Hi all,
Long story short I want to know what others would do if they were to keep a dedicated shaper in their shop for one operation? I am a one man shop, 3/4 of my work is custom inset face frame cabinetry (the other 1/4 being furniture).
I have a 1.25" spindle Martin shaper for any door and panel work but I also have an old but serviceable .5" spindle shaper I fell when someone retired last spring. I have collars to use larger bore cutters on the .5" machine but as a one man shop I don't gain much efficiency to set both machines up to cope and stick in tandem. I'm only ever operating one machine at a time. As a result I'd like to keep the .5" spindle machine set up for a specific task at all times.
My general workflow building cabinets is:
Cut plywood panels on the slider
Edge rabbet all parts on cabinet saw that always has a dado stack in it
Dado for any dividers on cabinet saw
Assemble cabinets
Build and attached face frames
Build and hang doors, side panels, drawer fronts, etc
The .5" spindle shaper does not have an adjustable fence so all adjustment is made slowly and then the shop made fence is re-clamped in place. I don't use it at all now but would like to get some use out of it since I can't seem to get rid of it. It's in rough shape cosmetically (rusted at the floor, melamine was added on top of the table at some point in the past). If it's going to be taking up a few square feet in the shop, I might as well get use out of it.
If you were a small operation and were to keep a dedicated shaper set up what would it be for?
Am I overthinking this and should just set it up for all my edge rabbeting?