produces more HP.:D

Quick call to Grizzly, ordered a 1HP TEFC motor, which is about the most I figured this little machine would handle, wired in a reversing switch just in case, and it works great. Did a few test copes, no problems now with power, same feed rate as any shaper I've used. So for less than the price of a router I've added a nice little shaper, no more swapping cutter stacks in the middle of a set of doors. Glee.

Here's a couple of pics of the little shaper that can.

[Chip Lindley]

My very first cabinet job was done on a little Craftsman 1/2" shaper like yours. As you found, the 1/2 hp motor had not Butt! I was lucky to have a 1-1/2 hp, 220v Sears motor laying around, and used that! Boy Oh Boy! Whatta difference!

I used a set of Freud 3/4" bore cabinet door cutters with excellent results in red oak! If that little shaper only had a *solid* CI table top, it would have been a little KEEPER!

[Peter Quinn]

I'll tell you Chip, I don't mind the top. Its flat and the miter gauge is tight and consistent. Does seem strange though, all webbing and no flat? Musta kept the cost down? I figured if it didn't work out as a small coping shaper I'd bring the top into the machinist at work and turn it into a router table. Seems to work fine as is though. Motor made a big difference. I made a small set of doors with it before replacing the motor (slow going), and it was nice not having to swap the cope and stick sets, especially me being forgetful and usually remaking at least one door or two in each batch!:D I'm used to a three shaper set up at work, now I'm just ONE shaper away from recreating that at home.

Anybody looking to give away a Felder 700 shaper with tilting arbor and sliding table?:D Oh, digital power lift would be NICE, but if anybody is giving one away, I could take it without that.

[Mark Burmeister]

Peter, Do you have the Grizzly part or model number of the motor you used? Thanks