3 or 4 wheel power feeder for shaper?

[Jordan Lane]

I'm seeking the collective advice of shaper users :))...which is preferred? 3 or 4 wheel feeder for a shaper? .... it will be a 1hp feeder . Thanks

[David Kumm]

Jordan, I answered over on FOG but neglected to ask what shaper. A small shaper works better with a three wheel but a Felder will easily handle the four. Dave

[Jordan Lane]

a powermatic 2700

[Ralph Butts]

Jordan I put a 1 HP four wheel feeder on my PM2700. With its large table the four wheel feeder is well accomodated.

[Mike Heidrick]

Whichever you find the best deal on. For a 2700 either will be fine.

[Sam Layton]

Jordan,

I have a 3hp Delta shaper. I have a 1hp, 4 wheel feeder, and it works great.

Sam

[Peter Quinn]

It really depends on the work you are doing. A 4 wheel feeder IME handles short parts with more control due to the tighter distances between centers of the wheels. Think cabinet door rails. For curved pattern work a three wheel feeder is easier to use. You can remove 2 wheels, I usually remove front and rear, and use it as a copy feeder. A 4 wheel is more cumbersome in this case due to its longer length and the blind spots that creates.. For your average edge forming work on long lengths or wide parts like tabletops it's pretty much a wash IMO, and so the added cost of the 4 wheels is wasted money. And if you regularly do lots of small parts you might consider a tractor feed rather than wheels at all! So it's not quite as simple as a better than b in all cases.

[Jordan Lane]

Thanks Peter now i am in a dilemma because i do all of the work you described . lol thank you Sam, Mike and Ralph

[Jeff Duncan]

In all honestly the differences are minimal. I prefer the 4 wheels especially when doing long heavy pieces like interior door stiles. The extra wheel means I have good support both in front and behind the cutter. For cabinet doors there's not much advantage. For small parts you can also swap the wheels out for a belt feed in you want/need to. Though to be honest I have one and have never installed it.

You didn't ask....but in my opinion a more important feature in a feeder is speed selection. I like to have as many speeds as possible to dial in the best quality of cut. FWIW if I were buying a new feeder and had a deep budget I'd go for a 4 wheeler with variable speed and would immediately swap the tires for the poly ones from Western Roller;)

good luck,
JeffD

[David Kumm]

While I think the Variofeed is overkill I do like the 8 speed feeders. I'm too lazy to change the gear wheel so from a practical point you really have four speeds with an 8 and 2 with a 4. The top speed will never be used so the low and middle ones are the important ones. I always change out the wheels, Western or Axiom. Axiom has some wider wheels that I like with big feeders. Given that Univer is now hard to come by, were budget not an option I would buy the Wegoma horizontal mount feeder made by Comatic and sold by Martin. I think it also tips up easily so you can use the last wheel for curve shaping but you need to verify that. Dave