How big of a power feeder...

[John Grossbohlin]

... for climb cutting on a 3 HP shaper? I tried searching the site but didn't see this addressed... might have missed it!

I want to run 3/4" x 4" ash through T&G flooring cutters to make about 1,500 sq feet of flooring. I'd think the cuts are relatively light. I plan on a slow feed rate and I'm thinking a 1/4 HP power feeder is enough for this. Based on your experience, do I need more weight and power for a task like this? That size power feeder is all I'd ever need for the type of hobby work I hope to do in the future... especially considering that I seldom do any "production" type work. It's far more likely to be a one off project with hand cut joinery.

[William Addison]

I use a 1/2 hp comatic and it’s done everything I’ve ever asked including some upper medium sized profiles that were larger than wanted to put through a 3 hp shaper with no problem. Not sure why you want to climb cut t&g but I don’t think it will be a problem at all. The climb cutting I’ve done with a feeder was just like cutting normally. I think you’ll be fine.

[John Grossbohlin]

Not sure why you want to climb cut t&g but I don’t think it will be a problem at all. The climb cutting I’ve done with a feeder was just like cutting normally. I think you’ll be fine.

The climb cutting is plan B... In working with the ash I'm seeing some splintering. If it proves to be minor, or only on random boards, I'll cut in the normal matter. However, I want to be prepared to climb cut if the splintering proves to be problematic...

From talking to some friends and family who own commercial shops, and your comments, I'm sure a 1/2 hp would work fine. I don't have a reference to determine if a 1/4 hp would...

I felled some of the ash trees myself (biggest was 30" DBH) and sawed some with an Alaskan chainsaw mill (the logs were inaccessible and there was no way to get a bandsaw mill to them). Making the flooring will be a filler job as I work on a complete house renovation (complete gut job inside and out) that is about 3/4 done. The new floors will be about the last task in the project. If all goes well I'll have the flooring done before I need another new roof or cannot do the work any more.

[Mark Bolton]

If you dont want waste the climb cutting is wise in that you will eliminate any and all catches and tearout that will blow out an entire tongue or the face edges of a groove. Conventional cutting will 100% of the time result in a bit of cull when you hit board where you will simply blow the entire edge off the board.

Feeder size is just up to you. Climb or conventional is really irrelevant, but if your spending any money I would always opt for power/stout because the instant you start running material with a feeder you will use it everywhere and on other machines so spending a bit more at the onset is always wise.

Buy the biggest and stout-est you can afford and you will never look back.

PS for the climb cutting build yourself a little DC stand with a scooped out boot you can nest around the outfeed side of the board because your DC will not grab the bulk of the chips and you'll have piles on the floor. Stick a Y n the line and run one leg to your shaper fence and the other to the boot. There will still be uncaught material on the floor but far less and far less in your lungs.

[John Grossbohlin]

Buy the biggest and stout-est you can afford and you will never look back.

PS for the climb cutting build yourself a little DC stand with a scooped out boot you can nest around the infeed side of the board because your DC will not grab the bulk of the chips and you'll have piles on the floor. Stick a Y n the line and run one leg to your shaper fence and the other to the boot. There will still be uncaught material on the floor but far less and far less in your lungs.

I understand big... I ended up with pretty big stuff in my home shop after I quickly found I simply couldn't do what I wanted to do with smaller stuff... Now I have a Jet 3 HP cabinet saw, 18" Jet and 36" Crescent bandsaws, 8" DJ-20 jointer, 3 HP shaper, etc. Up until the flooring and trim for the house I never felt the need for a power feeder. What pushed me is the trim and flooring will require a lot of ripping... and the flooring will go through the shaper (and molder for back relief cuts). The trim and baseboards will go through the molder too.

I have a dust box thing for the shaper but the flooring will likely demand a dedicated design for efficiency. Not a problem...

[Bobby Robbinett]

I understand big... I ended up with pretty big stuff in my home shop after I quickly found I simply couldn't do what I wanted to do with smaller stuff... Now I have a Jet 3 HP cabinet saw, 18" Jet and 36" Crescent bandsaws, 8" DJ-20 jointer, 3 HP shaper, etc. Up until the flooring and trim for the house I never felt the need for a power feeder. What pushed me is the trim and flooring will require a lot of ripping... and the flooring will go through the shaper (and molder for back relief cuts). The trim and baseboards will go through the molder too.

I have a dust box thing for the shaper but the flooring will likely demand a dedicated design for efficiency. Not a problem...

