Shaper operation

[Leigh Betsch]

Does anyone know of a real good book about shaper operation? I haven't used my MiniMax shaper much mostly because I'm half afraid of the thing. It looks like there is a bunch of ways to get hurt if you don't know what you're doing so I think I should learn a bit more before do to much with it.

[Brian Peters]

To be honest with you I haven't. The only ones I have seen are basic but I didn't really like the way they did certain stuff. I remember seeing one book where the guy showed doing pattern work free hand and he wasn't even using a starting pin at all. Talk about finger loss.

Shaper is nothing to be scared of though; the best way to learn is to have someone teach you. A book can't give you comfort nor physically show you what to do. All in all a shaper is quite safe, more so than a router table because most people that buy shapers and use them for production work use stock feeders which minimize risk and keep your hands away from the cutter.

A few fundamental things you should know:

always start on something hard; a fence pin bracket doesn't matter, you never set a piece of wood into the cutter bearing or not without having pressure on something else

use a fence and feeder when at all possible after setting cutters up

when you are testing a cut or checking the cut with a scrap piece or even if you are passing a real piece by hand and you need to stop and remove it from the cutter, always pull out and away. Some people react like a table saw and pull back; I can't stress enough of how dangerous that is.. I saw a guy this shop hired that supposidly had 20 years experience doing custom radius millwork and he did sloppy things like that, even pulled back on pieces when coping too

there is much more just hard to write it all here, best to find someone local that knows what they are doing that can give you a few lessons or show you the right way to operate with it; but don't be scared of the machine be confident and be smart and safe and you will find it is a great machine.

[David DeCristoforo]

This was written some years ago by a guy I know:

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesPDF.aspx?id=2170

It's not a book but it's a pretty decent article on basic shaper operation.

[michael osadchuk]

....I found Lonnie Bird's The Shaper Book, from Taunton, a more recent publication, to be more attractively laid out, colour photos, somewhat "more introductory"
....
while Roger W. Cliffe and Michael Holtz's Shaper Handbook, an older, 1990 book from Stirling Press, while not as attractive (photos are b&w), is more detailed on set-ups/jigs and covers more applications......

you probably would benefit from both, which I note are available from Amazon.com at reasonable prices

as David mentioned there are the occasional introductory articles in the woodworking magazine.... in addition to his article, FWW carried one by Lon Schlening in may/june '95

....it seems like 95% of the wood forum posts on shapers are repeats of 'what is the difference between a shaper and a router'; occasionally there is a how to posting on specific application such as milling flooring, etc. ...... and there is help on the forums if you have a specific application or procedure sequence question to brainstorm...

good luck

michael

[William Addison]

The books I've read on using a shaper are so lacking in details as to be useless. As long as you're using a fence and cutters they aren't as dangerous as their reputatuion indicates. When you start using knives and working on a bearing they can be pretty hairy. For a lot of the work I do I don't use a starter pin because my jigs are constructed to allow me to "capture" the bearing before moving the stock into the cutter and to ramp the stock away from the cutter at the end of the cut. They are wonderful machines but without a feeder you only have half of what you need.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

I bought the Shaper Handbook (1990) when I was considering getting a shaper. However, I could not justify a shaper for hobby work. Besides, there was an explosion at that time regarding large table mounted routers with torque control, and huge router bits sporting a 1/2" collets.

However, one fact that was driven home in the book was that a powerfeeder is very important for safety and smoothness of cut. A second point was to always keep the shaper cutter covered with a guard.

-Jeff :)

[Marlin Williams]

After I got my 3hp Grizzly Shaper I got the "The Shaper Book" by Lonnie Bird. It is pretty good and i think a great starter book. It covers the basics and is very heavy on safety as well. I would not say it is for soemone that has a decent amount of exp on a shaper but for me a new to shaper guy I liked it.

You can look at some of the inside pages at amazon here...

http://www.amazon.com/Shaper-Book-Lonnie-Bird/dp/1561581208

[Jay Brewer]

Shapers can be intimidating. Once you get used to it, it will be the most versatile tool in your shop. I own 4 now and they get used almost everyday. The only way to be truly safe with a shaper is a POWER FEEDER. With a feeder in front of the cutter, the machine is alot less intimidating. Yes you can hand feed boards but all it takes is one slip or one hidden knot and the piece could go flying with your hand still pushing towards the cutter. The feeder acts as your hands and the cutter guard.

Shapers can also be more involved to set up than most other tools, there are alot of adjustments and lock down points. I go through a mental checklist everytime I change setups. It goes pretty quick once you get used to it.

