Shaper or router?

[Brent Romero]

I often hear two schools of thought regarding routers w/ a router table vs shapers. The first is that a good router and a good router table can accomplish 80% ....making cabinet doors, etc. A shaper can also...but I hear that the bits are more expensive, etc.

What are the upsides and downsides of owning only a good beefy router w/ a good table....and no shaper?

Thanks

[Ray Newman]

See this:
http://patwarner.com/router_or_shaper.html

[Stephen Cherry]

This comes up all the time, and it's always fun to read and write a little about. My opinion is that the premise of the question is backwards. It seems to me that the question should first focus on size and shape of the cutter you want to use. For example, I just bought a Byrd Shelix 4" x 4" patturn cutter from Dave at Oella saw (Oella has these tools for less money than the Griz or Byrd). What would be the best tool to turn this, the shaper of course. I also just bought a 1/16" diameter x 1/2" height pattern cutter from Precisebits.com. Basically, the same tool doing the same job, but vastly different sizes. That's one for a router.

222184


The questions really come up in the intermidiate sizes. THe first misconception is that shaper cutters cost more. Here are some shaper panel raisers for 80 dollars:
http://www.infinitytools.com/Raised-Panel-Door-Shaper-Cutters/products/1164/

ANd the router raised panel bits, 80 dollars also:
http://www.infinitytools.com/Raised-Panel-Router-Bit-Horizontal/products/1042/

What you cannot fairly do is compare industrial super hight quality shaper cutters to router bits. They are vastly more expensive, and completly different tools. That said, if I wanted to raise a panel, I would prefer to do it on a shaper, even with a moderatly priced cutter.

Also, shapers are available used for much better prices than router tables. And I have bought a bunch of shaper cutters used at great prices.

[Jeff Duncan]

I often hear two schools of thought regarding routers w/ a router table vs shapers. The first is that a good router and a good router table can accomplish 80% ....making cabinet doors, etc. A shaper can also...but I hear that the bits are more expensive, etc.

What are the upsides and downsides of owning only a good beefy router w/ a good table....and no shaper?

Thanks


I honestly can't think of a single upside to owning "only" a router table and no shaper. As far as which one a person "needs", I agree with Stephen that it comes down to what you want to do.

good luck,
JeffD

[David Kumm]

My preference is for big shapers and small router tables. I like the tabletop router table from Rockler for small things and large shaper tooling for most anything else. There are times when the 20000+ speed of the router is a real benefit though. Most shapers run router bits a little slow, therefore the smaller router table. Dave

[Rod Sheridan]

I've never owned a router/router table, I've always owned a shaper.

To save space my present shaper is a tilting spindle/sliding table machine inside my sliding table saw. As you've guessed I own a combination machine.

Previously I owned a General stand alone shaper.

I use my shaper for solid wood, so most of my cutters are HSS that go in a Euro head, the knives are about $20 to $30 per pair in Canada, and the surface finish is superb.

To me the decision is clear, the shaper is a far better machine than the router for use as a stationary machine, for hand held obviously it's the reverse.

Buy a good shaper, possibly a great bargain on a used machine, add a feeder, a Euro head and enjoy the benefits...............Regards, Rod.

[Jeff Monson]

What are the upsides and downsides of owning only a good beefy router w/ a good table....and no shaper?

Thanks

A "good" router table and lift is pretty hard to beat for the average profiling jobs. I have a bench dog lift and cast iron table. It is very quick to change bits and setup. This setup will also do cabinet doors. I use my router table alot for small profiles and flush trimming. As I stated IMO its quicker to setup.

I also have a shaper that I use for my cabinet doors, molding profiles and rebate cutting. I use a feeder whenever possible with the shaper. Its a hard combination to beat.

[Steven Lee, NC]

kinda looked into this myself before and the cost difference between shaper cutters and router bits is pretty huge. I went with the router table :)

[Rod Sheridan]

kinda looked into this myself before and the cost difference between shaper cutters and router bits is pretty huge. I went with the router table :)

Hi, for me, the shaper knives are less expensive than router bits..............Rod.

[Ryan Hellmer]

The thing I've noticed (and I have both) is that shapers tend to be a bit more of an up-front expense (Rod, your knives are cheap but the head sure wasn't). By the time you put all the bells and whistles on a router table they often exceed the price of a solid home-shop shaper. Where the shaper really earns its keep is long, deep profiling runs like T&G, panel raising, even stick and cope profiles for 5 piece doors. For putting that 3/16" roundover on a table top, use your router. I use my router table all the time but if someone made me choose between shaper and router table, I'd keep the shaper.

Ryan

[Rod Sheridan]

Ryan, it's true that there's an up front cost with the shaper head, mine was about $120 for the head.

It sure is less expensive than router bits though.

The big difference between a shaper and a router in favour of a shaper is

- noise

- chip collection

- safety

- tilt spindles

- sliding tables

- indexable fences

- forward/reverse run for grain direction

- stackable cutters

- deep profiles in one shot

- superior surface finish and accuracy

- non sag tables

- range of cutters and accessories far exceeds that of a router

- cost of insert knives is far lower than router bits

- ability to profile and dimension in one pass usiing an outboard fence and feeder.

- custom knives

The router obviously has some great features and capabilities however I only have space for one machine, so the router lost out as it's a poor substitute for a shaper.

regards, Rod.