From: ericb@microsoft.com (Eric Brown)
Subject: Re: need advice on shaper
Date: 28 Sep 92 22:51:54 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Corp

davallen@vms.macc.wisc.edu writes:
|I'm in the position of having to "manufacture" some tongue & groove oak
|flooring (I have to finish my house, & I can't afford to pay the $4-5 per
|square foot cost of buying it).  OK, maybe I'm crazy, but what else is new --
|no one thought I could build the house myself either, but we're living in it
|and everyone thinks it's great.
|
|Anyway, how much power do I need in a shaper to do reasonably efficient cutting
|of tongue & groove in 3/4" oak?  I can't think of much use for a shaper in
|my regular woodworking, so I want to get the minimum to do the job (probly
|re-sell the thing when I'm done), but then again, I don't want to have 
|something so under powered that it takes forever to do the job.  If I were 
|going to keep the thing, I would probably go for the Delta 43-355, but
|that's too expensive.  I'm leaning toward a Grizzly -- either the G1024 or 
|G1035.  The G1024 is cheap, but only 3/4 HP.  The G1035 is 1-1/2 HP, like
|the Delta, but the beast weighs 300 lbs!
|...

Do you have a good table saw?  If so, then you don't need a shaper at all.
You can make perfectly good tongue and groove joints with a dado head (well,
you don't even need a dado head if you are willing to make multiple passes
per edge.  A room full or house full of flooring would probably rule that out).

If you don't have a dado head, then consider it a useful addition to your table
saw.  I have an 8" Freud carbide tipped set, but a 6" would probably be fine.
You would probably need carbide so that the edge remains sharp throughout your
large quantity of oak.

Place the two rim blades on the arbor to get the 1/4" groove.  Cutting the
tongue can be done in one pass with a somewhat unusual arrangement of blades.
You would first need to fabricate a 1/4" spacer that will fit snuggly on the
arbor.  Make this "washer" out of, say, 1/4" hardboard (Masonite).  Its outside
diameter should be about the same as the arbor washer (~2").  Then set up
the blades like this:  first, put one 1/8" chipper on the arbor, then the right
hand rim blade, the 1/4" spacer, the left hand rim blade, and then another 1/8"
chipper followed by the arbor nut (there may not be enough arbor length to place
the arbor washer on before the nut).  The order I described for the dado parts
is for a saw with the right end of the arbor open, like my Powermatic.  If you
have a Delta or similar with the open end of the arbor to the left, then reverse
the order of the blades.  You will end up with the rim blades placed in the
opposite postion to that for a dado since the wood stock being retained is on
the inside between the rim blades rather than on the outside of a conventional
dado. Note also that you may need to add a 1/16" chipper to the arbor on the
side away from the fence if the oak is even slightly thicker than 3/4".


Cut the groove first, so that the tongue width can be adjusted to fit snuggly.
Adjust the tongue width by placing paper shim washers on either side of the
1/4" spacer washer.  It takes some trial and error on some scrap to get it
right.  Don't make it too tight of a fit or you will have a hard time
assembling the floor.

Use a 'feather board' to hold the oak snuggly to the fence.  If you always run
the face side of the wood next to the fence, then the assembled floor will need
minimal sanding once assembled despite variations in the thickness of the oak.

WRT shapers: if you do decide to use a shaper, consider the weight to be an
asset rather than a liability.  Shapers tend to vibrate a lot, which is
annoying and can produce a poor cut.  The mass of a heavier shaper tends to
dampen vibration.  You don't want to waltz your shaper across the shop floor
while trying to feed stock!

Good luck whatever method you choose.


-- 
    Eric
               Microsoft Systems, Advanced Systems Development
            {sun, uw-beaver, apple, uunet, fluke}!microsoft!ericb 
                       internet: ericb@microsoft.com
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