You can buy a cheaper shaper with the capacity to take router bits these days. The cost is almost the same as buying a high end router table and a good router. So why not go with the shaper? What makes a router table better?? Having never had either Idon’t know the differences.
Cheers
MItt
Replies
A router is an easy tool to buy, it fits on little shelf space and pretty handy. However if you own one you shortly find that if you had a more stable base you can do more with it. so most try to "build" themselves a base and use that. Well the results are most often poor. awkward to get at and adjust etc. which leads to the next size boat , em tool....
A professionally built one. which as you noticed is very close to the price of a shaper.
the trouble with shapers is the next size boat theory, what you have shrinks when you have it untill...wouldn't it be nice to.....so you buy the next size boat, em tool, a bigger shaper and then you really can.......
I'm not imune to that law, I bought a Jet shaper and then found out that for little more than the price of the jet 1 hp I could have gotten the three horsepower Grizzly.
now my Jet is for sale.. Oh, and I still have both of my routers in case you're interested......the most expensive tool you own is the too small starter tool.
OK! So you have tried both a shaper and a router. Does the shaper do everything you need, plus more? OR is it just a good Idea that didn't really work out?
I like the shaper so well that I want a bigger one. I've tried the router table and it's like a bench top table saw. you can do a lot with it, but not very well, or at least not a well as a machine designed for the task does.
There are some jobs where you just need a hand held router. Nothing else will work as well..(AWWW shut! up you ludites who do everything by hand :) ,) but as a compromise the router table is like kissing your sister, not very satisfying.
Unless its your step sister who you married before your mom married her dad. LOL... Steve - in Northern California
Steve,
I really hadn't given too much thought to going to family reunions to look for a date so I guess i wasn't aware of that clause in the rules...
Thanks for the information :)
Whoops slipped again.. dang I've been on the floor a lot today... This is good. I woke up this morning to a phone call from my mom asking me to change a tire on her house.. Then I mowed the lawn and had to call a wrecker to haul off all of the cars. But what topped it off was when I walked the kid to school this morning, I found out we had the same teacher. That wouldnt have been so bad but we were still in the same grade and the kid was graduating..... Gonna miss that kid.Steve - in Northern California
Well Frenchy, I kiss my sisters every chance I get.
I use both shapers and a router table. The difference to me is how much wood has to be removed. And maybe how much material I have to hold onto. I would not consider raising panels with a router. Nor would I care to put a little cove on a box lid with a shaper.
Also, for light or one time use, it's a lot more fun buying a router bit than shaper cutters. Don't you think?
Helen
I swore I'd never have a shaper in my shop because they look too darn dangerous and I make my living with my hands. I got conned into buying one used (really a great price). Once I got it I looked into the price of cutters.
I never turned it on. I gave/lent indefinitely it to a friend of mine who is a professional cabinet maker with the understanding he would cut my mouldings for me on short notice if I brought him the wood. Now he has two shapers and the necessary power feeders.
A shaper is probably a good idea for some people- not for me.
Frank
Frank, I admire your caution. And you probably set yourself up in the best possible deal.
I was thoroughly intimidated by my Pm. AND once I was coping the end of a mullion, using a sliding guide, when it grabbed the stock. In half a blink the piece, with my hands attached, flew toward the cutter. It was only luck that the end bottomed out on a dust collection fitting I had made for the back of the fence. This stopped the mullion from going in any further, stalled the motor, and saved me. I like to make this story sound even more horrible. If the thing had got me, I probably would not have been able to pull my arm out of the cutter. Being alone, that would have killed me.
Since then, I've never allowed myself the slightest chance of that kind of accident. All my fences are made with steel flats that can never allow the work to get drawn in. And I make cute little shrouds that cover the cutters. So now I can't get my hands close to or even see them with the fence in place.
Shapers are made to handle a lot of stock and working with them can become monotonous. That leads to slips. It's a lot more fun using them since I've made them very safe.
Helen
Edited 4/12/2002 8:11:43 AM ET by hwells
I went round and round with this for a couple years. I am a hobbyist but I do a large amount of paying jobs as well. I have enough demand that I could migrate into this full time but I don't because then my relaxing hobby would turn into just another job...
