How useful is a shaper with a tilting spindle

[Mike Kees]

Curious as to how much one would use this feature and exactly what it is really good for. I am still looking for a bigger shaper and have found a Minimax T50 with a tilting spindle. So wondering if that would be a good thing to have. Thoughts from those who have tilting spindles and how you use them, Mike.

[Martin Wasner]

I wish I had one. The right one just hasn't popped up yet

[Van Huskey]

Think of it like a force multiplier. While it is not useful for all tooling it can make single cutters produce multiple profiles. IE something odd like a 39.5 degree bevel doesn't require a custom cutter.

While this is Matthias' tilting router lift it still gives a visualization of how your options expand.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ois0x6l2L4

[peter gagliardi]

I currently have 2 shapers in the shop. They both tilt. Like Van suggests, they expand the capabilities of your normal cutting tool arsenal, and allow you to run difficult cuts with the stock pressed to the table, or to the fence, rather that complicated jigs being made for one-off short run type stuff.
Not needed every day, but boy is it handy when you do!

[Joe Calhoon]

I find we use tilt on the shaper a lot more than I thought we would. Here is one example of a historic moulding we made for a customer. I have posted this before. She only needed 6 lineal feet. Of course 100 feet or more would have had a knife made for the Hussey more than that would justify a moulder setup. For 6 lineal feet though this worked out using existing cutters. Labor costs were a little less than having a cutter ground and the challenge of this counts as a fun factor!

And I get to dig out cutters I haven’t used for years.

p399308
399309399310
399311
399312

399313

[Darcy Warner]

Handy as a pocket on a Tshirt

[Joe Calhoon]

A couple more examples.
angled tenons and dovetails.
399316
399317
399318
399320

[Jared Sankovich]

Wouldn't be without it.
399319

399322
399324

These were done with a rebate head and various degrees of tilt
399325

[Bill Dufour]

Adding another layer of adjustability is good but... You have to make sure it has not slipped off of 90 and you have to reset it accurately each time you move it.

[David Kumm]

I'd sawy the tilt is used about 5% in my hobby world and a router collet is a benefit with the tilt. Dave

[Rod Sheridan]

I use it a lot, used it yesterday with a saw blade to produce a bevel around 3 edges of a cabinet top........Rod.

[Mike Kees]

Thanks so much for the replies. Especially the pictures of work performed. I now want the tilting spindle in a shaper. Would a T50 Minimax with a 5h.p. motor and the sliding table on front edge be a good machine to get ? I need a shaper capable of running 1 1/4 tooling and doing all around work. Planning on building interior doors for my house and kitchen cabinets personally as well as a business. I want to do cabinet doors at least some of the time. Also any other work that I can do on my shaper in furniture making ,built-ins and custom finish work. I have gotten into a niche with a company in my area doing exterior finish work on very high end houses working with a lot of cedar. the last job we did I was in my shop building essentially raised panels to fit over top bay windows and one bow window. I really like this work.Time consuming but challenging and different.

[David Kumm]

T50 is a good medium sized machine. 1 3/4" doors would be pushing it some if your business develops. Changeover would be fairly slow if your only shaper. I'd also check the speeds. Some had a weird 4000 rpm to 7000 rpm jump in US market so your tooling must be able to run well at the relatively slow 4000 or fast 7000. I like back tilt better than front but not a deal breaker. You do want a one pass machine as multiple passes in addition to resetting fences really slows down the efficiency. Dave

[Joe Calhoon]

Another benefit of tilting shaft is you can have custom knives made to be used tilted in order to have less knife projection. Also possible to make curved crown moulding by having the knives ground for tilt. I prefer the W&H for this though.

[Martin Wasner]

Also possible to make curved crown moulding by having the knives ground for tilt.

That's the main reason I want one.

Bevels at any angle would be real useful to me as well.