What brand shaper and what size planer
woodsurgin
| Posted in Power Tools and Machinery on
I’ve decided to move up to a shaper from my router table. I want to make passage doors in addition to my cabinet doors. Laguna is great but too expensive for my shop, and Delta has such poor quality. (I have yet to get my 6″ jointer to edge joint a board without a curve in it). I am currently leaning toward Bridgewood.
Also any thoughts on a 15″ planer vs a 20″?
Woodsurgin
Replies
I have 3 Delta 5 hp heavy duty shapers that have been flawless performers and are used daily. Wider is generally better on a planer, you may not run boards that wide through it all the time but it is very usefull to be able to skew the work.
Yes, being able to skew boards even on my 12" Delta benchtop planer is nice. Any thoughts on the spiral head cutters? I have seen mixed reviews
I would like to have one as long as it was the type with the individually indexable cutters. They are a lot quieter and it sure would be nice to just rotate one nicked cutter rather than pulling, sharpening and resetting blades.
Since the house is on fire let us warm ourselves. ~Italian Proverb
Hi woodsurgin ,
For passage door cutters and detail you will want at least a 3 hp motor imo . If you only want to buy a new machine instead of used then Powermatic is a good brand , but with used machines there are many others available Davis & Wells older Delta's to name a few .
The new breed of overseas tools look nice but imo just won't stand up to the real thing in the test of time .
How much over 15" do you need planed ? More power more wider more better , if you can afford it why not ?
dusty
I would bet the Powermatic shaper is made in Taiwan.
To say all the overseas tools are bad will have you missing out on some very high quality tools. Kind of like saying buy American cars, those Hondas and Toyotas and Volvos are never going to hold up.
Since the house is on fire let us warm ourselves. ~Italian Proverb
Yes I agree. I have a Laguna 14 bandsaw which I really like. It will do a true 12" resaw. Woodenboat had an article on it.
I have owned 7 Subarus and all of them good. I went foreign after working in the auto industry in the 60's.
I believe one big difference in Taiwanese machines is how they are spec'd out.
Hi d , You are probably correct about where the new Powermatic is made , perhaps I should not have included it as a brand to buy as new .
Now we were not actually talking about cars were we , I understand your analogy and agree . Some of the finest cars are not made in the U.S.
I would ask you this d , how many 30 , 40 , 50 year or older machines do you own that were made overseas ? Italy has produced a lot of great tooling as well as Germany and Japan from what I am told is capable of producing fine metal works .
I have an older Makita 2040 planer that has held up well , perhaps that's why they stopped exporting that model . I also have a 2hp Grizzly dust collector that is about 15 years old and works perfect . My shapers are Davis & Wells Delta , Powermatic and none are newer then 35 years or so , it's hard belive how these can be as good , convince me .
About 15 years ago I needed a new belt sander and bought a new Milwaukee , well they changed the design in the name of improvement and created what could make a fair anchor for a small boat , it also was most likely made somewhere besides the U.S. I paid about $ 350.00 for a 4x24 it was the same Red color but that's about all that was the same .
Your all correct to assume I am not a big fan of the new breed machines . I am an old iron junkie and use a 10" 3hp Unisaw born in about 1944 , now how many folks will be able to say that about the Grizzly , Jet or Shop Fox saw for example in 30 to 50 years from now . My 12" Delta RAS is about maybe 25 years old one of my younger machines .
True it may be of little importance to many but I use it as a unit of measurement of long lasting quality. Many of us have been taught to save up and buy the best we can afford in the name of quality .
Since going into business I realized the Craftsman brand and the equivalents did not hold up to commercial duty uses and replaced them in short time .
As a user who will not be doing wwing on a production basis a person probably would never in their life time wear out any tool regardless of where its port of origin was .
Hey d , come on down to So. Oregon and we can talk about sawdust and do some white water , of course in a locally made self bailing boat . The water is fine in the Rogue .
C'mon get out of the lettuce belt and rain capitol of the PNW
regards dusty
I have an ample supply of raw wood. I have some quarter sawn oak that is up to 16" wide and 2" thick.
Have you had any experience with Bridgewood by Wilkie Machine. They look a lot like Woodtek by Woodworker's Supply, but have a better finish.
Powermatic, I believe was bought out or have they bought out someone else?
Powermatic was bought out some years ago by the WMH Tool Group. It owns Jet, Powermatic, Wilton, Performax and I forget what else.
Since the house is on fire let us warm ourselves. ~Italian Proverb
woodsurgin , No ,sorry I do not have any personal experience with the brands you mentioned . I am not condemning them but ask around if any one has experience with the older models of Delta , Rodgers , Ritter , SCMI , Davis & Wells , Yates American , Newman , to name a few .
I suggest these machines to you because they #1 are out there and the cost will be similar to the newer brands and types but imo will out work and out last the same priced machines .
Mine were used when I bought them 20 - 30 years ago and if I was a betting man I'd bet you I could probably sell them for more then I paid for them , to me that is important . To a hobby woodworker that may not hold much water .
dusty
Look for a good used shaper. We just purchased three used Weaver, (American made)with power feeders for $5000. Great machines. If you take your time and watch the used market you will find a good machine at a good price.
notDusty,
That's exactly what I thought when I purchased my first Grizzly product.. Heck it was so cheap that I figured if it didn't work out I'd sell it for scrap.. I've lost more money on book of the month clubs!
It's held up better than I have.. I've run over 30,000 bd.ft of hardwood over it and it still has yet to need any maintinance!
Because it arrived all busted up I expected it to be a real chunk of junk. The shipping company had pretty much destroyed it. Castings were broken! The crate was disintigrated..
I got it home and made one phone call to a very nice lady..She told me I could ship it back and they would send me another one or just tell her what parts it needed and they'd have them to me the next day.. They did too!
The next morning the FED EX truck pulled into my driveway with the parts I needed and 20 minutes later I was running it and checking it out!
As I said 30,000 bd.ft. of hardwood later I haven't fixed anything!
Of the 10 major pieces of shop equipment I own 9 of them are from Grizzly and the only failure in any of them in milling over 30,000 bd.ft of hardwood has been one $5.00 fan belt I got from the local auto parts store..
I suspect the reason they've held up so well is because if you spend any time looking at them they are basic, simple, and functional.. NO frills..
Try them sometime dusty.. er Not Dusty, you just might be surprised!
You really can't compair the Delta shapers to their crappy little 6" jointer. It is like compairong a Civic to a Accord and saying Honda makes crappy little cars. The shapers are made to withstand comercial use. In a smaller pro shops these machines will last a lifetime. In a serious production enviroment where power feeders are the norm and the machines are ran all day SCMI, Powermatic, and Deltas heavier duty line of shapers are going to last longer.
Mike
Pardon my spelling,
Mike
Make sure that your next project is beyond your skill and requires tools you don't have. You won't regret it.
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