Shaper fence ideas.

[keith micinski]

I recently bought a used Grizzly shaper and finally got around to using it. I hate the stock fence that it came with. The cast iron castings are so far from square its absurd. I mounted two new 3/4 pieces and then jointed the faces flat. I want to make another fence piece that mounts onto these that is easily removable so that I can have different pieces with different opening for the various cutters. Does anyone have any photos of their home made fences or any links to non stock shaper hoods?

[keith micinski]

By the way my first inclination is to take two original incra gauges and mount them on each side of the cutter spindle and then make my own fence pieces. I am thinking this is the best way to go for having two fence faces independent of each other. To be honest with you though I would actually like to just have one fence face. I know there are more things you can do with two fences but I have made it 15 years with one easy to adjust and easy to setup fence face.

[Stephen Cherry]

Have you seen the delta book, "Getting the most out of your shaper", at the owwm site? It has lots of setups for almost everything.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=242660&d=1349637453

[Stephen Cherry]

here is a panel raising fence, which I shamelessly ripped off:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=241030&d=1347420207

[Chris Rosenberger]

These pictures are not real good, but maybe help you. I made some wood fence pieces with T slots in the back.
I made a T shaped key with a bolt running through it to the back of the fence casting & a locking knob on the bolt.
I can loosen the knob & move the fence halves to where I need them & then tighten the knobs.

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o303/chrisrosenb/Shop%20Album/100_0472.jpg

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o303/chrisrosenb/Shop%20Album/100_0476.jpg

[Rick Potter]

For my Delta, I made a simple wooden fence, just like a router fence. I like it just fine. Interchangeable faces, T-slots etc.

Rick Potter

Edit: My fence is no beauty queen, just made it out of particle board, with masonite faces that have t-slots for interchangeable sliding faces, just like a router table. For offsets I just use shims. Simple built in clamps hold it to the table. It works well enough for my hobby use, that I built another just like it, with a hole for larger cutters.

[keith micinski]

I hate to say it but part of my problem is with the grizzly shaper hood. It leaves a lot to be desired in the quality department. I like that delta hood much better. I am hoping to get some time this weekend to make some new wooden pieces. I used some rift dawn oak for my original pieces because its what I had laying around at the time and noticed that they had very slightly warped after sitting around for a few months waiting to be used. What are you guys using for wood to make your fence pieces. I would prefer to not have to joint mine flat every time I use it. I was thinking quarter sawn oak for stability. I also am thinking I might get some pieces of solid surfacing and use it. I think that would be the best and most stable.

[Chris Rosenberger]

I made the dust hood. It is made out of MDF. I used 6/4 red oak for the fence faces. I have not had any problem with them warping. I have these on fence on 4 shapers.
Myself, I would never use solid surface for the shaper fence unless it was laminated to a backer of some type. MDF or plywood.

[Jeff Duncan]

Good quality fences are a joy to use, unfortunately they only seem to come on really high end machines:( If you can swing the cash and can find one, occasionally nice fences show up on e-bay. As for working with what you have if you can do some work to the fence you have to get the two faces to seat co-planer to each other you'll be much happier in the long run. You would have to track where the cast iron is out and sand,scrap,file it into a true surface again. You can joint the whole fence with the wood faces on it, but depending on where the problems are it may not stay co-planer once you start moving the faces in and out. As for wood I have 1-1/2" thick hard maple fences on mine. You want a wood that you can easily wax and that's not going to impede work sliding though. I think oak would be a bit too rough for my liking? I also see a lot of shops use good quality ply, like 1" baltic birch, and apply a laminate face to it. Should stay plenty stable and you have a hard wearing surface as well.

good luck,
JeffD

[keith micinski]

I would like to use ply wood but since I have to joint the faces to be coplanar I don't know how well that would work. The good thing is they appear to stay coplanar through being moved around. I am going to look into making something with solid surface faces and using two original incra jigs. I think that would be pretty sweet. I love my incra router fence and wish there was a way to use it so this will be the nect best thing. Although the main feature I like is the micro adjust and the plastic incra jigs don't come with that feature.

[keith micinski]

I finally got some time today and ended up making a new fence piece for my lock mitre bit. I like it much better and feel it is significantly safer then the stock fence. I will just have to make a solid piece every time I get a new cutter and then I can just bolt lt on as needed. I am going to end up with a bunch of fence pieces in the long run but it definitely seems the way to go if you keep the factory hood. I might get carried away and use an original incra jig and build my own hood someday if I ever get the time. I think about it every time I look at that shaper.

[John T Barker]

Have you considered using "disposable" fences? In the shop I worked in many years ago we would clamp a freshly milled piece of stock to what you've got there and bring the cutter up in to it. Usually used half in stock poplar...nice and cheap.

[David C. Roseman]

I finally got some time today and ended up making a new fence piece for my lock mitre bit. I like it much better and feel it is significantly safer then the stock fence. I will just have to make a solid piece every time I get a new cutter and then I can just bolt lt on as needed. I am going to end up with a bunch of fence pieces in the long run but it definitely seems the way to go if you keep the factory hood. I might get carried away and use an original incra jig and build my own hood someday if I ever get the time. I think about it every time I look at that shaper.

Keith, your shaper looks similar to the Grizzly G1026 I've had for around 25 years, so maybe my personal experience with this will help. I've done a lot with the G1026, and it's always worked beautifully for me. If zero-clearance fences are what you want, you'll need to do what you've done in your pic for your other cutters as well. But unless you're shaping some gnarly stuff, or not able to make your final pass with the grain on abutting edges of the workpiece, seems like that would be overkill. Also (you probably know this), if a cutter removes the entire bearing surface of the edge, as in a full bullnose or a full ogee, you'll need your outfeed fence to stand proud of the infeed to make up for the material removed during the pass. Either that, or use a rub collar and be careful of snipe at the finish.

It's been a few years :), but as I recall, my cast iron fence-mounting brackets, like yours, didn't square up precisely either, when I first got the machine. That can be fixed with some thin shims between the brackets and the wood fences, but I tend to be picky on these things, so I just faced them true on my stationary belt sander. If you have a belt sander, it's easy to do. The stock wooden fences are easily replaced with more robust ones, as you have already done. But I used some 4/4 curly maple, and it's remained very stable for me over the years. I've attached some pics of my setup. My fences are easily adjusted closer to each other just using the stock brackets, and that's proven sufficient for all my cutters. If I want zero clearance, it's easy to clamp auxiliary fences on temporarily with small Pony clamps.

David

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[Kevin Jenness]

Most stock shaper fences are crap. True them up all you want, then move the fence halves in and out or side to side, and the alignment goes to pot. If that were true of a Martin fence I would be disappointed, otherwise par for the course. For most machines I prefer a shop made fence with a 3/4" ply or mdf base with 2"x2" hardwood buildup trued after assembly straight and square, end flanges for a fairly tight fit to the iron table, a cutout for the largest expected cutter and a sacrificial fence for each job screwed to the 2x2's, clamped with vicegrip clamps or heavy duty F clamps. The disposable faces are typically bandsawn on the back to the cutter radius leaving 1/4" to carefully cut through for zero clearance and most of the reverse profile cut away for easy breaking through. A ply box fastened to the base and notched over the 2x2's accepts a dust collector hose. For jointer type work, add a laminate strip to the outfeed side. For dimensioning, an outboard fence with a power feed.

Eric Stephenson's "Shaper Handbook" is the best reference I am aware of. The Delta book "Getting the Most Out of Your Shaper" is also useful though quite dated and oriented toward stock Delta cutters.