Is the cutter bolted down tight
Height and fence positions correct and locked down tight
Shaper running in the right direction and the correct speed
Feeder running in the right direction and the correct speed
All the feeder adjustments tight ( there are alot of these )

There are alot more but these are the basics. A height gauge of some sorts ( I have a wixey ) will help with your height setups, just write them down in a notebook. Rub collars will help with your fence setup. Every cutter I have has a rub collar to go with it. With these two items, setting the cutters are easy, without alot of test cuts. Hope this helps

[Charlie Plesums]

Lessons learned on my MiniMax shaper "from the school of hard knocks"

Be sure you use a low enough speed. If your MiniMax shaper is like mine, there are four possible opening sizes and four speeds. If the cutter fits through the smallest opening, use the highest speed. If you have to remove a second ring, drop the speed one step, etc. If it sounds like a jet engine starting, you are going too fast.

Until you are comfortable with the shaper, use the fence, with the hold down, hold in springs (the metal equivalent of feather boards), with the opening in the fence as narrow as possible. I set the hold-in spring about 1/2 inch above the table so I can use my saw push block to push the work through, and provide additional holding agains the fence - that push block is about 1/2 inch thick.

Don't even think of shaping a thin board lengthwise. The small board is difficult to control and a 5 hp driven cutter can fire that board like a spear. DAMHIK

If you use a follow board to prevent tear out, use a wide board (I use scraps of plywood now.) With my router table, I would often use a small scrap. The shaper is powerful enough to pull the small board into the opening in the fence, beside the cutter, and out the dust collection port at the back, through the hose. DAMHIK

Those two cases are scary, but they are easily avoided. Both involve small pieces of wood - not generally good around a big shaper cutter.

I have a router collet on one of my shaper spindles, and no longer have a router table. I have no problem using the shaper with bearing guided router bits. I also have bearing guided shaper cutters (with 3 inch diameter bearings). Once you are comfortable with the machine, those large cutters with large bearings work REALLY well.

Initially I thought I would only use the shaper on my combo machine as a substitute for the router table that I no longer have room for in my shop. As I have gotten used to the shaper, and gotten better cutters, I now am thinking of getting a separate second shaper... I find it that useful.

I do have a power feeder, but I rarely use it. The constant pressure and constant feed rate help the quality, but on the combo it is a nuisance to set up, so I don't use it for short runs. The power feeder is nice but isn't a requirement to safely use the shaper.

[Rod Sheridan]

This was written some years ago by a guy I know:

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesPDF.aspx?id=2170

It's not a book but it's a pretty decent article on basic shaper operation.


Hmmmmm, DeCristoforo, the name's vaugely familiar, just can't place it right now.......

Nice article, thanks for posting the link.......Rod.

[Leigh Betsch]

Thanks a bunch. I do have a power feeder, Maggi 4 wheeler, that I bought along with the saw/shaper combo. And Charlie thanks for the heads up on the small stock pit falls and RPM advice. I'll look up the books that others have mentioned and I will re-subscribe the FWW on-line to read Dave's article. Most of the time I feel I can rely on my machinist/engineering back ground to understand almost any machine but this time I really think asking for help (a book or perhaps a class) is prudent. I like my fingers just like they are. I've had a saw kick back with a vengeance (hole thru the wall) and I don't even what to be around if a 12000 rpm 5" cutter grabs a board and slings it off the table.

[Peter Quinn]

If you are spinning a 5" cutter at 12K RPM's, you already have a problem. Way too fast.

The Lonnie Bird book is good actually, very useful info. Problem is until I was shown how to use a shaper by professionals I did not fully understand what he was trying to tell me in those pages. If there is any way you can find a mentor in your area, or befriend a cabinet maker at a local shop and get him to let you observe the proper set up and use of a shaper it would be an invaluable experience. There is not tool I can think of that has less patience for the inexperienced user period. I broke a set of cutters once with an improper fence set up coping, got a piece jambed between the fence and cutter, sent pieces of cutter flying about the shop, not cute. My boss is several fingers short of ten from making a curved casing that went badly.

It is a great tool worth learning and can be used safely but its use and rules are not all completely obvious. Proceed with caution, ask questions, start simple and move forward. It is not a big router, and not every technique that works on a router table is applicable to the shaper. Lucily there are numerous shaper users here on the creek, so please ask specific questions as often as needed and read Mr. D's article directly.

Good luck and be safe.

[J.R. Rutter]

Lots of good advice here already. I'll just add that you should be ready and willing to make custom fences for specific tasks, even if you just clamp them over the stock fence. Proper support makes all the difference.