Replies

1. 
   fdampier5 | Jul 09, 2003 08:58pm | #1

   I suggest you buy a shaper instead of a router table..

     $225. and it is quieter and more powerful.  plus it will leave you with a router free to do what it was designed to do rather than adapted to do..

1. 
   JDorn | Jul 09, 2003 10:17pm | #2

   ah but the only problem with that is then you have to buy Shaper and Router cutters. 

   I personally love my router table, and have no need for a shaper as i don't do production work.  But i will say I also have 2 routers so i can leave one in table and one out of it to avoid having to switch stuff in/out all the time which can be a pain (as noted by the fact that i bought an extra router just to avoid the situation)

   JD

1. 
   fdampier5 | Jul 10, 2003 06:21am | #3

   Shaper bits last so much longer then router bits that I'm surprised anyone would want to own a router table.. I've cut a 1/4 inch groove in over ten thousand bd. ft. of tamarack with mine and it's still sharp..  I'm fussy,  the saw blades are at the sharpeners two to three times a month and I have twenty sets of planer blades because I change them often two or more times a day when doing a lot of planing..

     Besides I'm tool addicted so it's one more tool to own which is always a good thing..

      When you add the cost of two routers and a lift you really are making a case for a shaper..  Grizzley has a table top version they sell for $90.00   It works as well as most router table do  (which is to say poorly)  I tried a 3 hp router in a table and found that while it did the job, everything was a two/three or more passes... I hated the screaming sound (even wearing muffs)  I hated the fact that it wasn't a stable as most shapers and there isn't one of them that I like adjusting as much as a shaper..

     At $225.00 you'd be hard pressed to buy a router and table for that kind of money..

1. 
   Bogart | Jul 11, 2003 01:08am | #4

   You sure know how to make a person feel bad.:-) If you are right I hope everyone takes your advice and buys the shaper.Maybe the router people are leading us the wrong way. Bogart

1. 
   fdampier5 | Jul 12, 2003 02:44am | #5

   I think a router is a wonderful tool.. it's just the lift table/router combo that is much less than it should be.. Or to put it another way.. for the price of a rpouter and lift table you can have a better tool.. IMHO  

2. 
   EdHarrison | Jul 12, 2003 04:44am | #6

   frenchy,

   In my Dad's shop, I was always brought up to believe that shapers and router tables are two different animals. They overlap in some functions but are basically different.

   In general,

   A router table uses a small cutter moving at high rpm to produce joinery cuts.

   A shaper uses a large cutter moving at slower rpms to produce moldings.

   Now a router table can produce some moldings and a shaper can do some joinery. But here's a few of examples that illustrate the differences:

   1) I would not want to use a shaper adapted for a router bit to do dados in sheet goods such as plywood. If the bit is moving at half-speed, tearout problems are worse.

   2) I would not want to use a shaper to do template routing, especially with a bushing. For example, Popular Woodworking has an article titled "$20 Dovetail jig" that they have reprinted many times (just about every year in the annual shops issue) that shows how to mass-produce half-blind dovetails (for drawers, for example) with a porter-cable style bushing, a simple template made of 1/4 inch hardboard and a 12 degree dovetail router bit. Even if I could rig the shaper up to accept the bit and the bushing, I would still have to accept the bit moving at half speed for a joinery-type cut. What I want for a joinery cut is the bit moving at full speed and the sides of the cut as smooth as possible. Router table works perfect for this joint.

   3) Conversely, I would not want to do stair rails or crown moldings with a router table.

   Thus I make the case that the two machines are not exactly interchangeable, just roughly duplicative of some functions.

   I think the reason that you see so many books that show router projects is because the router and router table is essentially a joinery machine. I also believe (but I can't readily prove it) that the router, with its small bits and high rpm, answered the need to do joinery in sheet goods with the proliferation of electric hand tools and sheet goods after WWII.

   My 2 cents worth.

   Ed

3. 
   fdampier5 | Jul 12, 2003 05:21am | #7

   Ed I agree whole heartedly, 

      There is a real need for a router and a shaper.   As you pointed out the shaper can do stuff that is awkward for a router and the router can do stuff that is impossible to the shaper..

     My only comment refered to using a router with a lift table as a cheap shaper..