Woodworker's Journal Summer-2008, страница 40

ing good stock, it's important to take at least one trial cut on a piece of scrap wood to confirm that all cutter and fence settings are accurate.

Hold-downs and Featherboards

To get accurate shaper cuts with smooth, chatter-free surfaces — and for safety's sake — it's important to use hold-downs or featherboards to keep workpieces pressed firmly against both the fence and the work-table. Spring steel hold-downs come as standard accessories with most shapers, and they easily lock into special holes in the shaper's fence. These are best positioned so that they'll exert down force on the stock adjacent to the cutter (see top left photo, page 39). Hold-downs placed this way not only keep the stock from lifting, but also provide protection from the cutter. A pair of horizontally positioned hold-downs, mounted to the shaper's table, will press the stock against the fence on either side of the cutter.

Shaping Straight Edges

Like a router, a shaper can cut either straight- or curved-edged parts. Most straight work is done with the

Narrow pieces, like stick cuts on the end of rail stock, require a miter gauge, a commercial crosscutting gauge with built-in fence or a shop-made sliding jig.

machine's standard fence in place. The split-style fence has two separate wood-covered faces that straddle the spindle and cutter. After a cutter is mounted, the halves are adjusted side to side to create an opening just big enough to clear the cutter. Fence faces are also adjustable front-to-back and are usually set parallel to one another for typical straight cuts. But they can also be set to different levels, like the infeed and outfeed tables of a jointer. With the infeed fence set farther back and the outfeed fence set to be flush with the outside cutting arc of a straight cutter, you can actually use the shaper as a horizontal jointer —

very handy for putting a straight edge on boards and planks too big and cumbersome to feed over the jointer. Offsetting the shaper's fences is also useful when shaping operations require an entire edge to be removed — say when putting a full bullnose roundover on the edge of stair treads.

As useful as the standard fence is, there are many straight-edge shaping operations that will require the use of shop-made fences or jigs. A custom fence can, say, tilt the angle of the stock relative to the cutter to create unusual moldings or raised panels. In addition to straight cuts, custom fences and jigs can allow you to shape curved parts, such as stair railings.

Cross-grain Work

A shaper can cut across the grain as well as with it, although care must be taken to support the stock firmly during cutting. Wider workpieces, such as the ends of rectangular cabinet door panels, can be fed by hand using the shaper's fence as a guide. However, narrower workpieces must by aligned and guided with a miter gauge, crosscutting gauge or sliding jig. Such a gauge or jig is a must for making the "stick" cuts on

A Rainbow of Cutters

The versatility of a shaper is due to the incredibly wide range of cutters it will run. Cutters typically have two, three or four knives made from high-speed steel or carbide. Typically, you buy cutters to match your shaper's spindle, but you can employ a larger-bore cutter on a smaller spindle with bushings designed for the purpose. Since you can easily spend

shaper itself, it's important to consider all your choices. Straight cutters: Used for shaping rabbets, grooves and dadoes. Use a single, wide straight cutter or a stack of two or more narrower cutters to joint or trim stock. Single-profile cutters: Available in ogees, roundovers, coves, beads, flutes, etc. You can use them individually, or in combination.

Insert-knife cutters accept interchanc knife sets into one cutterhead.

Glue joint cutters: Single cutters and matched pairs used to create stS#gl$l®H⁵° wood-to-wood joints, including drawer lock, miter lock, tongue-and-groove, and finger joints.

40 using a shaper