What Shaper Cutters are in Your Shop?

[Daryl Henderson]

I took advantage of the 20% sale at Woodcraft, and a new Powermatic shaper will soon be on the way. Since I have never owned a shaper, it looks like I need to invest in a few.

What cutters do you think are essential, then what are handy to have.

Will be doing some doors, trim etc., practicing for a while building cabinets for my shop remodel before we redo the kitchen.

While developing my learning curve, I plan on several styles of doors out of various woods and finishes.

Any comments, advice appreciated.

[Todd Burch]

A shaper is one tool I do not own right now. BUT IF I DID, I would have a large carbide insert flush cutter with ball bearing. I would call it an essential. (For following patterns, like when make a slew of Adirondak chairs)

Todd

[David DeCristoforo]

You want to look at a good insert door set, one that offers interchangeable profiles. Samo for a panel raiser. These will not be cheap but will provide the "most commonly used" profiles. Then get a good set of carbide tipped straight cutters, two 3/4" and one 1/4". These will allow you to make tongue and groove joints as well as square edged "shaker style" doors and will be useful for tons of other operations. From there, buy cutters as you need them. You will never be able to anticipate your needs when it comes to detail cutters. Basic coves, beads, thumbnail profiles, etc. are always handy. But you don't want to be buying cutters you will never use.

[Faust M. Ruggiero]

David picked out the basics. For a bit more variety, look into an insert head like the one made by Amana. These come with a cutter head that allows you to insert various blades that are precut to popular profiles. The old style of insert heads were known as suicide cutters because there was no proper mechanical connection of the blade to the cutter head. I assure you the modern kits are perfectly safe "if you follow the manufacturers instructions". They are a bit limited in cutting depth but well suited to help you learn the capabilities of your new tool. A good set will cost you a couple bills but the high speed inserts are perfect for occasional use. Of course, if you need a production cutter, buy the appropriate profile in a dedicated cutter. An added advantage of the insert heads, is your ability to have a custom grinding shop make you unique blades or even grind them yourself if you have the patience.
Be safe and learn to use your guards, holddowns, zero clearance face plates and power feeder if you get really serious.
fmr

[Peter Quinn]

Ditto the Amana profile pro 40MM set, great way to get a lot of decent small profiles cheap. Hundreds of knives available, all cut very well. A cutter for flushing to patterns is very handy if you do curved pattern work. I have the Freud RP2000 kit for raised panels, carbide insert knives, works great and gives me 5 popular profiles at a reasonable cost per profile. Most things I buy as needed or when available at a fair discount. I haven't found may 3 wing carbide cutters that are cheap enough to buy just in case.

I also have a corrugated back head from Schmidt which allows deeper profiles than the 40MM system given the much greater thickness of the steel. Pretty much the industry standard for molding heads.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I have 21 cutters in the cabinet, I regularly use the ones David mentioned, and I have a setup like Todd mentioned that I will use on the next project. Most of the other 15 or so are various profiles that are useful for very specific things. I would add a roundover or two to the list of must haves as well.

[Bryan Cowing]

Buy them as you need them. When I 1st got my shaper 20 yrs ago, bought several cutters , still have not used some of them. A good kitchen cabinet door set, a panel raiser and rub bearing is essential. Think about buying a power feeder, for safety reasons. 5" panel raiser can be a scary thing!

[John Teichman]

have any of you guys tried the 5 wing cutters from Griz. i also am in the same deal w/ shaper and no cutters yet. John

[Larry Edgerton]

I will add to Davids suggestion that when you buy your straight cutters buy them all at the same time in the same brand so that they have the same diameter. I like to keep 1/8"- 1" set in 1/8" increments so that I can come up with combinations to make any width so I can do things like the relief in the back of casing to fit the size without having a dedicated cutter.

I buy Freud 1/4-1/2" roundovers and use the heck out of them.

I like to make tongue and groove to fit my cabinet backs exactly so that all the pieces are the same size, and I have a Freud adjustable set for that that works just fine. I bought the Freud because I can make it as thin as 7/16" and as thick as 1".

I use insert cutters for cabinet doors, and in the end it is more economical. I use insert entry and passage door sets as well, but on this if you are not a pro I would say buy the profile you want for your own in a fixed.

One thing to look at is the cutter diameter. One of the advantages of a shaper over a router is their ability to swing a large diameter cutter. This changes your shear angle as the cutter exits the workpeice.

To visualize draw straight lines 3/8" apart, the bottom line being the depth of cut and the top line representing the surface of the board. Now draw two circles that just touch the bottom line and cross the upper line, one 1" radius and the other a 5" radius. Now observe the difference in the angle that the cutter will be leaving the workpiece, the larger cutter providing a much more shallow angle and being less likely to lift the fibers and cause a blowout.

I spline all of my cabinet face frames to the cases, so I have a large diameter [6"] 1/4" cutter that I use quite often, dadoing the case and face frame parts before they go together. This method lets me build separate boxes that I can handle and add one peice face frames at the site, without any unsightly pocket screws.

A cheap chamfer cutter.

A good lock miter cutter, large diameter here so that it does not blow off the point.

Glue joint cutter.

Keep in mind, some day you will look at your cutter cabinet and realize it is worth more than your shaper. To protect your cutter investment never put a cutter to bed without a bath. Resins/pitch are acidic and will etch the surface of even the best carbide, so always wash the cutter. If you use a cleaner always rinse with water, as the cleaners themselves are caustic, then blow off with air and after dry I spray on a bit of TopCote before putting back in the cabinet.