Shopsmith Forums

Lot of good advice here and I will add my experience to the pile. I have both shaper cutters and router bits to cut cope and stiles for floating panels. I have a set of shaper cutters from SS, as well as another maker to use on my stand alone shaper or on my SS 500 in shaper mode. Having used both router and shaper, I prefer using the shaper mode for cutting stiles and rails. I have never used my biscuit joiner to join stiles and rails but agree with some of the other commentators that cutting a groove for the panel to float in is less labor then mounting one with molding to hold it. I have cut a lot of board feet of stiles and rails to include doing whole rooms in what is known as "Old English Paneling". IMHO once you learn and equip your tools to make floating panels you will use it more than you think. I have paneled rooms, made cabinets, clocks, even small boxes with this method. It is an essential woodworking technique to deal with wood movement, ancient in its development. My advice, take the plunge and buy a set of shaper or router cutters. You will not regret the expenditure.

Interesting comments. I don't know why but somewhere I had picked up that the shaper function on the Mark V was not very good. Maybe I am going the wrong direction. I will go back and look at some videos and see what the process looks like.

I am planning an eventual upgrade to power pro but right know my 510 is my limits. Somewhere I got the idea that the shaper function was not the best.

Live and learn.

mgbbob wrote:Interesting comments. I don't know why but somewhere I had picked up that the shaper function on the Mark V was not very good. Maybe I am going the wrong direction. I will go back and look at some videos and see what the process looks like.

I am planning an eventual upgrade to power pro but right know my 510 is my limits. Somewhere I got the idea that the shaper function was not the best.

Live and learn.

IMO you got the wrong impression. The shaper worked very well on my 510. Lots better than routing with the speed at 750 RPM. Because of the 3 cutting edges on the shaper cutters, less speed is needed as compared to the two edged router bits.

Although the recommended speed for shaping on the PowerPro is around 9500 RPM, 750 (top speed) on the older headstocks will work well provided small cuts are used.

As I remember, Dusty had a bad experience with his shaper when he tried to take too much wood in a cut and didn't have the wood secured. Other than that one experence, all other posts here have been pretty positive.

I think I need a fence but that is something that was on my shopping list anyway. I will gather some tools and give it a try. I learn something new every day.

Thanks,
Bob

charlese wrote:IMO you got the wrong impression. The shaper worked very well on my 510. Lots better than routing with the speed at 750 RPM. Because of the 3 cutting edges on the shaper cutters, less speed is needed as compared to the two edged router bits.

Although the recommended speed for shaping on the PowerPro is around 9500 RPM, 750 (top speed) on the older headstocks will work well provided small cuts are used.

As I remember, Dusty had a bad experience with his shaper when he tried to take too much wood in a cut and didn't have the wood secured. Other than that one experence, all other posts here have been pretty positive.

Yup, I sure did. This was a serious mishap that could have been a lot worse. It happened so fast that even today, many years later, I am not certain just how it happened. I still carry a noticeable scare on my left middle finger as a subtle reminder of that incident.

I got lucky, that day, when I arrived at the emergency care center. One of the doctors on staff that day was an orthopedic surgeon.

Glad things worked out okay Dusty. I have had a couple of those myself and as I get older I think I work even harder to stay out of harms way.

I got home and watched the Sawdust session on the shaper. It looks pretty good. I like the vertical application but I am not sure about the horizontal use.

I think I have part of the necessary equipment so I will do an inventory and see what I need and go from there.

Any power tool operation can hurt you, as we all know. My Grizzely 3/4" shaper spins at 10,000 rpm driven by a 1 HP motor. My Mark 500 doesn't have as high an rpm so I go a little slower with feed rates and depth of cut. However I use anti-kick back and hold downs on both machines as well as guards. I never take shaping operations for granted.

mgbbob wrote:I have recently aquired a Shopsmith bicuit jointer and will be building a few test panel doors. I was considering a rail and stile joint but the biscuit looks a lot easeir and I don't need expensive router bits.

Any success storier using either type of connection or something else that works well. I plan on building about 20 kitchen cabinet doors with a panel insert.

Hey, bit old thread but important one you are looking for a inexpensive rail and stile router bits then you can consider Whiteside 5990 Stile and Rail Set . Its not that much expensive.
It is made from premium quality carbide, which gives it the much-needed durability. It is a high-quality product that is easy to use and gets the job done. Raised panel grooves and interlocking designs both can be cut in a single pass using this router bit. That's its main pro.
I got its suggestion from this article on which there are many rail and stile router bits out of which i think Whiteside 5990 will be good for you.

Cheers,

A few years ago I picked up a set of the Harbor Freight raised panel bits to try. I'm impressed with the work they do. The price is very reasonable. For $60 you get the rail and still bits, and also the raised panel cutter. If you are just a hobbyist and not doing daily production work, they should do the job for you for a long time.
https://www.harborfreight.com/carbide-t ... 68875.html