Shopsmith Forums

I'm looking for advice from anyone who has used shaper cutters or large router bits on the Mark V. I currently use a Mark V with the standard 500 table system, and a 10ER. I would like to try making raised panels and cope and stick cabinet doors for kitchen cabinets. I have a small router, and rather than buy a bigger router, I was hoping I could use the shopsmiths.

I have the Shopsmith shaper arbor, shaper fence, and the router bit holders for 1/4" and 1/2" shanked bits. I also have some of the Shopsmith steel shaper cutters, however none of the profiles are for cabinet doors.

As I said, I would like to try making cabinet doors. The options I'm considering are using standard shaper cutters from MLCS, Freud or Grizzly, or some router bits.

Because my Mark V and ER would have to rout/shape with the bit over the work, I wonder if there is any risk of the work being trapped between the cutter and the table. Obviously this would only be a concern with the horizontal panel raising bits, as the cope and stick bits would be cutting on the side of the work.

If anyone has experience making kitchen cabinet doors this way, I'd like to hear how it worked out for you.

I have used large router bits for making raised panels on my Mark V. It isn't as easy as it should be simply because the Shopsmith doesn't have enough speed to cut easily.

I gave up doing it that way and bought a 2 1/2 HP router to do that job. I mounted the router in a standalone table and now do my raised panels and any other job that needs large bits. It works so much better with the router as the router runs at 23,000 rpms instead of the 5,200 rpms of the Shopsmith. The speed difference is amazing in how smoothly and easily it cuts the wood.

If you plan to do much of this type of work, look into a separate heavy duty router. The lower priced brands today from China are equal to the higher priced brands (also from China).

I have made quite a few doors that way over the years and in the early years made them with a Mark V. Using the SS to make raised panels in hardwood is difficult. Definitely do not trap the panel between the bit and the table. That can have dangerous and catastrophic results. The raised panel bit and some of the cope and stick sets will not fit through the opening in the Mk V table so turning the head stock around to facilitate under table shaping is really not an option. There are a couple other options that will work. You can make raised panels using the Mk V in table saw mode using a sled and get great results. It does limit you to flat profile panel detail unlike the shaper/router bits but if that is acceptable it would be the way to go. The other option is to build a router table for the SS for which there are lots of plans here on this site. It can be done very inexpensively. Many of us have built them and they work very well. It will expand your woodworking possibilities greatly and will give you far better results. Everything can be shop made and the only serious expense is the router motor for which you have many options. If you can afford it the Porter Cable 3 1/4 hp is the way to go. But there are many other less expensive router motors that work just fine. I recently had to build a tilting axis table for a specific purpose and since I wasn't sure the concept would even work I chose to buy a HF 2 hp router thinking that if it worked I would invest in a PC motor later. I have used that HF router motor quite a bit and it is performing just fine. For $50.00 it's a great deal. You don't have to have a router lift. Many of us used the router bases inverted under the table for years and the results are the same. You can build a really nice router lift very inexpensively and there are lots of plans available. A router lift makes life easy but is not absolutely necessary but is a real time saver.
Paul