Cabinet door building wood help

[bleeth]

No swirls, almost no sanding, perfect sizing:
http://www.customdoorsanddrawers.com/

Stile and rails priced competatively-mitres a bit expensive. All frame rails fingered and doweled-hence the up-pricing. Their guarentee is ironclad. In my area they have a local distributer who gives free delivery and I also pay no freight.

[drodda]

What are your preferences for shaper cutters? I have been using the grizzly ones that I ordered when I bought my shaper however I would like to try another brand to see if they work better?

[Gary Campbell]

Dave...
I cant really help you on that one... we have 2 shapers with feeders, but dont really do any large production runs. We use Grizzly, Amana, Rockler and Delta... Usually buy a profile set for a job... then next customer wants a different profile. We have drawers full of them.. all used on one job. In this kind of use I havnt noticed any that stand out over the rest.
Gary

[drodda]

Oh sure brag about your feeders will you????

I do not do any production runs as I use the shaper to build raised panel cabinet bases for my game tables. I am currently building a custom wet bar in the basement and am trying to get better at the doors. For some reason I can produce a better product from my router table than from my shaper so I am looking for answers. I spent the better part of the day chasing a very small error in the spindle to the table top being perpendicular. I am getting too much chipping on the inside of the stiles for my liking.


This forum is great as it allows us to brainstorm about many things that would take way more time to diagnose on your own with trial and error.

Thanks,
-D

[Gary Campbell]

Dave..
What diameter spindle on your shaper?
GC

[drodda]

I have the 3/4" spindle in now but also have the 1/2" and 1" if needed.

[woodgod]

Dave,
We make 100's of 5 piece doors and use exclusivly Freeborn insert tooling. I have never been dissapointed with their product or service. I discovered years ago to stay with the same manufacture on my cutters as that way diameters and cutting heights are the same thereby saving set up time when changing profiles. By the way I never put a new shaper into service without a power feeder also, Its the best safty guard you can buy and gives a constant feed rate for longer cutter life. Is your chipping on the pattern cut or the cope cut?

[drodda]

James,

Having a hard time investing as much as I paid for my Shaper in an accessory. Especially since I don't know how to set it up or use a feeder also. What size is required for doing doors? I have the g1026 3hp grizzly shaper. I have spent countless hours trying to research the feeders and have always walked away confused more each time. Will the cheaper 1/8hp or 1/4 hp feeder work for this application?

The chipping is on the round bead that shows above the panel on the doors.

[beacon14]

The feeder will allow you to make a climb cut which will minimize tearout.

[henrik_o]

Dave,

Don't look at it as an accessory, look at it as an investment giving you a new machine. It really does make that much of a difference.

Getting a power feeder for our first shaper was the first investment I made when I took over the business, and I can say without hesitation that as of today it remains the best investment I've made if you look at results v. price.

It doesn't matter if it's a production run or just a couple of 1m mouldings -- setting up the feeder adds a minute of setup time, and then you get a perfect and consistent cut as long as your steels are sharp and you set it up right (speed of spindle v. feed etc).

Yes, there is a learning curve, speeds and settings as per above and also positioning to not get 'bumps' in the start/end of pieces, but you'll figure it out quickly enough by just trying it on some scrap parts.