Difference between router and table, and shaper?

[Adam Grund]

Hey all,
I'm pretty new to woodworking, only really getting shown my first taste in interest this past year while trying to do a few kitchen upgrades.
I think I would like to dabble in fine woodworking I guess you would call it, with my major end goal being one day to make my own set of presentable kitchen cabinets. And I'm sure if I can get the hang of it, it'll blow up into a full blown hobby with many different projects.

Anyways, enough rambling. My main question is what is the difference between a router and a table, and a shaper? With a level playing field on power- say 3hp just for example- what makes these two so different that both machines exist? I know a shaper is a fixed machine? With a larger arbor and different bits- but that's about the extent of my knowledge.

Thanks!
Adam

[Mark Wooden]

For starters, a 3hp router has nowhere near the power and torque of a 3hp shaper. Shapers, in general, can handle larger, heavier cuts, to make mouldings, raised panels and milling operations. They generally take bigger and usually more expensive tooling- think cutters, not bits- than a router.
Routers are more ubiquitous, much less expensive to purchase and tool up and have a slightly less steep learning curve. It's said you can do anything a shaper can do with a router, but there are many caveats and limits to that statement.
If you're just getting started, a good heavy duty router, with a table with a fence to put it in and a good edge guide, is a great place to start.

[Mark Bolton]

Marks info is spot on. To work effectively shapers require large tooling and operate at much lower RPMs than a router. The way the router overcomes its small size is with very high RPMs. You will often see shapers offered with router collets but there are very few small diameter router bits that will perform even minimally in a shaper rotating at 10,000 rpms.

A shaper is a tool where to even get moderately "tooled up" to work, you will have 5X the cost of the shaper in tooling an accessories and you'll still be just moderately tooled up. An average import shaper at 3K new, a feeder at 1500 new, tooling to the tune of a couple hundred on average minimum per profile new. And so on. Our cope and stick insert tooling for cabinet doors was about 1500 bucks for the heads, knives, and rub collars initially. A top of the line feeder for a shaper will run 2500.00.

Where as a router table, even better if equipped with a feeder, will often times do all that a small shop needs for a good long while and your looking at tooling in the 20-50-100 dollar range per profile on average.

[Ted Derryberry]

For what you're doing a router table is the way to go. I got by with one for years and have built dozens of passage doors with it. I just upgraded to a shaper but I'm not getting rid of the router table by any means. As mentioned above the cost of shaper cutters is high compared to router bits and if I needed a new profile for one job, I'd get router bits and do it that way. If I had a contract for multiple units I'd invest in the shaper tooling. With cabinet doors, vs. passage doors, the router table makes even more sense as the cuts are typically not as heavy and the bits are even more affordable since they're smaller.

If you needed a single profile you might get a relatively inexpensive shaper and cutters for less than the cost of a router table. If you want several profiles, plus "standard" bits like roundovers, coves, ogee, etc. You can get a nice router table and a lot of bits cheaper than a shaper and cutters.

[Cary Falk]

A person can get by wit a router table for quite a while. I made my table and put in a Hitachi M12V 3hp router in it. I have since upgraded to a shaper and have not touched the router table since. Shapers are expensive to get one with a decent fence. I believe a shaper lives and dies by it's fence. Accessories don't have to be really expensive. I have $300 in my used feeder. I got a Freud insert raised panel cutter on E-bay for the price of sharpening the carbide inserts. I also have a Euro head with the 40 and 50mm insert knives which are about $20 a pop. Grizzly sells reasonable carbide cutters that are fine for hobbiest for not much more than the corresponding router bit. I have some cutters that I got for free once I bought a shaper and cutters then parted everything out and kept some cutters fro myself. Used carbide shaper cutters can be sharpened like saw blades.

[Adam Grund]

Thanks, all the above info answers my question in full. I was not aware of the lower rpm of the shaper- so that was new. Cost of machine and cost of tooling- I had saw how expensive they were. I have no doubt router and table are the way to go, at least for now, I was just curious as to the difference.
I have collected a few tools so far, the newest being a cmt/ sommerfield router table/cabinet with a frued ft2000 router already mounted, and a dewalt dw618 router kit with the 3 bases. Found a good deal used. After shuffling around appliances and cabinets, I need to build 2 wall cabinets- so that'll be my introduction. The cabinets that are in the house were more than likely economy grade for their era (found a date sticker of '94 on one of them) and they look very outdated and low end for today's standard- so I'm not too worried about not being perfect.
I had an experienced family friend help me build my drawer boxes and I installed Blum soft close undermount hinges, I thought I'd try to tackle the cabs myself and see what trouble I run in to

[John McClanahan]

For me, pricing shaper cutters told me I don't need a shaper......yet.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi, I'll provide the contrary view point.

