Shaper

[Nathan Hoffman]

I am looking at setting up my own shop, and I'm interested in getting some opinoins about shapers. It seems to me that a good shaper could be used for typical router table tasks as well as instead of a jointer where space and $$ are limited. I already have a small handheld router, but no table and no jointer. I am going to be trimming out my own house, and I have some honey locust wood that I want to make into flooring. Any recommendations? Thanks!

[Eric Apple - Central IN]

You could use a good fence and make the shaper into an edge jointer. But, you can't face joint many usefull sizes of stock for woodworking use.

The shaper is a better tool then a router table for milling large profiles and would be a good choice to run T&G flooring. A great way to justify the expense. It does however carry bagage of limited availability and more expensive profiles then a router. For your average projects, the router table is used more often. If your looking to save $$ go with the router & table. For general wood working go with the router & table. For hogging out deep profiles often and quickly, go with the shaper. If a router can't cut the profiles you want unless you change bits 6 times and repostion the fence 12, go with the shaper.

You will find that you still need a regular jointer with either. Many people get by using a thickness planer and sled for a while before finally saving up for a jointer.

Finally, many people sware by hand tools. Your edge jointer could be people powered.