T&G flooring with Woodmaster or shaper?

[James Suzda]

If you were going to make T&G flooring and had access to both a Woodmaster and a shaper, but no T&G cutters for either, which machine would you use? Or would you use both machines to mill the tongue and grooves?
Has anyone successfully made oak flooring with either of these machines and if you used a Woodmaster how did you mill the ends of the boards?

[Peter Quinn]

For several years I worked in a custom flooring mill, typically running 125K lineal feet of flooring per week. Its my experience that unless you truly enjoy making flooring or want to control the process to achieve a particular exact result it is typically more cost effective to have the flooring made commercially. I don't say this to discourage you, just my experience.

Never used a wood master but have seen an under table router set up applied to them to mill the tongues and grooves, looks tricky. I would use both tools. Woodmaster is better for face cuts like the relief cuts on the backs of the boards. Shaper works better for the end grain cuts i.e.: the tongues and grooves.

Begin by planing to thickness, rip or joint one edge straight, rip the other edge parallel, make relief cuts on the back (I highly recommend this, though some say it is unnecessary). The boards don't need to be flattened, and the edges don't need to be jointed square. The show face may be sanded if v-edge flooring will be made, but otherwise sanding is unnecessary.

I would make the edge profiles with a cutter set made for flooring, as these cuts are slightly different than t&g made for joinery. There is typically a slight back bevel on one side of the joint allowing the face of the boards to meet tightly without gaps during installation, and the tongues need to be milled a few thousands under sized to provide good alignment without binding (this is not a glue joint!). Also the tongues are typically rounded or chamfered and at least 1/32" shallower than the grooves. Look at examples of commercial flooring carefully before proceeding to understand the geometry involved.

Usually I'd mill the grooves first on a shaper using a regular fence. Prepared the stock 1/8" over final width including the tongue. Set the infeed fence back 1/16" to insure a full cut and run all grooves. Run the tongues next, using a back fence set to take a 1/16" deep cut. A back fence insures that the finished width is consistent. A power feed is essential for accuracy and safety, as is good chip extraction. Make sure to keep your tables well lubricated with wax or boeshield throughout the process.

Hope this helps.

[Brad Shipton]

Think it through carefully. I am about to start my third batch and have learned a great deal. Only recently did I bump into Peter and will be modifying how i do the next batches. My last run of 300bd ft on a shaper was 20hr labor and led to 5-45gal pales of saw dust to go from 4/4 to 3/4" ready to install. The woodmaster seems only useful for the thicknessing part and relief cuts as I do not believe a router will hold up very well to milling large quantities. LRH Enterprises does make a set for the router that has the nail notch and I believe it also has the back cut below the tongue. Last run I turned on the shaper on and ran it for 3hrs at 30fpm. Try that with a router and see if you can pick it up when you are done.

I suspect you are aiming for a wide stock in long lengths so keep in mind the straightness Peter is speaking of. Wide stock does not flex easily whereas the narrow 2" stock sold by many does. I straight edged my 5" wide stock carefully (longest pieces are 9ft) and had fences in place to hold the stock as the power feeder pushed it through the shaper, and I still ended up with some narrow (1/32" gaps) in some locations.

Oak is a good choice for hobbiest equipment. I used Jatoba and learned the difficulty working with it. Buy FAS or #1 if you want wide long stock.

End matching with the Woodmaster is not possible. You can read the discussions on the need for end matching on the Woodweb. Many say it is not necessary. I end matched mine easily with the shaper.

By the way, it does look much better in place with long wide pieces that do not have the microbevel.

my two bits.