Shopsmith Forums

Thanks Charlese,
Good to know the all steel ones sharpen relatively easily. I have decided to get a couple from SS and 3 carbide tipped ones. from Grizzly as they give you 20% off when buying 3. My first planned project when all my stuff arrives is a wall to wall and wall to ceiling adjustable bookcase for my wife with cabinet doors across the bottom. Will maybe make them raised panel just for the experience. Will have lots of opportunities to need a variety of edge shaping for that project. I have never used a shaper before and I am keen to learn what advantages, if any, it holds over just using router bits to make the raised panels themselves, I think I will follow Sehast's suggestion and go with a vertical raised panel router bit. I have yet to find a shaper cutter for raised panels vertical or horizontal that has a cutting diameter less than 2 1/4 inches. There are several full sized 1/2" shank router bits that fill the bill. It's all good!
Jbwoodshop

jbwoodshop wrote:Thanks Charlese,
Good to know the all steel ones sharpen relatively easily. I have decided to get a couple from SS and 3 carbide tipped ones. from Grizzly as they give you 20% off when buying 3. My first planned project when all my stuff arrives is a wall to wall and wall to ceiling adjustable bookcase for my wife with cabinet doors across the bottom. Will maybe make them raised panel just for the experience. Will have lots of opportunities to need a variety of edge shaping for that project. I have never used a shaper before and I am keen to learn what advantages, if any, it holds over just using router bits to make the raised panels themselves, I think I will follow Sehast's suggestion and go with a vertical raised panel router bit. I have yet to find a shaper cutter for raised panels vertical or horizontal that has a cutting diameter less than 2 1/4 inches. There are several full sized 1/2" shank router bits that fill the bill. It's all good!
Jbwoodshop

And I look forward to seeing pictures of your project. Have fun with this equipment, they are amazing machines ....

Do not overlook the possibility of making the 'raised' panels on the Table Saw.

charlese wrote:I believe you will be happy with the steel shaper cutters from Shopsmith. To answer one of your previous questions, the cutters are very easy to keep sharp. You only need to touch up the flat backside of the cutter blades. I use a diamond file on mine. A medium grit followed by a fine grit is all I have needed.

Don't have any experience with carbide shaper cutters. however they probably would stay sharp longer, but be harder to sharpen once dulling.

That is true with any cutter bit, especially lathe tooling, now I am not a turner yet, but by nephew is and taught me that HSS is easier to shapen, cuts better then Carbide but you have to sharpen more then Carbide, something about the pores of the steel, micro pores ect, beyond my pay grade or interest.

jbwoodshop wrote:... I have yet to find a shaper cutter for raised panels vertical or horizontal that has a cutting diameter less than 2 1/4 inches. There are several full sized 1/2" shank router bits that fill the bill. It's all good!
Jbwoodshop

Don't really need a wide diameter bit to do wide shaping designs. Using multiple cutters will do the same, or similar thing. Your imagination and a couple or few smaller cutters will give outstanding results.

There's lots to learn about shaping (or routing) to yield wide designs. We don't have to be limited by the cutters that are commercially available.