I'm a hobby user who doesn't own a router however I've always had a shaper.

The shaper is more accurate, powerful, quieter, has better dust collection and can have a sliding table and tilting spindle.

The shaper makes profiles in one pass, and has a better cut quality and greater accuracy, and the large diameter cutters provide a superior surface finish.

A Euroblock 40mm head with high speed steel knives produces a finish in solid wood that no router can approach. The cost of the head is about $150, knives are $30 a pair, far less expensive than larger router bits.

Shapers also have the ability to run with reverse spindle rotation, this allows you to flip a profile cutter over and always cut with the grain, something a router can't do.

In addition shapers can run with cutter rotation the same direction as feed rate when using a stock feeder. This is called synchronous or climb cutting and can eliminate chip out in difficult wood.

Shapers can also run with outboard fences to profile and dimension in one pass.

Tenoning on a shaper with a sliding table is ideal, the shaper is capable of deep tenons, (mine will cut 75mm long tenons), and with proper tooling both sides of the tenon can be cut simultaneously.

Shapers also have much better fences and guarding, such as Shaw guards. Shapers are built for edge treatments, they groove and rebate far better, with better accuracy and safety than other machines. In addition shapers have proper guards and power feeders for these operations.

The above is merely the slimmest description of the work that shapers are capable of.

I suggest you watch this rather long video for the shaper segments in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eV8A3XK3R0I&t=3842s

Regards, Rod.

[Mike Cutler]

Adam
You've got a lot of good advice, no doubt, but I'm with Rod, a shaper does everything a router does in a table, and more.
You're not tooling up to run business, so you can be pretty selective about your cutter heads. A production shop's needs are different than yours. You can get by with a few selective, lower cost cutter heads, simply because you may not ever run as many linear feet in a home shop, as they will run in a week.
As far as $$$$ spent, used shapers are available all day long, and they're relatively cheap. A 3hp Delta will be between $500 to a grand, depending on what it comes with.
Speed in rpm is one way to look at things, but the speed at the outside edge of a 3" diameter cutter is plenty fast enough to yield a smooth cut.
One thing a shaper does that a router table cannot, is reverse direction. This can be pretty important depending on grain orientation.
I have a shaper and a nice router table, but I'd give up the router table first.
No matter which way you go, a quality fence is critical.��

[Bill Adamsen]

Folks have provided many ways of differentiating the router and shaper, tenoning and climb cutting are key differentiators..

In addition, note that many shaper operations are run with a power feed (much safer) and in fact, unless the heads are rated for manual feed (MAN) they must be run with a power feed. Yes they are versatile machines but there are many operations a router can perform (dovetails, boxjoints) that simply aren't available on a shaper. But as someone mentioned, the cost for these larger and more substantial heads and knives as well as power feeds are not trivial.

Btw - my shaper (Knapp) has a high speed router attachment (23,000rpm) that I do use sometimes.

[Mike Hollingsworth]

Shaper for big cuts.
Router for little cuts.

[marty fretheim]

Like Bill, I have a router spindle for my shaper. My shaper cutters cost $250 or more. My router bits, about $25 or less. The router spindle cost about $700 but the shaper fence is better than any router fence I've ever seen (Felder). Mine spins at 16000 rpm and never had any issues with even the smallest bits. If you can find a shaper that will spin router bits fast enough, that would be my advice. I agree with the others that shapers have a lot of advantages, but sometimes you need a router.

[Mark Bolton]

Hi, I'll provide the contrary view point.
Rod.

This is all true but the real info is that if buying new the investment in a shaper, feeder, and separate cutters from those that can be run hand held in router that most every hobby shop has makes the shaper (and it's tooling) unique to the shaper. The functionality and performance of the shaper is unbeatable but most small hobby in shops will take far more advantage of a feeder equipped router table that can still run back fence operations.and is only limited by reverse rotation.

[julian abram]

Production shop= Shaper
Home shop = Router table mounted

Yes, this is a generalization which means it is not always true, but generally speaking shops will fall along these categories based on cost and materials being machined.

[Ted Derryberry]

A shaper that can do everything Rod describes is not a cheap shaper. Reversible tilting spindle with a power feeder is going to cost double what a top of the line router table with a lift, motor and all the accessories cost, then you have to buy the tooling. Going back to the original post, a shaper doesn't make sense for a one off project of some kitchen cabinets that "might" turn into a hobby.