Wood Shaper and cabinet saw reviews - Woodworking Talk

Woodpig · 12-18-2007, 01:02 PM

Never done the chat room kind of thing, but here goes:

I'm in the market for purchasing at least one wood shaper for making raised panels, cope and stick joints etc. as well as was thinking about buying a cabinet saw with a scoring blade. It looks like I could buy tons of different brands of shapers and probably be happy with them, but what is the advantage to having the sliding table? Safety mostly?

The shapers generally don't seem incredibly high priced like the cabinet saws with the scoring blades. Yeouch! I'm like the rest of us....we want the best, fastest and coolest looking sports car for the price of a Yugo. Price is always going to be a factor, but can anybody throw me a bone? I looked at some of the Minimax set ups. It's pretty pricey and might require a bit more floor space than I want to dedicate to one tool.

I've already got a table saw, but the reason I'm looking at one with a scoring blade is to reduce tearout on melamine, laminate veneers and plywoods. Time a a huge factor, so spending 5 hours of extra time to make a clean cut the 'old fashioned' way is not something I'm looking for.

Thanks

**TexasTimbers** · 12-18-2007, 02:55 PM

Welcome Woodpig. Have you given up on trying different blades to reduce tearout? I know that Forrest owners ( I had one on my old Grizzly saw that was fantastic) claim tearout is elimintaed.

The reason for a sliding table on a TS is to make crosscutting large pieces much easier.

I can't offer any suggestions on TS's with scoring blades because I have never researched it. i don't know if some of the importers like Grizzly or Steel City offer them but I believe they do. Steel City seems to have a better reputation for quality and certainly customer service than Grizzly.

Virtually all the European brand saws with scoring are excellent machines but take your first born with you when you got to pay for it.

Woodpig · 12-19-2007, 12:48 AM

I have not used the Forrest blades, but have seen the impressive ratings of them and a couple other like CMT's orange blades. I use a DeWalt contractor's saw as it's easily transported, but was looking for a stationary TS as a cabinet saw. It doesn't necessarily have to have a sliding table, but many TS that have a scoring blade, have the sliding table with them.

What I didn't really clarify about my question regarding sliding tables, was what's the main benefit to having a sliding table on a shaper?

Thanks for your response,
Woodpig

**TexasTimbers** · 12-19-2007, 10:12 AM

I have never had a sliding table on a shaper, and never even been around one. I can only guess that it's for the same reason - to facilitate the handling of larger pieces.

I do know that my experience with my router table (and my table is as large as some shaper tables so it is not a dinky lightweight table) has been that I could have used a sliding table onone many times. i think it's a great idea. The only issue I can see is that since a sliding table is supposed to be just a scosh above the table itself to avoid the friction the sliding table is meant overcome in the first place, critical placement adjustment of the profile on the workpiece could be finicky. But as I say, I have no catual experience with it hopefully someone here has and can give you the full skinny.

If you persue it please update us so we can all have some insight in case one of us wants to go that route later.

JCCLARK · 12-19-2007, 10:28 AM

You don't have to have a scoreing blade to get a chip free cut.
A panel sled with a good blade can get it just as good.
It just needs a disposable scrap piece supporting the work piece
that can be replaced regularly.
Here's a crude one, but it works and gives me a chip free cut
on all my cabinet sides.

Any shaper can have a slideing table, if you just make a sled to ride against the fence.

These are cheap crude jigs, but they work, and there's
no slop or adjusting needed to keep them true.
Unlike a slideing carriage.
But hey, it's your money, if that's what you want-go for it.

**TexasTimbers** · 12-19-2007, 10:49 AM

JC,

Thanks for the pics they are worth a thousand words.

I replaced your photobucket links with the images. Please do so in the future. Took me all of two minutes.

Thanks for your participation. The jigs look great.

Gerry KIERNAN · 12-19-2007, 12:54 PM

Perhaps someone can enlighten me: For the average Joe woodworker is there any big advantage to owning a shaper as opposed to building a router table and having a decent router and bits? I have thought about getting a shaper, but it is far less expensive to go with the router and table. I have already got the routers, and a large selection of bits, so most of my investment is done. Now I just have to select a table design, and start building. I have seen a really nice table design, and that is likely what I will build when I can find the time. It's kind of stacked up behind a multitude of other projects/ideas.

Gerry

JCCLARK · 12-19-2007, 02:03 PM

That is the million dollar question, shaper vs router.
People without a shaper say no, people with a shaper says yes.
I have a shaper and always pick it in place of a router where I can.
Cost wise, it may surprise you!
Buy a big router and really good table and you can easily spend
more than a shaper.
Grizzly has a pretty nice shaper for $500.00
Considering it's a cast iron top, and much more power,
(it's an induction motor) it's a bargain.
Shaper cutters last forever and some can even be cheaper
than a router bit. Especially the ones that have two different profiles.
Just turn the bit upside down and run in reverse-a big plus.
And with a shaper you never have a depth problem, much more travel.
A shaper is a great tool and it will spoil you once you have one,
but you do still need a router too.
But for large cuts like raised panels, the shaper is the way to go.

JCCLARK · 12-19-2007, 02:43 PM

[quote=TexasTimbers;16980]
I replaced your photobucket links with the images. Please do so in the future. Took me all of two minutes.

/quote]

I'm surprised you'd rather have it that way, doesn't it take more
space from the forum that way?
I thought it was preferred to be a link

**TexasTimbers** · 12-19-2007, 06:18 PM

Jim,

Yeah we have several posts about it around the site, even a sticky thread that stays up at the very top of the forum in the Introductions section 24/7/365 but some people still miss it somehow.

Anyhow, photo storage sites like photobucket, even though probably the biggest online (?) can and do go out of business. They can also have temporary site problems etc. If that ever happens those links will not be operable. It may sound like a longshot but it happens.

But the main reason, even if we knew photobucket was going to last forever, is that the threads just read better and easier, and many people will look at a picture when they will not click the link.

Space is no where near as expensive as it was 5, even 3 years ago, so feel free to upload your images in your post. It's fast and easy and on top of all that a picture can make an otherwise boring thread suddenly interesting.

Gerry KIERNAN · 12-19-2007, 08:02 PM

Thank you for the response Jim. Good points. I can see that if a person was going to get into any kind of serious moulding fabrication, or cabinet making, the shaper would be the way to go in the long run.

Gerry