I have a large router table, I thought I wanted a shaper but my shop is just too small to hold both. Ultimately I decided that for my application the router table is better suited to my needs. It's more versatile, the cutters are less expensive, and I can do everything with it that I could have done with a shaper, the router just won't make raised panels all day long, but I don't do runs of more that 10 doors or so at a time so that is really not an issue.
After I FINALLY made up my mind to keep the router table, I upgraded it by making a new top and fence, then added a BenchDog Prolift with a new PC 7518 router, and I gotta tell ya, I'm in love all over again.
Sombody somewhere has a web site with a comparison of the 2, hopefully someone has it bookmarked and can post it here for you. The good and bad thing about this question is that you're going to get opinions BOTH ways, so ultimately you have to weigh your needs and make your own decision...
Steve Hoffman
Good response Steve. How do you like free handing with that 7518... It's a monster. I have one also, it stays in the table. I dont have a lift yet but I am considering one. Like you I can't justify the shaper nor do I have the space for it. I'm sure if I were to step it up a notch or two I would be pressed into buying one but for now, my home made router table does me just fine. I also have a 2hp PC plunge and a 15amp Bosch plunge. The Bosch was a trade for some computer work. I really don't need two plunges but hey, what the heck, Norm has 20+.
I would think that the biggest advantage to a shaper is that it is a permanent fixture that is designed to be a shaper from the get go. The router was also originally designed to be a shaper but it orginated out of the need for portablility. In some ways I guess a rough comparison would be the differences to the likes of the skill saw and a table saw, with the router table sitting somewhere in the middle.
Steve - in Northern California
“You can buy a cheaper shaper with the capacity to take router bits these days. The cost is almost the same as buying a high end router table and a good router. So why not go with the shaper?
Router bits are 2 cutter, shaper bits are 3 cutter; shapers run at a slower rpm and the router bit will not give as smooth a finish on a shaper. Also, what sort of setup time does it take to add the router collet to the shaper?
“ OK! So you have tried both a shaper and a router. Does the shaper do everything you need, plus more? OR is it just a good Idea that didn't really work out?”
I dunno, I have a shaper for some things and a benchtop router table for others, nevermind several different router templates. I like the benchtop rt because I often need to bring it to a jobsite, and the setup time is faster than the shaper when doing several different cuts for the same project. I also have a hell of a lot more router bits than shaper cutters because of the price and the fact that they can go where I go.
A good router table will do just about everything you need to do, and there seem to be no end of good designs/plans on the net for you to compare. Maybe someday I will make a good router table for the shop, or build one into a wing on the table saw. So do you “need” a shaper? I think for most people the answer is probably not. I think even if you decide to go with "one" shaper, you will still tend to collect several routers and accessories.
I have both a shaper and a router table and the shaper is never used (come to think of it I don't even know were it is). I find that a good router with a well built router table are far more versatile machine than the shaper. But then the work that I do does not require the bigger bits and power that the shaper offer.Scott C. Frankland
Newfoundland Wood Worker
I have used a 3hp shaper for about 5 years or so now, always with a power feed when ever I can, and I use it weekly, sometimes daily. If you are ever in a situation where you need ALOT of material cut well and quickly, I suggest you look into the shaper.
I have been running router bits with moulding profiles in the shaper since about the day I bought it. They do ok butttttt....... Router bits love high speed, not the 10K max speed of a shaper. I finally got around to mounting a 3hp Speedmatic into a wing on another shaper so I can use the power feed and using the powerfeed, the shaper fence with the router is a lot faster and more effecient than using the router bits in the shaper. However, if I were to be running hundreds of feet of moulding through the router like I did today, I would have to stand in favor of the shaper for the actual motor to stand up to the strain.
Another thing is the heft. While you can have a really good router set up, try running 14' 2x6 through it and hope the mass doesn't cause prolems. With the hundreds of pounds the shaper is, you aren't going to have such fears. This is the reason I mounted the router in the extra wing in the shaper.
If you can afford it, get both because both are different animals with some crossover but neither can do it all.
Douglas Vincent
Do I hear an echo... Well said.Steve - in Northern California
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