If it were me I would doing for a 1HP unit with 4 wheels. A feeder like that will never need upgraded for any task future or present. You can get a Grizz like this for around $1,324

[Alex Zeller]

I've only used 1hp feeders so I don't have a lot of experience with the small ones. I did just get a 1/8 hp one given to me but I've yet to use it. It seams like once you jump up above 1/4 hp the price kind of gets blurred. There's not much difference in price between a 1/2 hp and a 1 hp (assuming you are going to buy one of the Co-Matic variants sold. If you are going to buy one then I would buy one with the idea that it will be the last one you will ever buy.

I personally like the DC powerfeeder with the variable speed control. I'm unlikely to take the time to change the speed on a powerfeeder. But with the DC style it's a knob. I was kind of hoping Grizzly would offer the 4 roll feeder (since they have the best price I've seen on the C-Matic 3 wheel DC feeder).

[Mark Bolton]

I understand big... I ended up with pretty big stuff in my home shop after I quickly found I simply couldn't do what I wanted to do with smaller stuff... Now I have a Jet 3 HP cabinet saw, 18" Jet and 36" Crescent bandsaws, 8" DJ-20 jointer, 3 HP shaper, etc. Up until the flooring and trim for the house I never felt the need for a power feeder. What pushed me is the trim and flooring will require a lot of ripping... and the flooring will go through the shaper (and molder for back relief cuts). The trim and baseboards will go through the molder too.

I have a dust box thing for the shaper but the flooring will likely demand a dedicated design for efficiency. Not a problem...

I would simply opt for a 1Hp feeder if you can swing it if your talking about ripping and so on. The instant you set it up you will wonder why you didnt do it to begin with. Ripping becomes insanely fast, clean, smooth cuts, and your tooling will last far longer.

Im not sure what type of a dedicated setup you mean for the flooring. We run T&G occasionally on a 5hp shaper that has a comatic DC40 on it but use to always run it with a 1HP (pf31) that now stays on a slider for ripping. Always just ran it with a back fence, face down, pretty straight forward unless we were doing random width (just more setups).

Good you have a portable dust chute for the shaper, climb cutting about 30% of the chips never have a chance of making it into the DC hood.

[Jared Sankovich]

The 1/2hp comatic /grizzly feeders will do what you want, but for the same price the dc30 (or grizzly branded version) will be far better.

I actually really like the af308 (griz 1/2hp feeder) for how easily it goes from horizontal to vertical. Its the same 45 degree knuckle as the dc30/40 feeders. None of the current available 1hp feeders have that functionality.

Also you didnt ask or mention but run the flooring through the shaper off a back/outboard fence.

[William Hodge]

Flooring being long, you might be better off with a heavier feeder.
I use a heavy duty feeder for raised panels, long wood, and big moldings.

Pretty much if I can push the work over the machine by hand, a baby feeder from Delta works fine. I normally run the baby feeder on a 5hp 3 phase shaper, or a 3 hp 3 phase table saw with a dado blade making 3/8" x 1/2" rabbets.

Wax the table with paraffin blocks, and clean the wheels with 91% rubbing alcohol. With oily wood, the table might need to get waxed every few pieces, and the wheels cleaned every half hour.

[Mike Kees]

My feeders are both Comatic 1 h.p. models one is four wheel and one is three wheel. So I can not offer any opinions on smaller ones as I have never used one. I ended up with the first one in a package deal (3 wheel) and mounted it on my 3 h.p. shaper. It works great,I would never want to be without a feeder again. My saw is next.

[John Grossbohlin]

Also you didnt ask or mention but run the flooring through the shaper off a back/outboard fence.

That is the plan... to finalize the width with the tongue cutter.

[John Grossbohlin]

Flooring being long, you might be better off with a heavier feeder.
I use a heavy duty feeder for raised panels, long wood, and big moldings.

Pretty much if I can push the work over the machine by hand, a baby feeder from Delta works fine. I normally run the baby feeder on a 5hp 3 phase shaper, or a 3 hp 3 phase table saw with a dado blade making 3/8" x 1/2" rabbets.

Wax the table with paraffin blocks, and clean the wheels with 91% rubbing alcohol. With oily wood, the table might need to get waxed every few pieces, and the wheels cleaned every half hour.

I’ll be using ash and poplar for the flooring and trim... “dry” wood that will be relatively small and light by the time it reaches the shaper. The boards I’m starting with (20-30” wide flitch sawn and 6-11 feet long) will be straight line ripped and major defects removed before it hits the table saw. From my proof of concept work it is all hand feedable by the time it hits the table saw and shaper. However, due to volume and cut quality a shaper is desired.

[Jared Sankovich]

clean the wheels with 91% rubbing alcohol. With oily wood, the table might need to get waxed every few pieces, and the wheels cleaned every half hour.

Or just buy western roller wheels.

[Mark Bolton]

There is no way in the world you can hand feed flooring other than perhaps blank prep. unless your going hard core rustic. The end result would be a disaster.